The Official Apolyton Off-Topic Rampant, Unfounded Supreme Court Speculation Thread

[Hauldren Collider]

One of my catholic friends is literally praying that she's a reverse souter.

[Guynemer]

Of course not. My point is that if super-liberal morons like Greenwald don't like Kagan, then she can't be that bad, can she? The worst-case scenario is a SCOTUS nominee that Greenwald would approve of...

Sorry, my mistake. This is what happens when I work two weeks straight without a day off and the ****ing pager went off all last night.

I'm gonna try to grab a nap now.

[DinoDoc]

Really, Kagan is the perfect nominee for Obama. She's just like him.

Young Kagan's Thesis on Socialism

The Daily Princetonian has an illuminating article on the young Elena Kagan, Class of '81. Under the tutelage of Sean Wilentz — lefty historian, friend of the Clintons, and notorious Bush-basher — Kagan wrote a thesis called “To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900–1933,” which first raised eyebrows when Kagan was being considered for Souter's seat last year:

“Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism’s glories than of socialism’s greatness,” she wrote in her thesis. “Conformity overrides dissent; the desire to conserve has overwhelmed the urge to alter. Such a state of affairs cries out for explanation.”

She called the story of the socialist movement’s demise “a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America ... In unity lies their only hope.”

Much of the rest of the article is concerned with friends and colleagues from Kagan's Princeton days defending her politics as "mainstream," e.g.

“I don’t remember her participating in marching, protesting, things like that,” [one colleague] said. “I would probably describe her back then — her politics — as progressive and thoughtful but well within the mainstream of the ... sort of liberal, democratic, progressive tradition, and everything with lower case.”

But there is another revealing glimpse, via an opinion piece Kagan wrote in the wake of the 1980 elections. Kagan avows herself a liberal, and expresses her wish that the future bring "American disillusionment with conservative programs" and a "more leftist left."

“I absorbed ... liberal principles early,” she said. “More to the point, I have retained them fairly intact to this day.”

In the piece, Kagan also expressed her dissatisfaction with the state of the political left at the time, lamenting the demise of “real Democrats — not the closet Republicans that one sees so often these days” and the success of “anonymous but Moral Majority-backed ... avengers of ‘innocent life’ and the B-1 Bomber, these beneficiaries of a general turn to the right and a profound disorganization on the left.”

She hoped that the future would “be marked by American disillusionment with conservative programs and solutions, and that a new, revitalized, perhaps more leftist left will once again come to the fore.”

You can read the whole thing here.

Just like him?

[Drake Tungsten]

So she was stupidly liberal while she was an undergraduate. BFD. That describes fully 80% of the population.

[Hauldren Collider]

What is it about having somebody else paying for everything that you do that makes you so inclined to think that everyone should have someone else paying for their stuff?

Oh wait.

[DinoDoc]

So she was stupidly liberal while she was an undergraduate. BFD. That describes fully 80% of the population.

I just thought it was funny given all the socialism accusations wrt Obama.

[MrFun]

In America, if you're more liberal than the pope, you are branded as a socialist.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Gleen Grenwald and Jane Hamsher

“Like Harriet Miers, she doesn’t have a record to tell us how she would adjudicate from the bench. They led a rebellion against the executive branch and the same thing should happen here.”

“I object to appointment somebody that has no track record. Corporate power is a big one because of the Citizens United decision, and also Miranda. There are a lot of things where it would be helpful to be able to examine past writings.”

“If I was in the Senate, I would vote no, because like Harriet Miers she doesn’t have the judicial experience.”

“Accepting Kagan just because people like Obama is wrong. That’s appropriate for American Idol, not the Supreme Court. Nobody knows what she stands for but him. It’s just a cult of personality with Obama. This is the Supreme Court.”

Paula Blart is not Obama she's more like Harriet Miers.

Interesting that Jane gives a back handed compliment to conservatives for having a brain to resist being a mere sheep to the administration. Too much of that kind of thinking might destroy the narrrative about lockstep rightwing ideologies.

[Dinner]

Obama and Co will love it when the progressives complain about his pick not being a verifiable liberal because then they can run to the media and say "See? See how centrist we are? Even the liberals are unhappy!" Obama doesn't have the balls to stand up to the right wing no matter how loony or wrong they are, he caves in to them every time because he's afraid to fight, but he always tries to fight the people who supposedly are his base. This makes no sense.