Patterico's Pontifications

8/5/2010

Kagan Confirmed

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:43 pm



The vote was 63-37.

Hard to get too excited about it, given whom she replaced.

57 Responses to “Kagan Confirmed”

  1. From the above-linked article, the nuts and bolts.

    Just one Democrat — centrist Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska — crossed party lines to oppose Kagan.

    A handful of mostly moderate Republicans broke with their party to back her: Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, South Carolina’s Sen. Lindsey Graham, retiring Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar.

    John Hitchcock (9e8ad9)

  2. Evidently, Al Franken made an ass of himself while presiding over the Senate during the debate.

    The Democrats really have no class at all.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  3. I’m still puzzled why more Democrats are not completely embarrassed by the Kagan nomination. That’s the best the Empty Suit can do?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  4. Still cant believe Franken’s in the Senate –

    EricPWJohnson (ab6cc8)

  5. Alito and Roberts just aren’t scary. They are conservative, but obviously honorable people.

    I don’t think Kagan is such a person. A lot of her past behavior and I suspect a lot of her future work will be extremely out of touch with the American people.

    I don’t buy into pure democracy, but it’s amazing how a party called ‘democratic’ is so patently opposed to the concept when it comes to selecting Judges. They would NEVER want Kagan for a top office such as Senate Majority Leader or President. They always put these radicals on the bench where they know they can get away with it. I think it reeks of intellectual dishonesty.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  6. #

    Still cant believe Franken’s in the Senate –

    Comment by EricPWJohnson — 8/5/2010 @ 8:24 pm

    Excellent example of a banal Moby comment, btw. Saving your thoughtful comments for some nasty attack on a conservative, but darn it, you really are a concerned conservative.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  7. SPQR – What did Franken do?

    JD (3dc31c)

  8. JD, Franken mocked the Majority Leader when he was speaking against Kagan. Facial and hand gestures. Tried to apologize in person later, after the ML went to the dais to confront/criticize Franken. Franken submitted a written apology later.

    reff (176333)

  9. Dustin

    I’m going to answer you this one last time – because we are starting to annoy everyone

    You stupidly, increadibly stupidly told me – dared me to find what you said about the Republicans in Texas – so, well I did

    If you criticize and degrade all the top Republican officials elected in Texas and praise horrible – just nasty democrats like Ronnie Earle (really Ronnie??? a guy who has false accused dozens of republicans in texas trying to ruin their reputations for political gain) then you praised Bill White who ran Houston into the ground who has to answer questions about million dollar investments in companies during the worst disaster to hit Houston and profited from it and then the esteemable Chris Bell who has used every manuever to put Perry and Delay in prison for nothing

    Oh you like them well enough but not the best conservatives Texas ever elected – said this right here on this blog

    If you cant remember all the crap you type – my advice again

    stop typing…

    EricPWJohnson (ab6cc8)

  10. because we are starting to annoy everyone

    Wrong. That should not be a plural. YOU

    JD (3dc31c)

  11. You stupidly, increadibly stupidly told me – dared me to find what you said about the Republicans in Texas – so, well I did

    Yeah, I criticize Republicans in and out of Texas. the only honorable politician I’ve ever known is Lamar Smith (Texan). The rest of them, both sides, always disappoint at some point. There was nothing stupid about my request that you look it up instead of spamming a thread asking me to ‘go on the record’. There were a lot of threads on this blog about the Texas Primary, and I commented in most of them to argue for Perry.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  12. Replacing Stevens with … someone demonstrably to the left of Brennan.

    Beldar (02e9b3)

  13. She was even less qualified to be on the Supreme Court than Barcky was to be President.

    JD (3dc31c)

  14. Beldar, she’s quite a dozey. I’ve heard people say she’s moderate compared to the alternative (Wood, suppose), but I think she’s about as hard left as anyone ever on the Court.

    And it might not change the vote tally in many cases, but dicta matters too.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  15. Things could be much worse; I’d be much more worried if I thought she were talented (and therefore effective). But I have no illusions that Obama would ever pick anyone less ideologically extreme. She’s an unimpressive but reliable nomination for him, another example of him squandering some amount of opportunity of the handcuffs of Dem identity politics and convention.

    Beldar (02e9b3)

  16. Here’s a link to the story about Franken, btw. For The Hill to ascribe “shock” to unnamed Senate aides “that Franken would flout the decorum of the chamber during such a solemn occasion,” it must have been a pretty extreme display.

    Beldar (02e9b3)

  17. I don’t think talented folk really get to make the cut, there Beldar, consider what happened to Admiral Blair and almost happened to Allen, which
    show the only signs of confidence in this administration

    ian cormac (6718a9)

  18. Beldar – Why do they say alfranken allegedly did that?

    JD (3dc31c)

  19. Things could be much worse; I’d be much more worried if I thought she were talented (and therefore effective).

    AW’s made this point too. I have to trust you guys’s wisdom on this. She probably isn’t influential yet, but I’ve learned to influence 8 people (really Kennedy’s the only one that counts) over time. She’s got decades.

    I do think she’s worse than a reliable leftist. And far worse than Sotomayor. If, God forbid, one of the 4 solid conservatives is replaced with a liberal, in the next 40 years, it will matter a lot that Kagan is more than a yea or nay, but actually setting rules of legal analysis for various tests.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  20. For The Hill to ascribe “shock” to unnamed Senate aides “that Franken would flout the decorum of the chamber during such a solemn occasion,” it must have been a pretty extreme display.

    Where’s Preston Brooks when we finally need him?

    JVW (a52530)

  21. Michelle Obama celebrated by taking 40 of her closest friends to a resort in Spain.

    JD (3dc31c)

  22. Spain is positively scrumptious this time of year you really must go

    happyfeet (19c1da)

  23. If they are saying they were shocked by Franken’s behavior, then perhaps he was acting normal for once? That’s what it would take for him to surprise me.

    It was a Dem year and Norm wasn’t be favorite Republican, but Franken’s presence stings especially because he didn’t actually win the election. I guess this is along the lines of Bush Derangement Syndrome, where Bush motorcade was egged before he ever made it to the White House the very first time (as president). And they begged me to give Obama a fair chance (which I did, naive fool that I am).

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  24. Franken’s presence stings especially because he didn’t actually win the election. I guess this is along the lines of Bush Derangement Syndrome. . .

    I don’t know that it is equivalent to Bush Derangement Syndrome, Dustin. I have long wondered why the Democrat candidate always has a net gain of votes in a recount and, more often than not, gets just enough to squeak out the victory.

    JVW (a52530)

  25. Spain is positively scrumptious this time of year you really must go

    Comment by happyfeet

    It’s an amazing country (with a terrible government). Amazingly, Michelle has so many vacations packed into her schedule that she’s only staying there for 3 days before leaving for the next one. They really are living a lot larger than the Bushes did.

    All these environmentalists tell me to buy a Volt or get my tire pressure checked, while living a very ungreen life. None of them would dream of living on a sustainable ranch in Crawford Texas… they need their Gore style palaces and 500 man entourages.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  26. I have long wondered why the Democrat candidate always has a net gain of votes in a recount and, more often than not, gets just enough to squeak out the victory.

    Comment by JVW — 8/5/2010 @ 10:29 pm

    good point. Of course Bush didn’t steal any election. But a lot of idiots think he did, and I guess my special sense of frustration with Franken is along the lines of their views on Bush.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  27. And yeah, ever recount always predictably goes a certain way.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  28. Feloms brought him over the top,

    ian cormac (6718a9)

  29. I have never been this time of the year. I have been there twice, in November each time. I really enjoyed it. I would enjoy it even more if I got to take 40 buddies with me, and someone else was paying for it.

    JD (3dc31c)

  30. Great bit of trivia – There is a golf course in Spain, I cannot recall exactly where, that is 100% synthetic turf – fairways, rough, greens, tees. Everything. I think it is the University of Valencia.

    JD (3dc31c)

  31. Goodnight, racists.

    JD (3dc31c)

  32. Don’t let the bedbugs bite if they are black.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  33. Does the Supreme Court already have a softball team or is Kagan going to start one?

    daleyrocks (940075)

  34. Rehnquist’s clerks formed a ‘doubles’ tennis team. That’s why he always had three clerks, they say.

    Actually, Kagan’s softball playing is one of the few things I like about her. Like most of these jurists, they seem to have lived in a different world from me, and I like the few examples of normalcy.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  35. I’ll only respect a Supreme Court softball team if it is the sort of league where you bring a beer to the plate with you when you come up to bat.

    JVW (a52530)

  36. In the spirit of equal opportunity…
    Why should the Court be spared the opportunity to experience mediocrity (again).

    AD - RtR/OS! (f9156e)

  37. Kagan will go down in history as
    the most overturned supreme court
    judge in history.

    Stare decis won’t apply to her
    decisions.

    Jack (e383ed)

  38. Damn! For a second there I thought it read “condemned”!

    or “confined”

    or “confounded”

    Icy Texan (8cc981)

  39. thin 40 years – thats longer than most monarchys

    EricPWJohnson (ab6cc8)

  40. Just got back from Spain — nice place to party but not to live/work if you have even a scintilla of desire to progress.

    HeavenSent (ff0596)

  41. … and most of you have never experienced the best part of Summer-time Spain which is San Sebastian to Vigo along the Cantabric Sea turning into the Atlantic.

    HeavenSent (ff0596)

  42. Well, I will repeat what I said about her in the past.

    First, trading Stevens for Kagan is probably, at worst, an even swap. I mean, it would have been great to have a republican president putting in someone at least center-right, but these are the hands we are dealt. So we missed an opportunity to make the court less liberal, but I don’t think it will turn MORE liberal anytime soon.

    So my first impression was that it was hard to muster too much opposition.

    Second, there are some glimmers of hope, mainly in that she is such a poor advocate for the causes she advocates for. Liberals are hoping she will persuade Kennedy more often. Probably more likely she will repel him.

    So on my second thought, I thought she was probably the best case scenario for the right—an incompetent liberal who will repel the justices from her positions.

    Third, however, is that I have come to the conclusion that she is a dim bulb. When I watched that video of her being asked if the Feds could force a person to eat your vegetables, I saw a person who didn’t even understand that there was a constitutional issue. I mean if honest, that answer was incompetent. And her argument in Citizen’s United was pretty dumb, demonstrating that she did not understand the overbreadth doctrine enough to address a question on the subject.

    Now I think it was Dustin who said she was being “stupid like a fox” in that hearing—meaning faking it. Well, that is a matter of opinion and he is entitled to his. I would say however that if she was faking it, then she should be bounced for that dishonesty, and in that case you can credit her answer as saying, yes, the Federal Government can dictate diet to you. Which, come to think of it, I suspect would be the rule if Obamacare is upheld. After all if your health now becomes a matter of public concern, then the government has the right to dictate what you can eat in order to keep you healthier, right?

    So while 1 and 2 are still valid observations, this realization—that I thought she was actually stupid/incompetent—made me oppose the nomination. We should not appoint stupid people to the supreme court.

    Fourth, I am also troubled by her decision to join the anti-military recruiter side in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, but not for the “support our troops” reasons usually suggested. I mean, look, I would probably never do this in war, but if I lived around 1946, and I was dean of a school, I would be very tempted to push my school to boycott the military until it desegregated according to race. So I can’t get too mad at her for seeing gay rights the same way.

    But here was what was wrong with her position, and this is why the supreme court unanimously struck her position down. Now as you might recall, in the Solomon amendment, any school that accepted Department of Defense money had to allow for military recruitment on campus. The law school in that case asserted that they were in essence boycotting the military recruiters over gay rights. So the reasoning went like this. Boycotts are a form of speech. You can’t condition the receipt of federal money on giving up a constitutional right, they reasoned, so if the money is conditioned on ending a boycott, then it is unconstitutional, so they should be able to receive the money without giving up on their boycott. This is otherwise known as having their cake and eating it too.

    Now does anyone see any implications from that reasoning, if adopted, that liberals might not like? Well, the supreme court liberals did, peppering FAIR’s attorneys with a simple question: if you can’t condition the receipt of federal money on the promise not to exclude certain people, doesn’t that undermine Title IX of the Civil Rights Act? In other words, today the schools were asking to exclude military recruiters, but the next day they would be asking to exclude black people as a form of “speech.”

    Liberal who were not on the court, in this case, wanted it both ways. They wanted to force the schools to admit who they wanted, and not who they didn’t. And that is fine as a political position, but a judge can’t do that. While the other liberals on the court are frequently wrong, most of them seem to get that you have to follow principles that apply evenly.

    But either Kagan was too stupid to see there was an issue, or she saw it and felt that it would be proper for the court to make that distinction. Neither possibility reduced my opposition to her nomination.

    Aaron Worthing (A.W.) (e7d72e)

  43. My wife and daughter spent a week in Galicia, in a fishing village, with friends who have trawlers and skerries. Their daughter is a neurobiologist (Ph.D.) and highly regarded internationally. Depends on what kind of work you can do.

    nk (db4a41)

  44. You folks will eventually realize we need to gain 38 solid conservative State Houses and convene a Constitutional Convention. It’s no longer possible to play by their rules. Actually, it really stupid and somewhat pathetic. Sort of like playing wack-a-mole with a really big Nerf hammer.

    cedarhill (c77d79)

  45. I suspect that Franken is just frustrated past his self-control limits. He was going to bring all good things to everyone, and the grand scheme is revealed to be not working. The script keeps changing, and the audience not only isn’t cheering, it’s not even applauding. Stuart has discovered what it really is to be unliked, and doesn’t like it.

    htom (412a17)

  46. Cedarhill, there is no way I would ever sign up for a Constitutional Convention. The constitution that would come out of that would be a statist’s dream.

    John Hitchcock (9e8ad9)

  47. #43, My entire family is from Galicia but IN GENERAL not a place for the ambitious.

    HeavenSent (ff0596)

  48. A Constitutional Convention today would mark the end our great experiment.

    JD (845aec)

  49. No embarrassment at all from Democrats that they just put this political hack mediocrity on the court?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  50. What good is life if you can’t make a prediction?
    And that is that either Kagan or Sotomayor will be the first SCOTUS justice to be impeached and removed for failure to uphold the Constitution.

    agimarc (324b03)

  51. SOMEBODY has been screwing with elections for years now. Unless they are landslide elections, they can be messed with. The contention that completely unsecured windows machines being used to count votes without any paper ballots IS NOT A CONCERN is ignorant. See Greene. About Bush: regardless of whether the vote was hacked or not, the supreme court stepped in where it did not belong, did the openly partisan thing of stopping votes from being counted, and declaring Bush the winner. That sounds insane now. INSTEAD OF COUNTING ALL THE VOTES TO FIND THE WINNER, THEY STOPPED THE VOTE COUNT, AND PICKED ONE THEMSELVES. Pathetic.

    Chris Hooten (c5fad1)

  52. Chris

    Umm, who stopped counting? – numerous recounts show that Gore lost including those by “independent” news organizations

    Gore just wanted to change counting standards and deadlines –

    EricPWJohnson (4e780d)

  53. Hootie, the bloviating fish, is — of course — wrong again.

    Icy Texan (be7dba)

  54. I am not wrong. You are totally mistaken.

    Chris Hooten (2069b1)

  55. Having been born in 1949, and lived through all the falderal of the NOW protests and promises, I had anticipated having women of superior intellect and comport, to occupy our original supreme court judges. Frankly, the crop that has been elevated to that high bench, have and will be, a huge disappointment.
    Can’t wait for sotomayer (sp)first judgment based on how she “felt” at the time. God help us.

    J (2946f2)

  56. It can’t be worse than stopping the counting of votes, and picking a president

    Chris Hooten (9f7087)

  57. Hootie, No!
    Once again, we remind you that the count, under the laws of Florida established by the Florida Legislature, found that GWB carried Florida in 2000.
    It was the improper recount imposed by the Florida Supreme Court,
    which violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, that was stopped by the Supreme Court of the United States.
    SCOTUS just ratified the proper count conducted under the laws of Florida (a count that was verified – over time – by all major media).
    Facts, and reality, are an inconvenient truth; both of which you seem unable to deal with!

    AD - RtR/OS! (89e55e)


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