Elena "Shorty" Kagan To Get Own Supreme Court "Confirmation Mess"
If anyone is prepared for a confirmation hearing, it's thoroughly actually heterosexual man-loving Elena Kagan, former Harvard Law School dean and current U.S. Solicitor General. Not only has she thought quite a bit on what a confirmation hearing should reveal, she's no stranger to the political process, having been shut out of a confirmation hearing entirely after Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. But believe it, this process will be excruciating. You thought the Goldman Sachs hearings down in D.C. were mad political grandstanding? You ain't seen nothing yet! And while her confirmation process as Solicitor General was quite boring-she kept making the case that her job was to represent the interests of the U.S., without regard to her personal opinions! The nerve, to say she'd, like, do a good job and stuff and serve America!-in this confirmation process (assuming we'd get there), she will, we think, be far more revelatory about her potential decision-making process. A process some of us may or may not like, entirely apart from our need to get reelected, not that that matters.
I've been trying to find out more about her stance on the right to privacy. All that comes up are looney-bins on the right talking about sexuality. Ugh.
I'm sure she'll be an advocate for gay rights if she's seated. Yay. But with the tea-bag extremists, I'm starting to care less about if someone will do sex with me, than I am abotu what happens if that magical day ever comes again.
Vocally pro-choice. I can dig stuff up if you like.
But that maybe isn't what you mean!
Privacy in terms of corporate data-mining (i.e. facebook), healthcare, mandatory carrying of papers, sexuality, financial status, cellphone/internet monitoring, etc.
How did they clone Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane and merge them into one person?
The old-fashioned way, wink-wink, nudge-nudge.
That is, by taking an unfertilized human egg and removing it's genetic information, implanting it with half the genetic code from each of them. Then implanting the egg in the uterus of a willing donor, gestating it, birthing it, issuing it with a false Hawaiian birth certificate and then putting it in a time machine so that in 50 years it would be old enough to be the youngest justice on the Supreme Islamic Court of the United States.
I hate the way the White House responded to the question about her sexuality. Way to fuck things up before the horse is out of the gate.
curious, do you see any evidence on Kagan that points to her being gay? I am a gay woman and she does not significantly tip off my gaydar (some may think I am ridiculous, but have you seen many women academics?), so just wondering if the speculation is 100% based on her singleness and appearance. Critique of don't ask don't tell does not qualify as a litmus test IMO.
I honestly have no idea one way or the other – I haven't, like, researched it or anything. I'm just pissed the administration tooke the "OMG NO SHE'S TOTES STRAIGHT" when they were asked, instead of the "that's nobody's business but her own" path – which, in this day and age, I hardly think indicates one way or another.
What ability does she have to annoy Clarence Thomas into retirement?
UGH. Stevens needs to poison him on his way out.
JPS: Clarence, I know you've always admired this tie, and I want you to have it before I go.
CT: Gee, John Paul Stevens, thanks. Do you mind if I try it on?
JPS: By all means. Let me help you with that.
CT: Thanks, John Paul Stevens. Say that looks good, but, hey, what is that stinging sensation I feel?
JPS: Oh, that, well, let me tell you about that tie. That tie is the tie I wore when I wrote my dissent in Bush v Gore.
CT: Arrgh! Aeieieie! It burns, it burns! Get it off, getitoff.
[CT tears at the tie.]
JPS: Oh, sorry there, Clarence.
CT: Alaiaolaiaolai!
[CT dies.]
[Adapted from The Death of Hercules. Loosely.]
Never happen–the man's way too young (and apparently not sufficiently bored yet).
Simply because I was interested enough to look this up, here's the Court's current composition in descending age order:
Ginsburg (77)
Scalia (74)
Kennedy (73)
Breyer (71)
Thomas (61)
Alito (60)
Sotomayor (55)
Roberts (55)
I could see Scalia turning into another Stevens and serving till 90, but if Obama wins a second term, he might have the chance to replace both Ginsburg and Kennedy.
@KrugmanicDepressive: Ahahaha. But I think it needs to be, Oh this tie? This tie was given to me by Thurgood Marshall just before he died. He said I should give it to one of my esteemed conservative colleagues when I was leaving my position. (Cue Act III where CT is borne on a litter, shrieking in his death throes.)
He feels grossly underpaid.
@Krugmanic & @oudemia, and I wouldn't be able to wait until it was ripped from the headlines, or turned into a Lifetime Original with John Stamos playing some kind of Bobby Donnell-type character.
I've heard that Thomas is very, very unhealthy in his habits. That, combined with his raging bitterness and cognitive dissonance, will lead to an early stroke-death. At least, that's what I hope.
Scalia is apparently very unhealthy, too, but he'll live to be 120. Evil never dies.
You're right. Now we send it to the WGA for arbitration.
No, no. I give it all to you. I am a river to my people.
Obama's giving her that "don't fuck this up" look.
Man, this is the conservatives favorite angle of the man, because it makes him look so contemptuous of everyone, but I think he's just a really tall guy who literally must look down on folks. (This has nothing to do with your comment, really! I was just musing on that frequent pose.)
Sorry, this is just another example of Obama hippie-punching combined with a touch of Harriet Miers. Being a nonlawyer, I don't think it's too much to ask that a Supreme Court nominee have litigated and/or presided in at least 10 more trials than I have.