Who will the newest SUPREME COURT Justice? What is the Strategy?

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

I think that, just as with his last nominee, Obama will cave to the Republicans and move the court further to the right. It frustrates me to no end that they can get away with doing something as blatantly manipulative and unprecedented as threaten a filibuster when they don't even know who the candidate will be. Someone needs to stop these people; sadly this administration and this Senate won't.

Between the pending further shift to the right of the court and the treasonous language being spoken by conservatives and their representatives (Oklahoma being the latest example), I fear for our future. I've long said that if there is a revolution in this country, it won't be by the liberals to move us forward, but rather by the conservatives to move us backward. The revolution may have begun.

As much as it deeply bothers me (I am so turned-off to Obama's administration thus far and really did have some hope with his election) , I think you are on point with these feelings. Where is the outrage? Why are we so complacent? Why are we sitting back and taking this?

I know that during bad economic times, the more liberal faction's social response to such insanity becomes blunted because so many are being paralyzed economically. Historically, the middle-class has been the base of social movements because of actually having more leisure time (now a foreign concept and so rooted in the post WWII era) and some security with income. that isn't true at present as so many are really one dead refrigerator away from bankruptcy literally. Also, what constitutes the middle-class isn't what it used to be. The working poor are more stressed today and I believe, even further marginalized.

I see less and less people coming into volunteer time for community and more left-wing political projects at the very time it is needed the most. Hell, the mistrust of government does not lie solely to the right. Moderates are becoming more aligned with things like vote all incumbents out.

I find what the GOP is doing outrageous as well as inhumane! Yet, I keep searching for the left and progressive base to rise up and do not see it happening. The economic struggles we are facing have infiltrated far more people within this population and I see a kind of group depression and numbing hanging over us like an epidemic. Many people just can't conger up the energy anymore to organize and fight.

Unfortunately, I think Obama will fold once again in what I am beginning to simply see as the typical political concern over re-election. His appointee will be the safest politically.

Frankly, I would like to see the presidential term to be a single 6 years. Worry about and strategy for re-election begins the day after a president has taken office. Actually, I don't see much hope for our political processes unless we have public funding (only) for elections.

This appointee on the Supreme Court is so damn critical, so I want to believe that Obama will take the Congressional battle on with some backbone, but, I doubt it. This is where I feel that Obama ran far too early without the political savvy needed to get things done. I never bought it was positive that he wasn't tainted by Washington... yet. That is what is happening right now and I can't tell the difference between him and a Republican. I feel duped and I want to stand behind him. I really do, but I am having a very difficult time doing so.

I think Sarah Palin could be elected president (or VP) as I look at what is going on....

Sorry for any errors… I’m in a mood and must water some plants!! No, not those kind of plants!

[Hack]

I'd strike Granholm from the list. She'd never make it through the confirmation hearing.

[UofMfan]

Although, she is not my top choice for the bench, this was to be expected.

Elena Kagan 'Gay' Whisper Campaign Enrages Rights Groups
Sam Stein, The Huffington Post


Leading gay rights group are accusing Republicans of trying to rile up their conservative base by launching a whisper campaign against potential Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan -- suggesting the current Solicitor General is a closeted lesbian even though she's not.

In its first entree into the upcoming Supreme Court nomination process, the group Human Rights Campaign blasted the increasingly public discussion of Kagan's sexuality, calling it a play "straight out the right-wing playbook."

"Even though the majority of Americans couldn't care less about a nominee's sexual orientation, the far right will continue to be shameless with their whisper campaigns to drum up their base and raise money off of prejudice," Michael Cole, a spokesperson for the group emailed, in a statement to the Huffington Post

In a separate interview, Jean-Marie Navetta, spokeswoman from PFLAG -- Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays -- accused people of trying to manufacture scandal out of thin air.

"People love taking part in rumors like this, whether they're gay or not, because it implies that there's some sort of scandal going on there. And the bottom line is, it doesn't matter and it shouldn't matter," she said. "But we hear it all the time... it's a gossip point for people. And I think it could certainly be used, or be perceived to be used by some as a way to discredit [Kagan], even though we all know that it does not matter and it should not matter."

The comments come a day after CBS published a blog by Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer, in which he asserted that choosing Kagan would help Obama "please" much of his base, because she would be the "first openly gay justice." The White House reacted strongly to the assertion, relaying that Kagan is, in fact, straight. It was the first public pushback by the administration in defense of any potential Supreme Court nominee.

[MsDemeanor]

Conservatives know no shame.

[Soon]

Why did the White House issue a statement that she is straight?

Why not just avoid answering such suppositions--by responding, doesn't that imply that people have a right to know the sexual orientation of the nominee and that it would affect their nomination?

By issuing no statement, wouldn't that be sending a message that sexual orientation is not a consideration when deciding the best SCJ, that people do not have the right to know of someone's orientation--that, either way, someone's sexuality is not a consideration?

Why issue the denial?

If Kagan wanted to address it, that's a different story.

[MsDemeanor]

I would agree with you if we were dealing with reasonable people to whom a logical argument could be given which they would understand and acknowledge. We're not dealing with reasonable people, we're dealing with manipulators who have no shame when it comes to telling lies and ignorant or homophobic followers who buy the lies.

[Soon]

The White House, Elena Kagan, and Me

Ben DomenechEditor of The New Ledger
Posted: April 16, 2010 12:44 PM


It's an odd thing to get attacked by the White House for a blog post, and odder still when the attack is for something mentioned in passing, and intended to highlight a political positive about a potential Supreme Court nominee.

My recent blog post at The New Ledger, crossposted at CBS News, mentioned that I thought the appointment of Elena Kagan, along with potential nominees Pam Karlan and Kathleen Sullivan, would mark the first instance of an openly gay nominee to the Supreme Court. I included it as a political positive, describing it as a "Plus" that "would please much of Obama's base." The issue is already out there: Karlan and Sullivan are both openly gay, and one need not look too far for arguments being made on left-wing blogs that it would be an affirmative good to appoint a lesbian.

As Sam Stein writes: "The White House reacted strongly to the assertion, relaying that Kagan is, in fact, straight. It was the first public pushback by the administration in defense of any potential Supreme Court nominee."

I erroneously believed that Ms. Kagan was openly gay not because of, as Stein describes it, a "whisper campaign" on the part of conservatives, but because it had been mentioned casually on multiple occasions by friends and colleagues -- including students at Harvard, Hill staffers, and in the sphere of legal academia -- who know Kagan personally. And as the reaction from Julian Sanchez and Matt Yglesias shows, I was not alone in that apparently inaccurate belief.

Look, it's 2010 -- no one should care if a nominee to any position is gay. The fact that conservative Senators John Cornyn and Jeff Sessions have recently expressed openness to confirming an openly gay nominee to the Court is a good thing. Senators should look at things that actually matter -- evaluating a nominee's decisions, approach to the law, their judgment and ability -- to see whether there are actually good and relevant reasons to oppose the nomination. That's all.

But that's about getting the job. As a political matter, there are ramifications for nominations to the Supreme Court, and the core elements of a nominee's biography, like his or her family life, are inescapable when the nation focuses on such a high-profile life-tenured appointment. Making history is a noteworthy thing: many in the Latino community were pleased when Sonia Sotomayor (who I supported) was nominated, and many in the LGBT community would welcome the opportunity to confirm an openly gay justice. Glenn Greenwald and others agree with me on this point, and I can't think why anyone would disagree.

That's why I listed it as a positive: after so much frustration with the White House from the gay community on lack of action on other policy fronts, an openly gay nominee might serve to mend that strained relationship.

As I told Howard Kurtz, and I say again here, I offer my sincere apologies to Ms. Kagan if she is offended at all by my repetition of a Harvard rumor in a speculative blog post. It still seems odd to me that the White House would single out this statement for attack, adamantly slamming closed a door that nobody was trying to open, as opposed to issuing a mild correction. As Yglesias notes, "I'd like to think we're past the point where saying someone's a lesbian counts as a dastardly 'accusation,'" and it certainly was not intended as such.

But on the other hand, if I were Ms. Kagan, I'd feel pretty good about the fact that the White House specifically responded to this, and did so in such an aggressive and forceful manner -- after all, it seems like quite a clue as to who the pick will be, doesn't it?