|
Edited on Sun Jun-27-10 09:35 PM by Politics_Guy25
Let's have this as the central thread wherein we provide our thoughts as all of the action unfolds tommorrow morning and beyond.
We're just hours away now! I love supreme court confirmation hearings. They are always so fascinating to watch. The opening statements start tommorrow morning and then Justice Kagan will issue her opening statement in the late afternoon I imagine. Who else is planning to watch the coverage? I'll have DU and DKOS open all day long. CNN and MSNBC will have the big guns out, i.e., Wolf Blitzer, John King, Gloria Borger, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann to anchor for hours.
CNN/MSNBC start their coverage at noon ET on Monday for opening statements.
The hearings are expected to last at least until Thursday. Kagan's questioning isn't likely to start until Tuesday morning. CNN/MSNBC will have live coverage beginning at 8 a.m. ET on Tue/Wed.
Anybody else super excited? Two supreme court appointments leave a huge mark on any president's legacy.
Conversation starter: How many votes will Justice Kagan get? I think 65. Mcconnell will crack the whip on his caucus. Can't give the President a victory, now can we? However, people like Brown, Snowe, Collins and Voinovich are bound to vote yes. She deserves 90 but remember the GOP is in ahole mode.
Here's an article teeing up the confirmation hearings:
(Reuters) - Elena Kagan, nicknamed "Shorty" by a liberal mentor before becoming a legal giant, will introduce herself to the nation next week as the widely anticipated next member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Politics
Kagan is certain to face a Republican grilling when her Senate confirmation hearing begins on Monday, with critics questioning if she's driven more by politics than law and backers calling her a perfect fit for the high court.
Barring any unforeseen bombshells, the former Harvard law school dean, who has served in the last two Democratic administrations, will likely win approval with bipartisan support.
While President Barack Obama has faced a Republican wall of opposition much of this election year, at least a few members of the opposition party are expected to join Democrats to confirm his nomination of Kagan, 50, to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, 90, the court's leading liberal.
"The president is extraordinarily proud of this nominee and, I bet, the reasons for that will be very apparent in these hearings," said senior Obama adviser David Axelrod.
While Kagan has drawn praise from Democrats and Republicans in the legal world, the public seems less than impressed, at least so far, with the nominee.
And here is a snippet of the Wikipedia bio on Justice Kagan:
Elena Kagan (pronounced /ˈkeɪɡən/; born April 28, 1960)<1> is the Solicitor General of the United States and a pending nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After attending Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard Law School, she completed federal Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerkships. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as an Associate White House Counsel and later policy adviser under President Bill Clinton. After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its Dean.
She was appointed Solicitor General by President Barack Obama on January 26, 2009. On May 10, 2010, Obama nominated Kagan to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens at the end of the Supreme Court's 2009–2010 term.<3><4>
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT-I love him!) will chair the hearings and Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Al) is the ranking member. They will each get 30 minutes of questioning to start things off.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
