A Thurgood Marshall Moment
29 June 2010 |permalink | email article
ELENA Kagan’s judicial philosophy will be the central theme of her confirmation hearings when senators begin questioning her today. The expectation is that she will be confirmed. But Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday appeared united on one theme yesterday: The judicial activism of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to ever serve on the Supreme Court.
Ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) criticized Kagan for having “associated herself with well-known activist judges who have used their power to redefine the meaning of our constitution and have the result of advancing that judge’s preferred social policies.”
Kagan’s reverence for Marshall, Session made clear,” tells us much about the nominee,” which, as talkingpointsmemo reported, seemed more like an indictment than a compliment. The focus on Marshall was so obsessive that his name came up 35 times, with President Obama’s name mentioned just 14 times, the blog noted.
The use of Marshall as a stalking horse reminds of culturally insensitive Republicans last year when Justice Sonia Sotomayor was portrayed as being “a wise Latina woman.” It was clear some Republicans would cast Kagan, as with Marshall, as out of the mainstream.
California
Nominations of two Republican businesswomen with no history in politics – Meg Whitman for governor, and Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate – are a first in the state’s history. Both former CEOs have made job creation a cornerstone of their campaigns. My question: Why has eBay Meg pledged to eliminate 40,000 state jobs if elected, while former Hewlett Packard boss Carly cut 28,000 employees from the payroll before she was fired a few years ago?
Read ‘em and weep
“But McChrystal, like everyone else, kvetched. And having apparently missed the last 50 years of cultural history, he did so on the record, in front of a reporter. And this reporter, being a product of the culture of exposure, made the kvetching the center of his magazine profile.” David Brooks, pathetically defending McChrystal in his column while claiming that the authentic Rolling Stone piece, and the culture of exposure, “has chased good people from public life.”
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