Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court was confirmed by the Senate yesterday 63 to 37. She’ll be sworn in today.
This obviously isn’t a surprise because it would have meant that Senate Democrats would go against President Barack Obama. Like that would happen, they love her. It is also not a surprise is that Senator Al Franken (it still pains me to write that) made a complete ass out of himself before her confirmation vote.
I commend Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) for voting no. I’m not surprised by the New England Republican Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Judd Gregg (R-NH) voted for her confirmation, well Gregg I am a little. Snowe and Collins they seem to be a reliable vote for the Democrats lately. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who voted for her needs to be primaried. He’s all over the place and lacks principles, not to mention, doesn’t seem to reflect his constituency, he and Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) parted ways. I think that Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) is now toast as well. Another Republican I figured to see in these ranks, but am happily wrong is Senator Scott Brown (R-MA). He has been an unreliable vote of late, but he was a no vote on Kagan.
It is interesting to note that Kagan received more no votes than any other Democrat Supreme Court nominee in history, perhaps this will send a message to President Obama than nominees who are more radical than Kagan will not glide through. She shouldn’t have glided through with her lack of ethics in politicizing the partial birth abortion statement from the ACOG. One of my senators, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) laid out numerous reasons why he was voting no – her position on partial birth abortion, but also her citing international law as precedent, inability to defend DOMA, and her inability to articulate where our rights come from. Iowa’s Junior Senator Tom Harkin (D-Bahamas) was of course all giddy. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) took time to blast her right before the confirmation vote:
The only good news in her confirmation is that it won’t change the ideological make-up of the Court. You still have four who believe in an evolving Constitution and four who are for the most part strict constructionalists. Justice Anthony Kennedy will remain the swing vote. So we’ll still likely see a lot of 5-4 decisions down the pipe. Kagan, however is 50-years old, making her the youngest Justice on the Court. The second youngest is Chief Justice John Roberts. These two, The Wall Street Journal points out, will have competing visions for the Court for years to come.
Hopefully we won’t have any more retirements before 2012.