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Elena Kagan's Achilles' Heel
Daily Beast ^ | May 10, 2010 | Peter Beinart

Posted on 05/10/2010 7:56:23 PM PDT by fightinJAG

President Obama is about to nominate someone for the Supreme Court. . . . Ten minutes after that, liberals will rise en masse to defend the nominee as wise, brilliant and humane, a person who restores our faith in humankind. And the kabuki theater will continue like that all summer long.

I can’t blame my fellow liberals for playing along; if the other side fires, we have to fire back. But there’s one exception. If Solicitor General Elana Kagan gets the nod, conservatives will beat the hell out of her for opposing military recruitment on campus when she was dean of Harvard Law School. And liberals should concede the point; the conservatives will be right.

"I abhor the military’s discriminatory recruitment policy,” wrote Kagan in 2003. It is “a profound wrong—a moral injustice of the first order.” So far, so good. Not allowing openly gay and lesbian Americans into the military is a grave moral injustice and it is a disgrace that so many Republicans defend the policy to this day. But the response that Kagan favored banning military recruiters from campus—was stupid and counterproductive. I think it showed bad judgment.

The United States military is not Procter and Gamble. It is not just another employer. It is the institution whose members risk their lives to protect the country. You can disagree with the policies of the American military; you can even hate them, but you can’t alienate yourself from the institution without in a certain sense alienating yourself from the country. Barring the military from campus is a bit like barring the president or even the flag. It’s more than a statement of criticism; it’s a statement of national estrangement.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; kagan; kagantruthfile; military; obama; scotus; supremecourt
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To: Salamander; Slings and Arrows; Markos33
"Elena Kagan's Achilles' Heel"

Funny, the first thing that came to my mind had more to do with Sappho.....

21 posted on 05/10/2010 8:38:11 PM PDT by shibumi (Pablo (the Wily One) signed up for the "Hippo Attack" ping list!)
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To: fightinJAG

The left doesn’t even like her much. The GOP needs to keep the fires going till Nov. They start wimping out they are going to accomplish exactly what Cameron did in the UK. They are going to minimize their wins.


22 posted on 05/10/2010 8:38:49 PM PDT by Maelstorm (Tyranny thrives when the people are silent.)
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To: fightinJAG

Obama’s lack of judgement in his choice of Kagan is stunning. Just stunning.


23 posted on 05/10/2010 9:11:10 PM PDT by ChocChipCookie (God to Obama: Don't think I'm not keepin' track. Brother.)
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To: fightinJAG

I think Obama has finally jumped the shark.

It’s not anything people can or will say out loud, but when she appears in news clips, people stop and look... and realize she is not your average American.

And it’s making people very, very aware of the progressive-socialist agenda of Obama.


24 posted on 05/10/2010 9:15:39 PM PDT by I still care (I believe in the universality of freedom -George Bush, asked if he regrets going to war.)
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To: Maelstorm

Personally, I think the right should just give in on this one. Elections mean things and this is what you get. Does anyone think Obama won’t nominate someone worse, given the chance? Let it go, avoid seeming hateful and let the average American make up there own mind on the direction their votes are taking us. The goal has to be to elect enough representatives in the Senate to prevent any future confirmations of activist judges.


25 posted on 05/10/2010 9:16:49 PM PDT by phxdan
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To: phxdan

there=their.


26 posted on 05/10/2010 9:18:06 PM PDT by phxdan
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To: Clintonfatigued

Let’s see...lesbian gay rights activist, never tried a case, lived totally in academia and government, hates the military for not being PC, consultant for Goldman Sachs...not enough to disqualify her?

What would she have to do? Sleep with a donkey on live TV? Murder puppies?

Rosanne Barr would be better qualified...


27 posted on 05/10/2010 9:23:17 PM PDT by Mr Rogers
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To: fightinJAG; snippy_about_it; jazusamo; smoothsailing; Girlene
The SEAL was acquitted. Brennan admitted the Nissan Jihadi was. . .a jihadi. Iowa is on the verge of its biggest deployment since WWII. And the president presiding over the destruction of everyone's livelihood has now named a defamer of America's fighting men.

The Republicans would do well to recall there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to victory in the fall, and the fall of 2012.


28 posted on 05/10/2010 9:24:49 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hussein: Islamo-Commie from Kenya)
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To: phxdan

You are wrong and what is hateful about it? The lady didn’t think it was appropriate to let recruiters come onto campus at Harvard? She has no experience. Elections mean things but the American people do not support this kind of nominee. He nominates someone worse then it is even better for us. You seem to believe that we have something to gain by standing down. We do not. It isn’t as if the public is going to look at Republicans better for just rubber stamping a socialist activist who has no experience. The more we fight on this the more we can delay the rest of Obama’s agenda. So either way we limit the amount of damage. If we can drag this out for two months that leaves very little time for Obama to get through anything else unless of course he wants to fight the immigration battle right before the election which would be political suicide in all the places that count.


29 posted on 05/10/2010 9:39:47 PM PDT by Maelstorm (Tyranny thrives when the people are silent.)
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To: Clintonfatigued

We stopped Harriet Miers for less. Also have you read her little socialist treatise? These moments are opportunities to compare and contrast. The Sotomayor fight didn’t hurt us at all and it probably helped us in some sectors. Republicans need to realize there is no giving in. We fight not just to win we fight for the right to make our case for the American people. Let them see full on who this nominee is and though our hope of winning is small we can bloody Obama with her. The left has did worse to our nominees and right now is our chance to return the favor. We need to repeat that “Kagan is out of the mainstream” that she is a “radical” who clearly would not support the constitution as written. The show is important, not for us, but for the people across America. Make the left scream for a more liberal nominee. Most Americans see liberalism as a dirty word make Obama defend it. The left most certainly has never been easy on our candidates. We luckily were able to get both Roberts and Alito and we got them because we fought hard especially Alito.

Politics isn’t about being nice. It is by being nice that conservatives have continued to lose ground to liberalism even when they “win”. Could you imagine if we had Judge Robert Bork instead of Anthony Kennedy on the court today?

That is what we fight for. We fight to be heard and if we do not fight then the citizenry will sleep and not hear us.


30 posted on 05/10/2010 9:53:43 PM PDT by Maelstorm (Tyranny thrives when the people are silent.)
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To: Maelstorm

I don’t think I accused anyone here of being hateful and I totally agree that not allowing recruiters on her campus was WRONG. However, I believe this is a political trap and a battle that can’t be won. I can understand the value of resisting everything that BHO does, but my instincts are to let this one go. Perhaps I am wrong, but whatever course our Senators take we can not allow ourselves to be divided in Nov.


31 posted on 05/10/2010 11:06:50 PM PDT by phxdan
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To: phxdan

I don’t believe conservatives will have any problem with opposition to this person. It will not divide us in the fall. I think 0bama did it to possibly unite the libs in the fall. He thinks that if they are upset about the situation they will come out to vote in the fall.

His people don’t realize that the opposite is sure to happen. Conservatives will be so opposed to having an unqualified marxist who hates the Constitution as a judge, they will come out to vote in even larger numbers.


32 posted on 05/11/2010 1:03:24 AM PDT by Waryone
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To: Mr Rogers

That’s not a posting I’d expect from someone named Mr. Rogers.


33 posted on 05/11/2010 4:47:40 AM PDT by Clintonfatigued (Obama's more worried about Israelis building houses than he is about Islamists building atomic bombs)
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To: Maelstorm

“We stopped Harriet Miers for less.”

True, but we had 55 Senators, now we have 41. The military recruiters flap is something to start with and I’ve read that she made changes in the Harvard Law School cirriculum that are questionable.


34 posted on 05/11/2010 4:51:13 AM PDT by Clintonfatigued (Obama's more worried about Israelis building houses than he is about Islamists building atomic bombs)
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To: fightinJAG

Although most of us will be disappointed, she easily will be confirmed.


35 posted on 05/11/2010 4:54:09 AM PDT by verity (Obama Lies - Obongo must go!)
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