Elena Kagen, You Go Girl!

It will be hard to corner Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagen, because she is one of the few public officials of ANY party who has literally a perfect and blameless record! In fact she has NO record!

Despite this fact, GOP senators accused her of blocking the Pentagon’s recruiters’ access to Harvard Law School career services offices when she held the position as Dean. Come on fellas, since when has the Pentagon not been able to accomplish any of its missions?

In response to this accusation, Kagen stated that she acted because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which bars openly gay men and women from servicing, was a violation of the university’s anti-discrimination rules. Kagen suggested an alternative for military recruitment through the veterans’ office on campus. She also pointed out that “military recruiting went up that year not down,” when Pentagon’s representatives worked through the veterans office.

It’s comical to hear statements such as Democrat, Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, “We have less evidence about what sort of judge you will be than on any nominee in recent memory. Your judicial philosophy is almost invisible to us.”

“There will be 59 Democrats [voting for her] and you can count on at least a few Republicans,” says Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Unless she stumbles badly and makes some terrible mistakes, the odds are she will be confirmed.”

Kagen is the first woman to serve as solicitor general and the first women dean of Harvard Law School; she has drawn positive comment from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

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SUPREME FACTS

Of 111 justices since 1789:

• 53 was the average age at appointment

• 36 served in the military

• 11 had no children

• 6 never married

• 4 were divorced

• 3 did not have a private law practice

• 39 were not judges before appointment

• 39 were Episcopalian

• *18 attended and 14 graduated from Harvard Law School

• 26 were from judicial families

• 41 had fathers who held public office

• 39 grew up in urban or small-city settings

• 40 grew up on family farms, family plantations, or rural settings

• 31 grew up in small to