Cautious Yet Troubling Pick in Kagan

Cautious Yet Troubling Pick in Kagan

Katrina vanden Heuvel describes Kagan as a careful choice, who needs to be pressed about her views on executive power.

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On The Ed Show, Ed Schultz wants to know what the editorial board at The Nation thinks about Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. He brings in Editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel to find out. Vanden Heuvel describes Kagan as a “cautious pick” but says that there are some “troubling issues and questions that need to be raised…about her views on executive power.” But she says that the GOP notion that she is not experienced enough is nonsense.

“If you need that kind of experience to pass what we just got out of the Citizens United decision, unleashing corporate money…polluting our political system. What value are judicial robes?” vanden Heuvel asks. Attacking Kagan for her lack of experience and her praise of Thurgood Marshall shows how disembodied the Republican Party has become with from their roots, vanden Heuvel says. “It is a pale, stale party…soon going to be called the Grand Obstructionist Party.”

—Morgan Ashenfelter

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Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

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