WASHINGTON — Let the “vapid and hollow charade” begin!
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s law-school criticism of the confirmation process came back to bite her yesterday as her own Senate hearing got under way.
Even one of the friendly Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee skewered the solicitor general for a law-review article she wrote 15 years ago that criticized confirmation hearings as empty exercises.
“The American people want and deserve a process that is more than what you characterized as a ‘vapid and hollow charade,’ ” said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.).
Sounding more like his Republican colleagues, Kohl questioned Kagan’s lack of judicial experience and demanded she be forthright about her legal philosophy.
She also got beat up by Republicans for having never served as a.
“Ms. Kagan has less real legal experience of any nominee in at least 50 years,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the panel’s top Republican.
Kagan, a former Harvard Law School dean who quickly won confirmation as Obama’s solicitor general last year, nevertheless is expected to win confirmation with relative ease.
She told the committee that during years of overseeing law debates at Harvard, she learned “no one has a monopoly on truth or wisdom [and] we make progress by listening to each other, across every apparent political or ideological divide.”
“I will make no pledges this week other than this one — that, if confirmed, I will remember and abide by all these lessons,” she said. “I will listen hard, to every party before the court and to each of my colleagues.
“I will work hard. And I will do my best to consider every case impartially, modestly, with commitment to principle, and in accordance with law.”