Specter Damns Kagan With Faint Praise, But Will Support Her

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) tepidly endorsed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in an op-ed released late yesterday, noting that she did “just enough to win my vote.”

Specter damned Kagan with faint praise in the USA Today op-ed, saying that while he believes she has “an impressive legal mind, a ready humor and a collegial temperament suitable to the court,” she also failed to “undo the impression that nominating hearings are little more than a charade.”

He wrote that that Kagan did not heed her own criticisms about previous hearings lacking candor — most famously in a 1995 University of Chicago Law Review article. “She accused Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer of stonewalling, but then she did the same, leaving senators to search for clues on her judicial philosophy,” he said in the op-ed.

Specter did, however, praise Kagan for being in favor of letting cameras into the Court’s hearings. “Her testimony recognized that the court is a public institution that should be available to all Americans, not just the select few who can travel to Washington,” he wrote.

In many ways, Specter was the biggest wild-card on the committee. While still a Republican, he had voted against confirming Kagan as Solicitor General last year. But when President Obama nominated her on May 10, a little over a week before Specter lost his first Democratic Senate primary, he said he would look at her with an open mind. Given that he was no longer burdened by electoral concerns once Kagan actually came before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I believed he might vote against her yet again — he had been by far the Democrats’ toughest questioner during Kagan’s testimony.

Specter’s endorsement means Kagan will almost certainly have 12 senators in favor of endorsing her — and maybe a 13th if Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) decides to buck his party. The committee is scheduled to vote on Kagan this coming Tuesday, while the full Senate will consider her after that.