Friday
Jun252010
White House Anticipates Smooth Confirmation For Kagan
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 1:37PM
By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service
The White House predicts that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation next week will go smoothly, despite unease among Republican Senators over still unreleased documents.
In a conference call Friday with David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President, and White House Counsel Bob Bauer, the two emphasized the backing Kagan has received from both parties.
“One of the more striking features ... is the breadth of support that Elena Kagan ... has received from Democrats and Republicans and from lawyers on any side of the political divide,” Bauer said.
While there were initial rumors that Republicans could boycott the hearings over 1,600 documents withheld from the Committee from Kagan's days as a Clinton appointee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has promised that the minority party will be in attendance when the hearings open. However, during an interview with ABC, Sessions would not reject the possibility of a filibuster against the nominee.
In addition to the documents, some in the GOP are worried over Kagan's background. Axelrod dismissed concerns that Republicans could use the hearings to cast Kagan as a “judicial activist” for her history as a political appointee during the Clinton administration, arguing that her experience studying, teaching and practicing law while working as Solicitor General of the United States and working as Dean of the Harvard Law School will outweigh the label.
“I don’t think this is going to be the issue at the end of the day on which this nomination rests,” said Axelrod.
Kagan goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday. According to Axelrod, Kagan, who once described the confirmation process as a "ritual dance," will be well prepared.
“In the last week or so, she has spent several hours a day fielding questions,” said Axelrod. “She has thought a lot about these issues.”
The White House predicts that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation next week will go smoothly, despite unease among Republican Senators over still unreleased documents.
In a conference call Friday with David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President, and White House Counsel Bob Bauer, the two emphasized the backing Kagan has received from both parties.
“One of the more striking features ... is the breadth of support that Elena Kagan ... has received from Democrats and Republicans and from lawyers on any side of the political divide,” Bauer said.
While there were initial rumors that Republicans could boycott the hearings over 1,600 documents withheld from the Committee from Kagan's days as a Clinton appointee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has promised that the minority party will be in attendance when the hearings open. However, during an interview with ABC, Sessions would not reject the possibility of a filibuster against the nominee.
In addition to the documents, some in the GOP are worried over Kagan's background. Axelrod dismissed concerns that Republicans could use the hearings to cast Kagan as a “judicial activist” for her history as a political appointee during the Clinton administration, arguing that her experience studying, teaching and practicing law while working as Solicitor General of the United States and working as Dean of the Harvard Law School will outweigh the label.
“I don’t think this is going to be the issue at the end of the day on which this nomination rests,” said Axelrod.
Kagan goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday. According to Axelrod, Kagan, who once described the confirmation process as a "ritual dance," will be well prepared.
“In the last week or so, she has spent several hours a day fielding questions,” said Axelrod. “She has thought a lot about these issues.”
Black Tea Party Members Deny Movement Is Racist
By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service
On Wednesday, a handful of black conservative and Tea Party activists held a news conference Wednesday to dismiss allegations of racism within the right-wing movement.
“This is not a movement driven by race,” said Selena Owens, a member of the Tea Party Express. “We are not racist…[and] we will not allow those in the media or political left to censor or censure us with false and derogatory statements and smears.”
Alan Keyes, a former Ambassador and Presidential candidate, said that President Barack Obama was elected by a “virulent form of racism” and compared the President’s agenda to a slave owner’s.
“What did it mean to be a slave?” Keyes said. “Your master guaranteed your food, your clothing, your shelter and a job…that’s exactly what the Obama faction and the leftists…want to pretend all Americans should aspire to.”
Another speaker, radio talk show host Herman Cain, said that the false accusations were a liberal strategy to divide the movement and deflect attention from what he dubbed the Democrat’s “failed policies.”
“When they [Democrats] do not succeed…they resort to name calling,” said Cain.
The group harshly attacked Obama and the Democratic party by calling them elitists that had “re-enslaved America.”
President of the Black Conservative Coalition Kevin Jackson accused Obama of referring to blacks as “mongrels,” and blamed the Democratic agenda for why blacks are the leading the nation in unemployment, high school dropout, neighborhood crime and abortion rates.
When directly asked about the incident involving Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) allegedly being called a racial slur by a Tea Party member amid March’s health care reform vote, the speakers emphatically stressed that there was no evidence that anyone from the Tea Party movement directed a racial slur at him.
The group maintained that any evdence suggesting racism could be the result of nonmembers infiltrating the organization in order to “brand” the Tea Party as racist.