Right-Wing Machine Attacks Kagan

Jilani, and Alex Seitz-Wald

RADICAL RIGHT

Immediately after President Obama announced Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, the right-wing attack machine kicked into high gear. In the few short days since the announcement, the far right has tried to smear Kagan -- much as it did to Sonia Sotomayor -- with sexist, personal attacks, and misinformation about her background, professional history, ideology, and judicial philosophy. Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh said that "we don't need to go too deep in analyzing the babe...I guess she can change her mind. She's a woman." Michael Savage called Kagan a "radical leftist red-diaper doper baby" who is "out of touch...with mainstream America." Late last month, before Kagan's nomination, top GOP strategist Curt Levey revealed the right's strategic motives. He urged Republicans to vigorously contest whomever Obama nominated -- regardless of qualification -- in order to delay confirmation and "eat up precious time Democrats need to round out their agenda." "Even if it's a nominee that we can't seriously stop, we can accomplish several things, and so a hard fight is worthwhile," Levey said, adding, "There's broader goals such as just distracting Obama from other items on his agenda." Yet at the same time, others on the right recognize the divisive strategy's key flaw. "I don't think it's good for the Court. ... I don't think it serves the country well," said former Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr, who famously led the impeachment of President Clinton. Nevertheless, the right-wing attack campaign continues.

EXPERIENCE HYPOCRISY: Kagan's experience equals, or even exceeds, the backgrounds of some of the Court's most respected justices, past and present. However, Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), Sen. Jim DeMint (SC), and John Cornyn (TX) have questioned Kagan's qualifications because she has never served as a judge. "I'm concerned that she has no judicial experience," DeMint said. Yet back in 2005, all three senators vigorously supported President Bush's Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, who also had never sat on the bench. "Ms. Miers has great experience," McConnell said at the time. "She is well qualified to join the nation's highest court," he added. Before Kagan's nomination, Cornyn said she would be a "highly qualified" candidate to replace Stevens but this week he said he finds her nomination "surprising" because "she lacks judicial experience." When challenged on his double standard, he flip-flopped, saying that Miers, "like Ms. Kagan, has not been a judge. I don't think that should be a disqualifier." Indeed, many other GOP senators feel the same way. "I don't think that's a disqualification," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, noting that "some of the greatest justices in history never sat in a court room." Even Miguel Estrada, who was nominated to a federal appeals court by President Bush but was never confirmed, said Kagan is "highly capable and should be confirmed."

MILITARY ATTACK HYPOCRISY: Although it has been thoroughly debunked, Republicans and conservative media have latched on to the false talking point that as Harvard Law School (HLS) dean, Kagan "banned" the military from recruiting on campus and that because of it, she is "hostile to the military." However, it has been well-documented that Kagan never booted, banned, or barred military recruiters from HLS. The criticism focuses on Kagan's opposition to the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) policy. Highlighting Kagan's statement from 2004 that "the military's recruitment policy is both unjust and unwise," the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol went on the attack, saying "[i]t is intellectually wrong and morally cowardly to call this the 'military's policy'" because "[i]t is the policy of the U.S. Government, based on legislation passed in 1993 by (a Democratic) Congress, signed into law and implemented by the Clinton administration, legislation and implementation that are currently continued by a Democratic administration and a Democratic Congress." Others at the Weekly Standard quickly echoed Kristol's charge. However, as Media Matters' Jamison Foser noted, "The interesting thing about Kristol & Co. insisting that the military itself has nothing to do with the military's anti-gay policies is that they've been insisting for years that civilian policymakers should defer to the military when it comes to adjusting those policies." Moreover, Kristol has never attacked Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen for criticizing DADT. "We have in place a policy that forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Mullen told Congress earlier this year. "For me, personally, it comes down to integrity: Theirs as an individual, ours as an institution."

THE RIGHT-WING CRAZY: Outside the dishonest "experience" and "ban on the military" talking points, others on the right have resorted to outright personal attacks on Kagan. Fox News' Sean Hannity called Kagan a "radical," others in the conservative media are calling her a socialist. Radio talk show host Michael Savage said she had been part of the "New York City communist front" and the Republican National Committee attacked Kagan for saying the Constitution was "defective" as originally written (She was referring to the fact that the founding document codified slavery before the 13th Amendment). CNN conservative commentator Bay Buchanan said Obama had "dummied down" the Court with Kagan's nomination. Others in the right-wing media have targeted Kagan's physical appearance. "Has anyone seen Mike Myers and your new Supreme [Court nominee] in the same room at the same time?" conservative radio host Neal Boortz tweeted. HumanEvent.com's Jason Mattera compared Kagan to a football linebacker and Savage said that he finds Kagan's appearance "personally grotesque." One far-right group has wondered if Kagan is a lesbian, asserting that if she is, she would not be "qualified to sit on the Supreme Court." Even the mainstream media is dabbling in this rumor, finding speculation over Kagan's private life more news-worthy than asking how a nominee's sexual orientation is relevant to his or her qualifications.

ECONOMY -- DESPITE MILITARY OPPOSITION, BROWNBACK CONTINUES PUSH TO EXEMPT AUTO DEALERS FROM NEW CONSUMER PROTECTIONS: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) has offered up an amendment to the Senate financial reform legislation that would protect auto dealers' ability to engage in unscrupulous lending practices. The move, which mirrors an amendment included in the House version of the legislation, prompted an interjection from President Obama, who blasted Brownback's amendment, saying it would allow auto dealer-lenders to "inflate rates, insert hidden fees into the fine print of paperwork, and include expensive add-ons that catch purchasers by surprise." "The fact is, auto dealer-lenders make nearly 80 percent of the automobile loans in our country, and these lenders should be subject to the same standards as any local or community bank that provides loans," said Obama. The President also singled out the harm the amendment could cause military families, who are often targets of these deceptive practices. In February, the Defense Department in February weighed in on the auto dealer-lender exemption, hailing the "intervention of the CFPA in overseeing auto financing and sales" in protecting U.S. servicemembers and "reducing the concerns they have over their financial well-being." Yesterday, Secretary of the Army John McHugh wrote a letter to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) expressing his "strong concerns" about the Brownback amendment. Research by the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy has found that "auto finance is demonstrably susceptible to unfair and deceptive practices" -- including mark ups and a host of fees -- "and those practices are demonstrably not held in check by private market forces alone." In fact, The New York Times this week detailed one instance of a dealer exploiting a member of the military by demanding more fees after a purchase was already completed, while physically blocking his car to that the soldier could not leave until he agreed to pay.

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has begun an investigation "of eight banks to determine whether they provided misleading information to rating agencies in order to inflate the grades of certain mortgage securities." Cuomo's investigation includes megabanks such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. A new WSJ/NBC poll finds that only 4 percent of respondents have a very or somewhat positive view of Goldman Sachs; 50 percent have a somewhat or very negative view, worse figures than even those of oil-giant BP. In a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday, President Obama stressed that the U.S. remains on schedule to begin withdrawing troops by July 2011, but he also said, "We are not suddenly, as of July 2011, finished with Afghanistan." The president promised a "long-term partnership" with the Afghans beyond a military presence. "The monthly cost of the war in Afghanistan, driven by troop increases and fighting on difficult terrain, has topped Iraq costs for the first time since 2003 and shows no sign of letting up," USA Today reports. "Pentagon spending in February, the most recent month available, was $6.7 billion in Afghanistan compared with $5.5 billion in Iraq." Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has signed a bill banning public schools from offering ethnic studies courses. The measure was aimed at the Tucson Unified School District's popular Mexican-American studies department, which critics called "ethnic chauvinism." Schools that don't comply with the law "could have as much as 10% of their state funds withheld each month." President Obama's approval rating "remained stable" in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll at 50 percent, compared with 48 percent in March. "In the wake of the attempted Times Square terrorist attack, a plurality of respondents approve of his handling of terrorism." The poll also found that 64 percent "strongly or somewhat" support Arizona's new immigration law, with 70 percent of Hispanics opposed. Transocean Ltd., which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, is petitioning to limit its liability to under $27 million. The contractor is already facing dozens of lawsuits from aggrieved parties. The head of the U.S. Naval Academy said yesterday that the school would adapt to a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, "because basic respect among students is crucial to succeeding." Noting that there was a time when minorities and women were not allowed to attend the school, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler told reporters that students already come from many different backgrounds. The Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 yesterday to ban most city travel to Arizona, and asked the city attorney to review all $58 million in existing contracts with companies in the state to see which could be canceled in protest of Arizona's new immigration law. Councilman Ed Reyes said Arizona's law is "not American." And finally: "When President Obama was asked if he would play a round of golf" with Rush Limbaugh, his response -- according to "a top Democrat" quoted in a new book about the hate radio host -- was that "Limbaugh can play with himself." ThinkProgress has a new mobile version of our website. Please check out www.thinkprogress.org on your mobile device, and let us know what you think.

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"In Arizona, they know exactly what's in the legislation. They argued over the details in the legislation. The rest of America doesn't realize that it isn't profiling. In fact, the only way that a policeman can stop someone is if they believe that they're in the process of committing a crime."
-- GOP Pollster Frank Luntz, 5/12/10

VERSUS

"[A] police officer responding to city ordinance violations would also be required to determine the immigration status of an individual they have reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegally. City ordinance violations vary by municipality
but could include things like loud parties, barking dogs, cars on blocks in the yard or too many renters."
-- The Arizona Republic, 4/29/10

Let The Sun Shine In......