The unbearable lightness of Kagan

Well, as everybody has speculated for weeks, and I predicted for sure last night, President Barack Obama's choice to replace John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court is the semi0-blank slate, semi-conservative accomodationist Elena Kagan.

Unfortunately, Matt Yglesias is probably right; there will be little liberal blowback (in part because, as I told him, many self-identified "liberals" aren't), and, Team Obama welcomes any such pushback to tout its centrist bona fides.

If you're starting an office pool on which word starting with the letter "P" appears more often in White House talking points this summer, don't bet on "progressive."

So true, Mike Madden, so true.

As for her "unbearable lightness," Glenn Greenwald continues to point this out ... not just hers, but that of the arguments on her behalf by many of her boosters.

Among those defenders is Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSBlog, who continues to claim folks like Greenwald misread her on the idea of expanding executive powers.

Tom, I don't think that's the case. Also, that doesn't address the issue of her "thinness" or many other things.

As for defenders who say this could be the first gay SCOTUS justice? If the rumors are true, BFD. Rev. "Rentboy" Rekers also appears to be gay. So does Larry Craig.

Meanwhile, how far has the court fallen otherwise? When Anthony Kennedy is cited as the would-be leader of the liberal bloc, it's fallen far indeed.

Further proof of that? And of pseudo-liberal presidential cravenness? The NYT notes that not since Thurgood Marshall in 1967 have liberals really been jazzed about a SCOTUS nominee. (LBJ's biggest mistake outside of Vietnam was not nominating him, rather than crony Abe Fortas, to be the Chief a year later.)

Oh, and liberals SHOULD complain about Kagan:

“Why do the conservatives always get the conservatives, but we don’t get to get the liberals?” Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, asked the Web site Politico recently, voicing the frustration of the left when Ms. Kagan was considered a front-runner but was not yet Mr. Obama’s selection. “What the hell is that all about?”

More proof from that same story?

Richard A. Posner, a conservative appeals court judge in Chicago, and William M. Landes, his colleague from the University of Chicago law school, ranked all 43 justices from 1937 to 2006 by ideology and found that four of the five most conservative ones are on the current court. Even the moderate swing vote, Justice Kennedy, was the 10th most conservative over that period. By contrast, none of the current justices ranks among the five most liberal members, and only Justice Ginsburg is in the top 10.

Remember, Posner would have incentive to UNDERsell conservative bona fides to push the court further right.