elena kagan

Wingnut conspiracy alert!!!!!!!!!

Apparently President Obama has secretly declared diabetes a disability!

Here's Ed Morissey at HotAir:

That seems to be the message from the White House, which is apparently a little desperate to make the case that Barack Obama has proven his historical and diversity mettle in judicial nominations. In a new infographic for the website, the Obama administration now argues that it appointed the first confirmed Supreme Court justice “with a disability” (via Twitchy):

President Obama has only nominated two Supreme Court justices, both of whom were confirmed by the Senate — Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. The only unusual medical or physical condition known about either of them is Sotomayor’s diabetes, which is presumably the basis for this claim. My wife had Type I diabetes for almost all of her life (until her 2007 pancreas transplant), which eventually caused her blindness and kidney failure. She is classified as disabled because of her blindness, but no one ever suggested that her diabetes was a disability — it’s a medical condition that can be managed and doesn’t physically disable anyone from anything on its own, except perhaps eating sugar.

Apparently Ed missed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which was so popular that it passed the Senate with unanimous consent and the House on a voice vote and was signed into law on September 28th, 2008 by then President George W. Bush. In the ADAAA Diabetes was listed as a disability.

This is one comparison I am really getting tired of:

The Obama Administration needs to recall that George W. Bush’s first nominee, Harriet Miers, was withdrawn after twenty-three days under not dissimilar circumstances: insufficient evidence in the nominee’s record to encourage his political base to become enthused about the nominee.

First off, John Roberts was actually Bush’s first nominee, but I just want to get the nitpicking out of the way.

Miers was not known at all when she was nominated. I remember that morning so well. There was a bipartisan reaction of “who is that” once Bush named her. Compare that to Kagan, who has been on the short list for over a year now. Even Republicans know her and have shown support for her. Miers had support from no one, not on the left or right.

And to even begin to compare the resumes of these two ladies is laughable. Kagan has a very distinguished career in academia, while Miers resume looks like that of someone who could never be happy at a job for longer than a couple of years.

But again, this all boils down to anti-Obama rhetoric. Obama could have appointed Robert Kennedy, jr. to the Supreme Court and the people at FDL would be upset and bashing Obama for it.

Adding…Would we much rather have John McCain as President and picking this justice? Look at his vetting process. It can all be summed up in two words – Sarah Palin. Enough said.

The retirement of Justice Stevens is really not good news for those of us on the left:

The leading prospects -- U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appellate judges Merrick Garland and Diane Wood -- are relative moderates. Kagan has backed strong presidential authority over national security; rulings by Garland and Wood suggest they would expand rights only gradually.

“The candidates who are truly liberals aren’t really on the table,” said Tom Goldstein, a Washington appellate lawyer whose Scotusblog Web site tracks the court. “You can just tell that it’s not where the White House is headed, and the groups themselves seemingly accept it.”

Sadly this was to be expected. Obama is not a liberal, despite how much the right (and some on the left) wants us to believe it. As I’ve said before, he is actually to the right of Hillary Clinton.