I'm not one of those folks who is against appointing Kagan to the bench to replace Justice Stevens. I subscribe to Lawrence O' Donnell's theory that many of these people have to "hide" their liberalness just so they don't hurt their chances of getting onto the bench given how crazed the GOP gets over this type of thing.
In fact, Kagan is on top of my wishlist due to her age. If only Goodwin Liu was on the shortlist.... but that's another story.
That said, I have to wonder if this potential outing of Elena Kagan by CBS News hurts her chances of getting nominated.
From the HuffPo:
The Obama administration charged CBS News with being out of line Thursday for suggesting that possible Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is out of the closet. She isn't, according to a White House official, suggesting that a rumor campaign was being waged to trip up a potential Court candidacy.
In a post for CBS written by Ben Domenech, who is also editor of The New Ledger, Kagan is described as President Barack Obama's most likely choice. She's also described as potentially the "first openly gay justice."
Apparently her partner is well known in Harvard circles, but it sounds like Kagan herself hasn't made it official. Maybe it can be defended as just logical, but still, it's a jerk move by CBS. Nice journalism standards there. Couldn't possibly call the actual source to verify whether or not she was "openly gay?"
So I'm wondering if this hurts her chances, given that she's been described as the frontrunner. I know Obama and the Dems don't want a fight on their hands given that this is an election year, and Kagan seemed to be the perfect pick since she is well liked by some GOP senators, like Lindsay Graham (I know this probably doesn't bode well for her here on this community, but I'm just pointing that out).
Does this change things much? I'm sure if there were hints of her sexuality in Harvard that this isn't some secret that all the GOP are just finding out now. They probably like her because of her views, not because they thought she was heterosexual.
I know Pam Karlan is used as a measuring stick here, but considered something of a longshot because of likely GOP head-explosionness. Why is the GOP that much against her? Is it because she's openly gay? Or is it because she is so anti-corporation? I'm guessing the combination of the two doesn't help her...
One silver lining about this if Obama goes ahead and nominates Kagan for SCOTUS regardless of her being outed - maybe it opens the gates for Karlan later? (I'm just dreaming here, I know.)
UPDATE: Seems CBS News has now taken down the piece by Ben Domenech, who by the way is/was a Red State blogger...
Cue the right saying Obama's goons are the ones who forced CBS to take poor innocent little Domenech's story down and that Obama hates free speech in 3.... 2.... 1....