Making My Point
by digby
The writer at the CBS site “The Coop” seems to think this is a brilliant insight:
Let’s focus on the most explosive and, I think, the most ludicrous: Her supposed “connection” to Goldman Sachs. Greenwald links to Digby, who links to USA Today -gotta love those links – which notes that Kagan received $10,000 in 2008 for serving as a member of the Research Advisory Council of the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute. Well, as the noted constitutional scholar and former New Jersey Nets forward Derrick Coleman was wont to exclaim on occasion, whoop-de-damn-do. Fact is that the “Digby” post offers nothing in the way of evidence that points to a nefarious connection. Read a little further, though, and you’ll find the author’s real point: “I think Supreme Court confirmation battles are ideologically instructive for the nation and are one of the few times when it’s possible for people to speak at length about their philosophical worldview. Liberals have to stop running from this. Allowing the other side to define us is killing us.” There you have it. This is really about politics and dissatisfaction with the Obama administration. Some on the lib-left would like the White House to tack far harder in their direction and they are not pleased at his political instinct to move toward the middle. That’s an argument they can have, though now it looks as if Kagan will get caught in the cross-fire.
Uhm, yes. That was exactly my point. And the problem is?
Indeed, in a subsequent post, I made the point about the Goldman Sachs connection so damned political it hurts:
[I]t really irks the hell out of me that if we are going to have a big confirmation battle (which goes without saying) the administration is going put themselves in a position in which they have to defend Kagan’s Goldman Sachs ties while Jeff Sessions prances around like the second coming of William Jennings Bryan. Unless they think it’s a terrific idea to convince the American people once and for all that the Republican Party is the people’s only defense against Big Government and Wall Street, I can’t think of a more counterproductive political fight.
Obviously, I don’t know if the GOP will find it in themselves to bash their good friends at Goldman but I do think it’s stupid to hand them weapons to make points like this, however. If we’re going to have a fight, then I’d prefer that it be a real ideological battle rather than allow the Republicans to be wolves in populist clothing.
Supreme Court battles are inherently political and the Republicans, at least, make no bones about using them to advance their agenda. This should not be news to very important journalists unless they’ve been watching this nominating kabuki dance with the credulity of 12 year olds. My gripe is that Democrats are really bad dancers. In fact, they refuse to dance at all.
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