Because abortion is not openly being discussed right now in regard to Elena Kagan’s nomination, it’s tempting to assume it may never really become an issue. Don’t bet on it.

Written by Amanda Marcotte for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

It would not take much to see the argument affirmed today used to justify indefinite detention of Gitmo detainees. Heck, Obama’s probably already sent the draft legislation to Lindsey Graham for his approval…and Elena Kagan may eventually be a Justice who reviews indefinite detention.

Pat Buchanan who has a soft spot in his heart for anything Master Racesque is very concerned that Elana Kagan will upset the delicate balance on the Supreme Court between Catholics and the people who killed their blond-haired blue-eyed-savior, and so he wants to know why Democrats don’t pick an Irish or Polish Catholic guy like Republicans always do.

Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald joined Rachel Maddow at the top of her program Monday to discuss the broad unsuitability of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the US Supreme Court today.

Those of us who oppose the right-wing encroachment on a woman’s right to choose are told quadrennially that we simply must vote for the Democratic choice for President. This is the only way to ensure that the Supreme Court doesn’t continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights. So why is Barack Obama choosing someone like Elena Kagan?

It’s official: Senator Jeff “Beauregard” Sessions can’t play poker for shit.

Although the occasional cipher has been thrust into the highest levels of the Washington political scene in the past (see, for example, Dan Quayle) it seems that the process of driving substance out of the picture has accelerated since John McCain’s inexplicable choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Now that President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court has been revealed to be Elena Kagan, whose primary accomplishment to date has been to leave no record, instead of the clearly superior and substantial candidate Diane Wood, it seems that substance is in retreat in a way never seen before.

The White House is poised to name Don Verrilli, an associate White House counsel, as solicitor general after Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

And so it is done: Elena Kagan is Barack Obama’s nominee to replace the liberal lion, Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan is a remarkably poor choice.

Kagan has a quintessential Upper West Side liberal pedigree, and within her writings you can pick out some hints of that – working for Liz Holtzman for Congress in 1980, her article on “Presidential Administration”, her opposition to don’t ask don’t tell, her college thesis on the rise of socialism (which should in no way be construed as anything but an academic review of the subject, actually). There are also warning signs, such as her writings on the First Amendment, her diversity record at Harvard law, her support of expansive executive power in the war on terror as Solicitor General and in her previous confirmation hearing.