The Elena Kagan pick has been a perfect, hand-in-glove fit with the criticisms that Washington DC has grown out-of-touch with the rest of the nation. The prospect of an exclusively Ivy-educated Supreme Court has sparked questions about Eastern corridor elitism.
Of course, not helping was that Senator John Kerry picked a Politico Arena discussion board – ostensibly set up to discuss whether the nominee is too steeped in “Ivy League education and elite positions in government” – to sing Kagan’s praises from their time working together on high stakes tobacco legislation in 1998.
Kagan’s camp could not have asked for a worse messenger with a worse message:
“Massachusetts has been Elena Kagan’s adopted home, but it’s not for such home state boosterism, parochial reasons why I think she’s a terrific choice.
No, it’s because I got to know her well not in Boston, but here in the Senate.”
That’s John Kerry, who connected so poorly with voters in 2004, the poster child for liberal elitism. And his comments have nothing much to do with the topic: he’s essentially adding his two cents to a discussion about Euros – and helped keep alive the notion that Kagan is an insider pick.
Jim Eltringham 