Political Quotes

“Madam President, I have also come to support the nomination of Elena Kagan. She has an impressive background. I was very pleased with her nomination by the President for a lifetime term on the Supreme Court. I had the opportunity to meet with her in my office, and I found her engaging and interesting, with a lively sense of humor. I found her to be a very interesting person. I had the opportunity to interview and talk with a number of folks who have been nominated to the Supreme Court. She stands out to me. She has a very impressive background: bachelor's degree in history from Princeton; master of philosophy from Oxford; a law degree from Harvard. She has done a lot of things--associate White House counsel for President Clinton. She was a professor at Harvard Law School and then dean of the Harvard Law School. She was confirmed by the Senate as Solicitor General on March 19 of last year. I voted for that confirmation. I think she will make an excellent Justice of the Supreme Court. I want to say that some of the criticism of Elena Kagan has been that she does not have judicial experience. In other words, she has not been a judge. That is true, in fact. Forty of the 111 Supreme Court Justices, including Justices John Marshall, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and the previous Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, had no judicial experience either. In many ways, that was considered a significant asset.…”