19 Apr 2010 The New Republic States the Obvious

Today’s New Republic has what seems an unnecessary story: “Why Elena Kagan Has Earned the Respect of Conservatives, Like Me.”

Isn’t her reason obvious? A liberal jurist who choose a career trajectory that would put her in line for a possible high court appointment is more likely to get confirmed if she has earned conservatives’ respect, even when the President is a Democrat and the Senate is in Democrat control.

People who get tapped for Supreme Court appointments these days don’t get chosen unless they structured their careers and public (and to some extent, private) actions accordingly, and being respected by the “other side” is part of that equation.

P.S. Turns out the article isn’t about why Elena Kagan has earned the respect of conservatives like [such as] the author, but how she did it — by being civil to conservatives and by supporting former clerks of Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Kennedy for positions at Harvard, in addition to leftists.

In an era in which “bork” remains a verb, it evidently takes very little for a liberal lawyer to earn respect from at least one conservative.

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