KAGAN: "Drowned Her Sorrow In Vodka & Tonic As Ronald Reagan Took WH"

Yet as a young writer for The Princetonian, the student newspaper at Princeton, Ms. Kagan offered clear insight into her worldview. She had spent the summer of 1980 working to elect a liberal Democrat, Liz Holtzman, to the Senate. On Election Night, she drowned her sorrow in vodka and tonic as Ronald Reagan took the White House and Ms. Holtzman lost to “an ultraconservative machine politician,” she wrote, named Alfonse D’Amato.

“Where I grew up — on Manhattan’s Upper West Side — nobody ever admitted to voting for Republicans,” Ms. Kagan wrote, in a kind of Democrat’s lament. She described the Manhattan of her childhood, where those who won office were “real Democrats — not the closet Republicans that one sees so often these days but men and women committed to liberal principles and motivated by the ideal of an affirmative and compassionate government.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/us/politics/10kagan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Cue twilight zone music.

:rofl:

the Dark Side is strong with this one

:rofl:

Things like... triangulation example.

Or George Bush I changing from pro-choice- to anti choice.

Or Democrats supporting the gutting of due process.

Of course, never let things like that get in the way of shallow snark.

Way to go!

Ronald Reagan was a Democrat when he was 20.

Many people move to the right as they age, and she appears to have done so. No, she's not conservative, but she's not liberal on many important issues that progressives hold dear. Attempting to use some 30 year old quote by a 20 year old college student doesn't add anything to the argument.

I am not afflicted by your limitations in thinking.

Hillary was a Goldwater Girl. Big deal.

Dragging out teenage politics is really lame.

I was typing up a response mentioning this and the Goldwater Girl thing but you beat me to it.

I completely agree with you about the irrelevance of what people said early in life.

You mention Clinton. Well we knew Clinton's politics changed. It was obvious.

Do you have proof that Kagan's politics have changed?

If not, then I see no reason to believe this isn't relevant.

My mom voted for McGovern in her first election around that age (21, I believe). Her politics haven't changed much.

Granted, some do change. Jon Voight said he was a liberal Democrat in the 60s. But he's admitted he's changed and there is a record of him changing.

No such thing exists for Kagan.

So yeah. Your point doesn't work. Sorry.

Education is a good thing.

Show me her record that indicates she's now a conservative. And don't pick one or two issues, either. I want in-depth analyst. Mkay?

I say what I have to say and don't care about the opinions of those I consider uninformed, logically lacking, or the result of substance impairment.

Nice try, though. Good effort.

You're the one who made the accusation that she's changed. My friend, you should back up that ridiculous comment with facts. You have not. You've told me to do the research myself, which we all know is a cop out. But that's fine. You and I both know there isn't much indication overall that Kagan has drifted from her original thinking.

But that's cool. Whatever floats your boat. I've been around DU long enough to know when people don't know what they're talking about, they'll just scream out, "do it yourself...".

Like "do your own research, I'm not gonna do it for you robble robble robble"

Uh huh. ...:eyes:

Where I come from, if one is going to make a charge, one needs to be prepared to back it up. Debate 101.

:rofl:

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

You can't.

:shrug:

Kagan then went on to explain why she loved the Federalist Society — chiefly, its contributions to the intellectual lives of American law schools and its commitment to open debate. She talked about what liberals had learned from the Federalist Society and about the liberal American Constitution Society trying to copy its methods and success.

:rofl:

That one line -clearly taken out of context- is the basis of your objection to her?

she's not liberal on many important issues that progressives hold dear.

Like what?

What issues?

...


If this matters to you, if you have any basis to the poo you're flinging, you can take 3 minutes to enumerate these "many important issues" you claim she is "not liberal" on.

If you want to know what's wrong with her, go read some of the many published reports on her.

If you just want to whine at those who disagree with you, find someone else. I'm not spending the afternoon arguing with you about nothing more than your being pissed because I don't agree with you.

"arguing with you about nothing" is right. You've got nothing.

That would take more than blowing steam on DU.

Hell, I've learned a lot from reading what Texas Observer has had to say.
The day I stop learning from someone posting at DU, start throwing dirt over me, I'll be dead.

I almost got drunk the night Reagan won in 1980, as well.
Instead I had to go to work the next day and act like my country could survive having a rd-rat B-movie actor act like he is the President of the United States.
I was scared shitless.

“Her open-mindedness may disappoint some who want a sure liberal vote on almost every issue. Her pragmatism may disappoint those who believe that mechanical logic can decide all cases. And her progressive personal values will not endear her to the hard right. But that is exactly the combination the president was seeking.” As described by Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration.

This article was really a great insight into Elena Kagan and what influenced her growing up.

I am liking her more and more.

I know a lot of people did pretty much the same thing

All they need is a slight scent of a scandal and they are off and running.

I recall getting tanked when Kerry lost in 2004 - and my country reelected the worst President in my lifetime. Getting a little depressed in such a situation seems kind of normal to me.

to keep her from being seated. Idjits.

If you have a D after your name, their heads explode.

The same goes for us. If they have an R after their name, our heads explode.

Who mops up this mess anyway?

One need only look at the GOP insanity regarding the long list of appointees still to be confirmed for all sorts of positions.

They do not accept that they lost and some DEM gets to move people not appointed by bush/cheney into a lot of positions.

They don't drink like the good ole boys and gals or the Anglo-Saxon Protestant type, or the Irish.

hilarious

Hmmm...

Anyway, we have enough tight-assed Puritans on the Court as it is, that's for sure.

I'm older than she is and I cut my political teeth as an adolescent by campaigning for some of those "real Democratic" -- like Congressman Bill Ryan, who represented the Upper West side from 1961 until he died in 1972. There was a progressive spirit there of a kind that probably didn't exist in many other places even then and which is nowhere to be found now.

If she grew up immersed in that unique political culture, it's not something that just wears off. I'm willing to take my chances with her at this point on that basis alone.

Despite the reflexive twitching of outrage from the people here who object to so much as every single fart that is emitted by the Administration, I still haven't figured out what the problem with Kagan is supposed to be, exactly. :shrug:

Hillary was a Goldwater Girl at one point. I used to enjoy hurting people. People change, and 30 years is a long time to do it. Maybe she hasn't changed, maybe she has, but this kind of story tells me nothing one way or the other.

all by myself in my apt. Blubbering

...and cheap whiskey (I think it was called Rocking Chair). I was also 20 years old. And watching that happen (remember--Jimmy Carter conceded before the polls were closed on the West Coast! The "religious right"--then known as the "Moral Majority"--seemed to be winning everywhere), I can't imagine what any idealistic, compassionate 20-year-old would have done differently.

:thumbsup:

:rofl:

Good or bad. It's an anecdote from 30 years ago. I'm pretty different than I was 30 years ago. Bet you are, too. Bet she is, too. With all of us it could be a change for the better that we've made, but an anecdote like this tells us nothing useful one way or the other. :shrug:

(Was still too politically naive to know the implications of Reagan's election).

I was young. So I wasn't able to vote. We had an election party up at my grandma's house. When they called Florida for Gore, well started celebrating and it actually felt like we'd win this thing.

Then my aunt, who was watching the returns as they scrolled across the screen, mentioned that the Florida returns had showed Bush leading and not Gore. We just took that as the general returns were coming in from conservative areas. I mean, why should have have doubted the exit polls? Never before had they been wrong. They even called Georgia for Clinton with less than 50% of the vote in back in 1992 and he barely won that state.

Sure enough, they took Florida out of Gore's camp and put it in the toss-up column. Heartburn.

Especially when it looked like he wasn't pulling in the votes.

Then, as they called Florida for Bush late, late into the night, my grandma threw her hands up and said she was going to bed. Most depressing night of my life.

A complete 180 from 2008. :)

Great story!

I remember a similar evening -- and then the next day, glum, sitting on the subway, looked up and saw the headline: GORE WON'T CONCEDE!!! (or something like that) -- and we all know what happened from there.

But election night 2008 - yes, pure joy.

I was working for the Dem party in Montgomery County,MD.
The last I remember of that night were the presidential returns and the incumbent Dem senators being voted out.
We cried in our beer and whatever else was available.

Reagan's vitory. ( though I doubt that reagn's victory cheered her up any!)

Sheesh.

the same thing. One of the staunches repubs in the group brought the booze, he loathed Reagan.

Of this story is true she has my unreserved support, for what its worth.

....and cried a lot of tears. I kept crying for almost 3 decades.

:thumbsup:

(I'm almost afraid to say this because the Republicans might hear):

Liz Holzman, who Ms. Kagan was working to elect to Congress in 1980 when Kagan had to drown her sorrow over Reagan's election in vodka, was and is one of the great progressives of our time. Holzman was active in the anti-Vietnam war movement and was an extremely consistent progressive in Congress. During the George W. Bush administration, Holzman led the progressive charge against him, writing a book demanding his impeachment over his Iraq invasion and torture policies.

Ms. Kagan, after completing law school, applied for clerk positions, and was accepted, by two of our most progressive appellate judges, Abe Mikva, then at the D.C. Court of Appeals, and Thurgood Marshall, the magnificent civil rights lawyer and first Afro-American on the U.S. Supreme Court. Judges Mikva and Marshall would not have hired Kagan if she was not both very bright and very progressive. This history, alone, suggests that Ms. Kagan will be a champion for civil rights on the Supreme Court.

Then, there is her early background: Her father was an activist lawyer who represented many renters against landlords in the city of New York, He was an active leader in numerous community groups on the upper West Side where they lived, a very progressive area. Ms. Kagan's brother was a union activist, and is now a history teacher at one of Manhattan's best public high schools. Ms. Kagan herself graduated from another excellent public high school. As a history major at Princeton, she wrote her 153 page thesis on the history of the socialist movement in New York City in the early 20th century.

Folks, this is not the background of someone who is likely to take the Supreme Court to the right.

actual discussion of his politics and policies

that's how I got over my sorrow of him winning. :-)

I remember that day well...college...there were actually people in tears.

Chinese roll-up desserts and 7-Up.

That plus the Reagan landslide was worse than stomach virus.

:hi:

Lot's of scraps dropped down by the older siblings, lol.

Great to see you old buddy! :hi:

which needs a lot of money and we know that the quickest way to get money is to lie and cheat so she must be a conservative...

If Federalist Society members can be appointed to the Supreme Court, I don't see the problem here. You'd have to get an anarchist to match that extreme.

2000 made me more angry than sad. 2004 made me more sad than angry.

True and blue and a dog named Boo, etc.

I remember that Senate race. I did not know Kagan was working for Elizabeth Holtzman.

This is a deep blue feather in an already-blue hat.

I could give a shit how Kagan gets her buzz on. I want answers as to her views on the powers of the executive branch and the like. Many folks on this thread are no different than the righties that perpetually bleated about how GW Bush would be great to drink a beer with rather than Al Gore.

What next? Stories about whether Kagan likes boxers, briefs or thongs? What's on her I-Pod?