For Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, a history of pragmatism over partisanship

Monday, May 10, 2010; 1:58 PM

This story was reported by Amy Goldstein, Carol D. Leonnig, Alec MacGillis, Peter Slevin and Sandhya Somashekhar and written by Goldstein.

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People who have been close to Kagan consistently describe her as a moderate liberal whose ideology is less central to her identity than her intellectual, analytical nature. For the thesis all Princeton seniors were required to write, she chose a subject that echoed the labor sympathies of her father and her older brother: an examination of the Socialist movement in New York City in the early 20th century. Her brother, Marc, became a transit union official before becoming a teacher. But Kagan's 153-page thesis is a dispassionate dissection of the internal divisions in the movement that ultimately led to its decline.

Her style bears some similarity to that of Obama -- a former law professor himself who first ran across Kagan at Chicago while the two were teaching there. Both have cool temperaments, those who know her say, although her sharp wit is closer to the surface than his. Both can thrive in tense and ego-ridden environments by synthesizing the arguments of different camps.

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The article is long and details her history and credentials, here is the link...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/10/AR2010051002787.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010050903614

Pragmatic liberal. I like her.

I hope this isn't the case.

about their own opinions. I would prefer a principled liberal Justice who can't be swayed by pragmatism. I do not have any idea what kind she would be. I am asking how solid her principles are. She seems extremely well qualified.

I doubt she is a liberal as me, or the average DUer, but she seems fine.

nature." Sounds like she fits Obama's style. People basically said the same thing about Sotomayor.