Lots of Theater, Little Substance

Andrew Cohen from Politics Daily on the rote morality play that the Kagan confirmation hearings are destined to be:

Of the many ways to look at the case of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, the most neutral may be to see next week's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee as merely the latest chapter in a rote morality play that began in 2005 and that may not end for a few more years.

Cohen then hands Kagan her script:

She has to be patient. She has to be thoughtful. She has to be expressive without being adversarial. She has to seem to say a lot without really saying anything at all. In other words, she must do what you should be able to do with the sort of resume she has -- and what all sitting judges are able to do when they are questioned publicly about their legal views. She must talk and sound and look and act like a judge. It's not just going to be the constitutional standards she references, in other words, it is going to be the way she sounds when she references them.

Apparently, some Republicans are planning their own "rote morality play" with this - from Politico:

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, on Monday evening warned that Republicans may boycott the start of Elena Kagan's Supreme Court hearings if senators do not get to review scores of documents from the solicitor general's past.