May 17 2010
Right-Wing Whisper Campaign on Kagan’s Sexual Orientation Diverts Attention From Real Issues
Even before last week’s announcement of Solicitor General Elena Kagan as President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, a whisper campaign had been started in speculating her sexual orientation. A former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer had written in a CBS news blog last month that Obama’s then probable selection of the former Harvard Law School dean to be “the first openly gay justice,” would please his political base of supporters. The Obama White House has vehemently denied the charges. CBS initially defended the blog post, and then deleted it in the days following after the author, Ben Domenech, admitted that it was just a rumor. The subject of Kagan’s sexual orientation once again became a flashpoint for media discussion as the Wall Street Journal published a front page story on the Supreme Court nominee with an accompanying picture of her playing softball in 1993 while teaching at the University of Chicago. Gay rights advocates accused the newspaper of playing to a popular allusion between the sport and lesbianism. Another Rupert Murdoch owned publication, The New York Post, picked up on the story by running a headline asking, “Does this photo suggest high court nominee Elena Kagan is a lesbian?” Critics say all insinuations in the media, such as those in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, are irrelevant and serve only right-wing detractors who promote them over legitimate legal questions. To date, the Solicitor General has never claimed to be a lesbian or even a ‘gay rights advocate.”
GUEST: Richard Kim, Senior Editor at The Nation
Read Richard Kim’s article about Elena Kagan here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/elena-kagan-not-gay
3 Responses to “Right-Wing Whisper Campaign on Kagan’s Sexual Orientation Diverts Attention From Real Issues”
I am so tired of the nonsense which includes Richard Kim making an idiot out of himself. The right wing did not start this. And Kim’s stupidity was taken on Saturday by Alexander Cockburn:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05142010.html
I’m getting real damn tired of this supposed radical program playing, “Look what the Republicans have done!”
Reality, Elana Kagan’s not qualified.
Reality, if she’s gay, she’s old enough to come of the closet and if she can’t we don’t need her on the Court.
Reality, what does any of this have to do with the Iraq War.
You waste our time with your nonsense.
And where was Richard Kim when Obama put homophobes on stage in the Carolinas back in 2007? Or used them in his swing state tours for the general election?
Not a peep.
I’m so damn sick of your “Good Dem” and “Bad Repu” merry go round. Screw them both, they’ve destroyed our country with their wars, their Patriot Act, their ‘detentions’ and so much more. Stop wasting my time with this garbage.
This show sucks.
Elena Kagan like President Obama serves at the behest of their well heeled corporate sponsors on Wall Street, and the Educational/ Industrial Complex. Barack Obama is one biggest political frauds ever perpetrated on the American people.