Mike Allen says the White House may leak Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick to the AP late Sunday. The New York Times talks to the proprietor of SCOTUS Blog, who says the nomination will happen Monday or Tuesday.
Allen claims Obama still "hasn't decided," but if the nominee isn't Solicitor General Elena Kagan, "top White House aides will be shocked."
So the president hasn't "decided," but everyone knows it'll be Kagan. I feel confident saying so primarily because of the ferocity with which the White House is responding to liberal complaints about her.
They also pushed back hard against claims that Kagan is a lesbian. I suppose the only way to be sure Kagan is definitely the pick would be to plant a rumor here about Judge Diane Wood, and see how long it takes to receive a forceful White House response from Anita Dunn.
(We hear Diane Wood is one of those people who thinks cilantro tastes soapy.)
Kagan is considered a good court pick because of her ability to work well with conservatives. She famously helped make Harvard Law a welcoming environment for professors from both sides of the ideological divide. Under her tenure as dean, Harvard Law became a veritable rainbow of white people opinion-diversity, like the Washington Post opinion section or a Sunday morning political round table.
So liberals are decidedly not sold on her, conservatives will hate anyone Obama picks, and everyone else just listens to whoever shouts the loudest. This should be a fun Senate confirmation battle.
(We happen to agree with Kagan's opinion on court confirmation hearings, actually -- they're a "vapid and hollow charade.")
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