A Healthy Debate about Elena Kagan's Nomination

I've been following Glenn Greenwald's opposition to the "blank slate" nominee, Elena Kagan, to the SCOTUS. Larry Lessig, Ms. Kagan's good friend, has her back.

BW readers probably can tell that I'm on Glenn's side on this issue (especially as I pointed out and Glenn has since done the same of problems pointed out by Jonathan Turley and Jeffrey Toobin), but as mcjoan at the Daily Kos pointed out this afternoon, this is a healthy debate. Like mcjoan, I hope progressives such as Bernie Sanders, Al Franken and Jeff Merkeley will pick up on these points in forcing Ms. Kagan to take some positions, whether we agree with them or not.

President Obama is squandering a golden opportunity when we have many Democrats who could carry a nominee forward without a single Republican vote. I would prefer a very progressive candidate to hold a candle to the many years Justice Stevens was on the court. If a nominee is too timid to say what's on her mind or fails to address her meager record, our POTUS should withdraw her nomination. Frankness and transparency, which candidate Obama promised, are at stake here and will mark his legacy to be characterized more like W's--more of a unitary executive--instead of a complement of three branches.

Stay tuned. I'm still looking for more opinions besides the ones I posted yesterday and today.

Update: as promised, I found some more opinions and facts via Alternet and Mother Jones. Very discouraging indeed.

Second update: Nate Silver at 538 has an angle regarding actuaries.