ABC News/Washington Post has the results of their recent measure of support for President Obama’s latest nominee to the Supreme Court:
With a Senate Judiciary Committee vote expected today, an ABC News/Washington Post poll finds supporters of Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination outnumbering opponents by 2-1.
Fifty-three percent of Americans favor the nomination, with 25 percent opposed and the rest expressing no opinion. Support’s softened a bit from 58 percent before Kagan’s Senate testimony three weeks ago, with more undecided. Nonetheless it mirrors support for some previous successful nominees, including Samuel Alito (53 percent), John Roberts (55 percent) and Stephen Breyer (52 percent) in final pre-confirmation measurements.
This comes just one day after influential conservative blogger Erick Erickson laid down a marker for Senate Republicans:
Americans have now learned about the extreme views of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
Kagan’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee contained much clear evidence of her expansive view of federal power and her lack of respect for the 2nd Amendment. Kagan’s views on the Commerce Clause and Americans’ right to “keep and bear arms” make her unfit to serve on the Supreme Court.
Senators should filibuster her nomination to stop her sitting on the highest court in the land.
There’s a pretty big disconnect between these two bits of information. Senate Republicans are feeling pressure from the right to filibuster Kagan, but really only Jeff Sessions has hinted that that’s still a serious consideration. Historically, there has to be something pretty seriously wrong with a nominee before the American people will tolerate a filibustering of a high court nomination. Kagan doesn’t seem to be in this category.
http://conversation101.squarespace.com/confirmation-hearings/2010/7/20/poll-kagan-nomination-supported-2-1.html
