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Letters: Why Elena Kagan's nomination riles the right

I FIND myself amused over the conservatives' hysterical reaction to the president's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. To cover the right's real agenda, what I'm hearing is their "disappointment" over her lack of judicial experience, never having been a judge.

I FIND myself amused over the conservatives' hysterical reaction to the president's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. To cover the right's real agenda, what I'm hearing is their "disappointment" over her lack of judicial experience, never having been a judge.

But it was the GOP's own fault that she never became a judge. President Clinton nominated her, and the Republican-controlled Congress let her nomination languish. And one of the heroes of the right, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, was never a judge either when he was nominated by a Republican President to be on the court.

But not a word is heard from them about this. Sen. Patrick Leahy remarked that if Obama were to nominate Moses, the Republicans would gang up on him because he would be unable to produce a birth certificate!

Name-calling aside, let's get down to the real reason conservatives are lining up against the nominee. It's assumed that Kagan believes the Constitution ought to be applied even-handedly to all citizens, and equality, apparently a dirty word to the right, is what has them jumping through hoops.

Perhaps one day conservatives will admit the reason they are so angry is that a majority of the American people simply can't swallow their narrow-minded agenda. If nothing else, their honesty might be rewarded with a little respect. And at the very least, they might even be finally afforded some credibility.

Marc Golde

Merion Station