WASHINGTON — After completing two days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that was alert, thoughtful, and punctuated with flashes of wit, Elena Kagan seems almost certain to become the nation's 112th justice on the Supreme Court. But one minor slip — on a question about, of all things, fruits and vegetables — gave Republicans at least one chance to benefit politically from the hearings.
As she demonstrated in the two days of testimony that ended Wednesday, Kagan is a gifted scholar, a savvy politician, and a talented administrator, who spent hours preparing for this week's appearances before the committee. But perhaps no amount of cramming could have readied her for the very simple-sounding question asked of her by Republican Senator Tom Coburn. Can the government, he wondered, pass a law forcing Americans to eat fruits and vegetables?
Republicans were skeptical. One reason was Kagan's surprising honesty about her politics. Unlike Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who testified before the committee last year, she freely admitted to a partisan affiliation. "I've been a Democrat all my life," she said. She also, after some hesitancy, conceded to being a "progressive" although the term went undefined.
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