record. as in previous hearings, there will no doubt be some tension during this hearing between what senators want to know and what general kagan is willing to tell us. unlike previous hearings, however, ms. kagan has already outlined quite clearly what she believes the supreme court nominee should be willing to talk about in a hearing like this without this information, ms. casan has written the senate, quote, becomes improperly able of evaluating nominees or educating the public. about a supreme court neem knee, vote, the vote she would cast, perspective she would ad, the bottom line is the appointments process must concern the kinds of judicial decisions that will serve the country and the effect the nominee will have top the on the court s decisions. if that is too results oriented, so be it, unquote.
all of us to follow when it comes to each other and to nominees. now, you re the best example i can think of, why a hearing should be probative and meaningful, you come with no judicial record but you re not the first person to come before the committee without having been a judge, but it does i think require us and you to provide us a little insight as to what kind of judge you would be. when you re solicitor general, a lot my colleagues on this side have talked about some of the positions you ve taken that i think are a bit disturbing, but i d like to acknowledge some of the things you ve done as solicitor general that were i thought very good. you opposed applying habeas rights to baghram detainees, you supported the idea that a terror suspect could be charged for material support of terrorism under the statute, and that was consistent with the law of war s history, so there are things you ve done as solicitor general that i think merit praise and i will certainly from my point of v
saying there s a lot of obsession about this timeline for withdrawing the troops, so we expect that will be a hot topic and we also expect bill there to be questions about rules of engagement in afghanistan. back to you. that is tuesday morning, tomorrow morning. mike emanuel from the pentagon, thank you. that s a quick check of the headlines this hour anmonday afternoon. back to bret baier and megyn now as we continue on the elena kagan confirmation hearings from capitol hill. bill, thank you very much. a busy news day as we head back to the hearing. megyn: we re going to dip now into arlen specter. this will be his last opening statement as a member of the senate judiciary committee, a committee he once chaired as a republican, and now comes at it as a democrat. let s listen in. lacking seriousness and substance in our approach to the hearings. and to use the phrase that the confirmation process takes on an air of acute and farce, you quote senator
elena kagan in a moment. first the passing today, and you ve heard a lot about this from the hearing already, of a senate stalwart, robert byrd passing away at the age of 92. byrd had served a record 52 years at the senate out of west virginia. stef centanni is in falls church, virginia with more. hello. yeah, the family gave the word to the senate senator s office early this morning that the senator had passed away around 3:00 a.m. at this hospital in fairfax, virginia near falls church, virginia, a very sad mom, the end of an era on capitol hill, and we now are getting reaction from capitol hill and elsewhere. during the elena kagan confirmation hearings today, the very first words out of the mouth of the two leaders, the chairman and ranking member of the senate judiciary committee were to talk about the passing of robert byrd, he certainly is well-known and well-loved,
such a way as to recognize the difference between fighting crime and fighting a war. so you in my view have a potential teaching opportunity, even though you ve never been a judge, because you ve represented this country as solicitor general at a time of war. the one thing i can say without certainty is i don t expect your nomination to change the balance of power. after this hearing is over, i hope the american people will understand electricals do matter. what did i expect from president obama? just about what i m getting. and there are a lot of people who are surprised. well, you shouldn t have been. if you were listening. so i look forward to trying to better understand how you will be able to take political activism, association with liberal causes, and park it when it becomes time to be a judge. that to me is your challenge. i think most people will consider you qualified