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
biden, then chairman, and myself, expressing concerns that one day the committee would get up on its hind legs and reject a nominee who refused to answer questions for that reason alone. so this is a unique hearing in that respect. the court regrettably i think has become an ideological battle growrntiond and the activism is on both sides. as a prosecutor in the 1960s, i watched the constitution change virtually daily, search and seizure map, 1961, right to counsel, giddon versus wanerieght, 1963, miranda, 1966 myrrh and yarks 1966, acti vich. we have the supreme court now having adopted a test of determining
ponder, should the american people know what you think before we install you for lifetime tenure on the supreme court? what obligation do we have to make sure they know what your thinking is, whether liberal or conservative. they ought to know elena kagan by the time these herings the only way they will know that you asked me for advice when we finished, my advice would be be absolutely completely honest with this committee. it s not for the committee. as our country is divided today, we are polarized regionally and politically. what we have to have and whoever comes to the court is a confidence in their heart that they will do what s best in the long term for this country based on what that document says. my hope is with your stellar academics and stellar intellect that your patriotism will be just as stellar, that you will set a new precedent for this
it s also has to do and here we just heard this a moment ago from lindsey graham who is a judge in terms of the military himself and has that military background, about how she feels on other issues dealing with the military in american life. at harvard when she said after the courts said harvard was no longer subject to a ban because of military taking money from the military, she said, you know what? she didn t want recruiters on campus but she would allow them as a backup position to come through the veterans committee of harvard. but the official position as dean was no military reciters because of the treatment military recruiters because of the ban of guys in the military. megyn: this case took the opposite side tha that kagan to. her position was rejected