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–Conventional wisdom played out; Obama will tap Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. The White House is rolling out with a 10 a.m. ET event where the president and his pick are both expected to speak.
–Never having served on the bench, Kagan’s record is relatively thin (no Connecticut firefighters this time) but here are the issues likely to come up during confirmation: Some on the left take issue with her minority hiring record while dean of Harvard Law and charge she was too complacent on the Bush/Cheney approach to executive power and national security. (More from Glenn Greenwald here.) Some on the right will make hay of her outspoken opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and her subsequent resistance to allow military recruiting at Harvard. (More from Ed Whelan here.) Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog has much, much more.
–Despite these issues, Kagan is basically a lock to be confirmed. Seven Republican Senators voted for her confirmation as solicitor general (Coburn, Collins, Gregg, Hatch, Kyl, Lugar, Snowe), Scott Brown probably falls into the moderate camp, and Specter, who voted no, has since switched parties. (His past opposition provides 11th-hour ammunition for Joe Sestak.) Hearings will likely be scheduled for late June or early July so they can wrap up before the August recess.
–E.U. finance ministers struck a deal to make almost $1 trillion available to flagging Eurozone economies. Felix Salmon calls it “too much, too late.” U.S. stock markets jump for joy.
—Carl Levin floats what one could call the Goldman Amendment to financial reform.
–More Fannie and Freddie fodder: The former is requesting $8.4 billion in federal aid after first quarter losses. Republicans will continue to advocate for financial reform to address the two institutions.
—Orrin Kerr is puzzled by Holder’s suggestion Congress should take a look at Miranda, arguing it’s never been a statutory matter.
–Old news by now, but for all the hullabaloo over Bennett’s ouster in Utah over the weekend, there’s some risk of overstating its greater significance. The delegate vote took the temperature of Republican activists in the reddest state in the nation.
–Internal polls reportedly show the California Republican gubernatorial primary tightening. Meg Whitman’s camp will try to make the argument Steve Poizner can’t beat Jerry Brown in the general.
–And Carl Paladino is up with his first TV spot in his bid for New York governor. Not to be a stickler, but the structure of his sentence suggests “liberal elites” are “like many in the Tea Party” in that they “are attacking [him] unfairly.” I’m pretty sure that’s not what he meant.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8dYZ24ZO-Y]
What did I miss?