Kaganology 201

The hearings are now upon us, and now that the hours of monologue are over, Day Two begins the hearings in earnest.  Adam Serwer gives you the rundown:

Solicitor General Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has drawn glum shrugs from the left and yawns from the right, and that's probably just how the White House wants it -- they are looking for as quiet a confirmation process as possible. Because Kagan has no judicial record or large volume of academic work to speak of, Republicans have been forced to draw on even more specious arguments than usual to gin up opposition to her nomination. 

Which means conservatives risk looking like a bunch of partisan losers, especially when the arguments don't stick and Kagan makes it through even easier than Sonia Sotomayor did.   But, as Serwer reminds us, liberals have a job to do:

Kagan once argued that confirmation hearings had turned into "a repetition of platitudes." She's right -- but her nomination is in part the result of a White House eager to avoid a tough confirmation fight, and so she better be ready to call on those same platitudes to save her from a substantive grilling.

The Democrats on the committee should by no means let her get away with that. Her participation in the continued expansion of government power in the name of national security should be probed carefully. Just because most of the complaints conservatives have about her are baseless doesn't mean Democrats should give her a pass.

The president suggested that Kagan's critics don't have much to use against her. The flip side is that liberals don't really have much to like. Kagan should use the hearings to do more than deflect Republican criticisms. She should also give liberals a reason to vote for her confirmation. Barring some last minute game-changer, Kagan's road to confirmation is likely to be smooth -- all the more reason for Democrats to push for something more than the usual hollow Beltway ritual. 

Sadly, I don't see that happening.   In fact, I predict this hearing is going to be about as boring as watching cement dry, and as a result both sides are going to say really stupid things that have almost nothing to do with Elena Kagan and everything to do with a midterm election coming.