UPDATE 5:45 p.m. ET: Yeah. Three days, very few tough questions, and Pat Leahy closed by congratulating her that this would likely be the last time she ever had to testify. But is it really?
Funeral plans for the late Sen. Robert Byrd will affect the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings schedule Thursday and Friday, and Republican sources say it is very unlikely that the committee will vote on Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination until after the Fourth of July recess. . . .
PREVIOUSLY: Here’s today’s earlier exchange between Sen. Orrin Hatch and Elena Kagan:
Via the Weekly Standard‘s John McCormack, who is the Joe Jonas of DC political reporters. (By that analogy, Byron York would be Roger Daltrey and I suppose I’d be the scraggly bass guitarist in Molly Hatchet.)
Philip Klein of the American Spectator has a transcript of the exchange between Hatch and Kagan.
UPDATE: American United for Life says Kagan also intervened to influence the American Medical Association’s position on partial-birth abortion:
During Elena Kagan’s service in the Clinton White House, she urged the President to oppose any meaningful restrictions on partial-birth abortion. As part of this effort, our attorneys have learned that Kagan worked to change the positions of two major medical groups – the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA).
Kagan’s lobbying for changes to medical associations’ positions while in the White House is further evidenced by an email found in her White House documents, where Kagan clearly tried to change the position of another medical group, the American Medical Association (AMA):
When discussing whether the AMA could reverse its policy that there is not an identified situation in which partial-birth abortion is the only appropriate method of abortion, ethical concerns surround it, and that it should not be used unless it is absolutely necessary, Kagan stated: “We agreed to do a bit of thinking about whether we (in truth, HHS) could contribute to that effort [convincing the AMA to reverse their policy]. Chuck and I are meeting with the AG on Tuesday; Donna offered to send over some doctors this week (though we don’t know who or when) to give a medical briefing.”
In other words, Kagan was so opposed to the passage of a ban on partial-birth abortion, she hoped that ACOG and the AMA would suppress or modify their views and aggressively worked to make that happen.
More at Americans United for Life.
UPDATE 3:55 p.m. ET: Steve Ertelt of LifeSiteNews:
The pressure on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has jumped this week thanks to a memo she wrote during the Clinton administration showing her pressuring a medical group to change its position on partial-birth abortion. Now, new files indicated Kagan also pressured a second group. . . .
The email has Kagan clearly trying to change the position of another medical group, the American Medical Association.
And you gotta love Ace of Spades:
If the law’s on your side, argue the law.
If the facts are on your side, argue the facts.
If neither is on your side — lobby friendly industry groups to change their reporting of the facts.
PREVIOUSLY: Sources on Capitol Hill tell me that today’s second round of questioning for Elena Kagan in the Senate Judiciary Committee may go as late as 9 p.m. tonight. So far — it’s just past noon — neither Jeff Sessions nor Orrin Hatch has brought up the “smoking gun” memo.
Uh-oh. Spoke too soon — Hatch just brought it up.
UPDATE: The Underground Conservative has a good round-up on the Kagan-ACOG memo.
UPDATE II: Orrin Hatch raised the question bluntly: “Did you write that memo?” After some dancing around, Kagan finally admitted, “The document is certainly in my handwriting,” but then said that what she was trying to do was to make sure the document from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists accurately reflected their views.
That explanation seems kind of wacky to me. Why would ACOG be coordinating its policy statement with the White House in the first place? Didn’t ACOG already know what it wanted to say without feedback from a White House staffer? So why was ACOG “clearing” its message with the Clinton administration?
Kagan can obviously expect more questioning about this.
UPDATE III: The blogosphere is slamming today:
- Red State: “Kagan made up ‘scientific facts’ regarding partial birth abortion.”
- Pundette: “Kagan lied, babies died.”
- Byron York: “Slick Elena? Kagan evades questions on abortion memo“
- Ace of Spades HQ: “Elena Kagan: Well, That Looks Like My Handwriting On That Memo, But Gee I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About“
- Human Events: “Kagan Admits Authorship of ACOG Memo; More Questions Expected“
The Judiciary Committee just recessed for lunch. Human Events reporter Elisabeth Meinecke offers an inside glimpse of the NASCAR-style operations that go on behind the scene during these “pit stops.”
UPDATE IV: They’re back from lunch now, and Sen. Kyl just finished raking Kagan over the coals on the Commerce Clause. Meanwhile, we’re linked in a round-up by Bob Belvedere at the Camp of the Saints, and Cassy Fiano asks the basic question about the ACOG memo:
