July 2, 2010 9:09 AM

Jeff Sessions "Disappointed" by Elena Kagan During Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings

By
Lauren Seifert
Topics
Supreme Court ,
Washington Unplugged
As the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan drew to a close, CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford spoke with Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to get his take on her overall performance over the past three days.

Sessions didn't mince words -- "I was disappointed. I have to be honest. I felt she was less than open with us certainly, even less than candid."

His harshest criticism of Kagan came in response to her treatment of military recruiters while she was dean at Harvard Law School. Sessions told Crawford in an interview for Friday's edition of "Washington Unplugged" that her response to his questions on the subject "was so consistent with the White House spin."

"I really became irritated with it," he added. "It made me angry that they were spinning this thing in a way that I didn't think was accurate."

Crawford also asked Sessions about her performance in relation to a 1995 article she wrote as a law professor at the University of Chicago calling Senate confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court "a vapid and hollow charade" because the nominees themselves never say anything.

"I think she failed her own test," Sessions quipped.

The senator kept mum when it came to whether he would vote against her confirmation, but his response may show how he is leaning.

"My comfort level with this nomination is less today than before the hearings started," he said.

Watch Friday's Washington Unplugged above also featuring this week's "Flash Points" with CBS News National Security Analyst Juan Zarate and a report from CBS News' Fernando Suarez on preserving the Women's War Memorial in Washington.

"Washington Unplugged," CBSNews.com's exclusive daily politics Webshow, appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 2:00 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

More Coverage of the Kagan Hearings:

Grade Elena Kagan's Confirmation Hearing
Jan Crawford: Top 10 Things We Learned About Kagan
Jeff Greenfield: The Kagan Charade Remembered
Washington Unplugged: Analysis of the Kagan Hearings
Funniest Moments from the Kagan Hearings
Democrats Miss Point on Campaign Spending
Pictures: The Kagan Confirmation Hearings
CBSNews.com Special Report: Elena Kagan


Add a Comment
by euge005 July 4, 2010 7:34 AM EDT
And we have all been disapointed by Sessions, for decades. He is the failed bigot that could not make in onto the bench due to inbred racisim. Why does even a poorly educated bunch of hicks likke the voters in Alabama send some one like him to Congress. He is nearly as discraceful as Jesse Helms, redneck hero of the Carolines. If Sessions is against her, then Obama made a great appointment. Not like Ol Uncle Thomas.
Reply to this comment
by tryhonesty July 2, 2010 1:52 PM EDT
Sessions and Hatch, RepubliCON Dumb and Dumber!
Reply to this comment
by legalhound July 2, 2010 11:49 AM EDT
In the interest of full disclosure, every time Jeff Sessions is interviewed about a Supreme Court nomination a story must be added! He lost his own bid to the appeals court because of his racist and sexist views-it is in the archives and he deserves to have ALL of his remarks regarding nominees immediately discredited due to his own failings as a judicial nominee.
All judges use personal experience. John Locke explained centuries ago that our knowledge and experiences actually shape who we are. They aren't things to be shoved into the closet. They are with us whether we like to admit it or not. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a justice remembering that rulings have consequences as well. They affect lives as surely as the law itself affects lives.
You can't tell me for one second that Sessions wouldn't be prejudicial to white men, corporations, religion (so long as it was Judeo-Christianity)and government (so long as the administration was Republican) and yet he still thinks he was qualified for that job-what a hypocrite!
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