Spitzer: Kagan Would "Get the Fifth Vote"

What kind of Supreme Court justice would Elena Kagan make?

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer - a Harvard classmate of hers in the late 1970s and friend of Kagan's since - used the word "perfect" three times in a brief interview on "The Early Show" about her on Monday.

It's widely expected that President Obama will nominate Kagan, the current U.S. Solicitor General and former dean of Harvard Law Schoo, to the High Court in an announcement Monday morning.

Spitzer, who resigned from the statehouse in disgrace, told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Kagan is "unbelievably smart and thoughtful and careful, the sort of perfect qualifications to be a justice of the Supreme Court -- somebody who will look at every case, think about the constitutional issues and do what is right for the country. She is not an ideologue from the left or the right, and that is clear from what she did as dean of Harvard Law School - just a perfect temperament to be a justice.

"I guess you could say (she is) moderate, but I would say she's really thoughtful and passionate about what she believes, but very careful about what she believes. And that is why it's very hard to pigeonhole her."

Perhaps most importantly Spitzer said, Kagan is not only passionate about her beliefs, but very persuasive.

"She will get the fifth (deciding) vote (the Supreme Court has nine justices, and five makes a majority). To put this in the context of the Supreme Court, when she is on the court and she's looking for a fifth vote because she needs (it) to get the majority, she will argue for a perspective that will get -- whether it's a (Justice Anthony) Kennedy or a (Justice Antoinin) Scalia, whomever it may be, she will be persuasive to get that vote."


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