Analysis: Marathon Hearings for Kagan Finally Over

by KYW's Larry Kane

The committee hearings are finally over for supreme court nominee Elena Kagan.

The Elena Kagan hearings begs several important political questions and lessons: If a new general can be confirmed in one day for Commander in Afghanistan, why does the Senate go through a two and a half month process filled with interrogations that could heve been done a month ago? (see related story)

Why are these judicial hearings so predictable? Republicans grill a Democratic president's Supreme Court Candidate, Democrats do the same. The senators looking to shine, trying to find a smoking gun issue that is rarely there.

It becomes a test of wills rather than a real life look at a person's career and life. But solicitor general Kagan brought something new to the hearings, a broad based sense of humor that may set, as they say in the courts, a future precedent for hearings on the high court.