Newt Gingrich has waded into the Supreme Court debate, demanding that President Obama withdraw Elena Kagan's nomination because of her "anti-military" views. Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker, has seized on Kagan's decision to bar military recruiters from the Harvard Law School's official career center in 2004 because of concerns over "don't ask, don't tell." But since Republicans have said they won't block Kagan's nomination, what is Gingrich hoping to accomplish? (Watch The Week's Sunday Talk Show Briefing about Kagan's clean record)
Nothing. He's just happy to be on TV: If Newt's "clownish" soundbite sounds familiar, says Steve Benen in Washington Monthly, it's because he demanded that Obama's last pick, Sonia Sotomayor, be "forced to withdraw," too. No wonder TV hosts invite the irrelevant Republican hack back — he "says crazy things on a fairly regular basis."
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