Marine defends Kagan
Robert Merrill, currently a captain serving in the Marine Corps, and former Harvard Law School student, has an opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled “A veteran’s Harvard ally: Elena Kagan” in which he weakly tries to convince us that Supreme Court nominee really does support the military and veterans despite the fact that she wouldn’t allow military recruiters the same support as other recruiters at Harvard Law School.
Apparently, his proof of her support for the military is that she got free coffee for all of the students and took veterans to dinner once-a-year;
She was charismatic and intimidating, and, most important, she gave students free coffee in the morning.
Around the time that Kagan sent the first of several e-mails criticizing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” she hosted a Veterans Day dinner for the few student-veterans attending Harvard Law. That was the first time I met Kagan. There was no agenda for the dinner, as best as I could tell, other than to thank us for our service. I don’t believe “don’t ask, don’t tell” ever came up. Either because of her charm or the quality of the food, I became one of her admirers.
Merrill goes on to explain that, from his students point of view, he didn’t notice that recruiters’ efforts weren’t hindered by Kagan’s policies. And why would she discuss “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with a couple of students who were no longer affected by the policy?
Merrill makes the same mistake the most civilians make. They confuse the Left’s treatment of veterans with the way they treat the military. The Left treats veterans like they are victims, they treat active duty members of the military who are doing their jobs like they’re plague carriers.
How many other student groups had annual dinners with Kagan on their respective “day”? Merrill doesn’t say, but he implies that because she paid for a dinner for a few veterans with department funds for a few years, she doesn’t deserve to be labeled anti-military.
I don’t follow the logic. I can, however, name some of my professors who supported members of the military (since I attended college as both an active duty soldier and a veteran) who never bought me coffee or dinner.
There’s more at Powerline.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues
I agree that this op ed is a feel good piece with no real substance.
If he wanted to support her, he would be better to talk of something substantive like the policy that Kagan was enforcing. Most law schools have an anti-discrimination policy. Any employer who violates that policy is barred from campus. I haven’t seen any indication that if the military didn’t have DADT it would still be barred. I would agree it was anti military if they would be barred without DADT. Since every employer is held to the same anti-discrimination policy it seems evenly applied. If an employer doesn’t discriminate they are allowed on campus.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/careers/ocs/employers/recruiting-policies-employers/index.html
Firing people solely because they are gay is considered discrimination under the policy. The requirements that place substantially different regulations on gay people, such as not allowing same sex relationships when opposite sex ones are allowed (treatment), would also seem to be against the policy.
Not to mention, since Congress passed DADT wouldn’t she be anti-Congress? The military is in the same boat, caught applying a policy they didn’t decide. In that case, if by enforcing the policy Kagan is anti-military, then by enforcing DADT the military is anti-gay. I don’t know that I’d go there.
Maybe he’s been bought or bribed?
Whoops!
Bought= shady rank promotion…Bribed= paid some moulah for just saying what sounds great…
I don’t want to hear anything from any Harvard Law School student until they can show me Barack Obama’s grades.
Forget the Kool Aid, he drank the bong water!
Well at least they got a real Marine’s endorsement this time.
I can’t knock progress. This is a step above Rick Strandlof and Jesse McBeth.