Gingrich: Kagan nod should be pulled

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Sunday that President Barack Obama should withdraw the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court.

“I think the president should withdraw it,” Gingrich said plainly when asked on “Fox News Sunday” what he thought of the solicitor general’s nomination.

“The very fact that she led the effort … to block the military from Harvard Law School” over opposition to the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy should disqualify her for anti-military sentiment, Gingrich said.

“I see no reason … why the Senate would confirm an anti-military Supreme Court justice,” he said.

“The president has every right to nominate a liberal,” Gingrich said, but said the fact that the policy came from Congress and the Clinton administration in which she had served and not from the military itself showed that she had a “very myopic view” on barring the recruiters.

“On the one hand, Harvard accepts money from Saudis. Saudi Arabia,
by the way, executes homosexuals,” Gingrich said. “Saudi Arabia represses women. Saudi
Arabia does not allow Christians or Jews to practice their religion.
But Saudi money is fine.

“The American military didn’t have a
policy,” he said. “The Congress of the United States and the Clinton
administration she served in had a policy. And for her to single out
the military was an extraordinarily myopic position.”

Former First Lady Laura Bush offered a different opinion later on Fox when asked about the Kagan nomination.

“I think it’s great,” Bush sad. “I’m really glad that there will be three” women on the Supreme Court if Kagan is confirmed.