Senate Republicans trying to weaken U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan took aim Wednesday at Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has expressed support for President Obama's Solicitor General. In a rare shot at the Minnesota Democrat, the Senate GOP's press shop sent out a press release contrasting statements Klobuchar made about nominees who lack judicial experience, and her praise for Kagan, who has never been a judge. The ammo comes from a Judiciary Committee meeting last week where Klobuchar was quoted saying "[If] we just put judges on the Court that have handled no difficult cases, that haven't been in the arena, or people who have never been judges and so they didn't have those difficult decisions, I don't think we'd have a strong judiciary." The Republicans contrasted that to her statement Wednesday on the Senate floor: "I hope we can put to rest this idea that only judges are qualified to be justices. That's not a standard that we've applied throughout history, and it's not the one we should start applying today." The response from Klobuchar's office: Senator Klobuchar believes that our judiciary – and in particular our Supreme Court – benefits by having some members who have previously served as judges, as well as some members who bring a set of experiences from outside the "judicial monastery." Her earlier remarks merely pointed out that we shouldn't disqualify nominees who have been judges just because they have handled difficult cases in that role.
