Hutchison Will Vote Against Kagan

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (pictured) has announced that she will vote against Obama nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. She said, "I simply cannot reconcile Ms. Kagan's sparse record and my concerns about whether she will be an impartial arbiter of the law." She also said, "Her decision on military recruiters while at Harvard gives evidence of her personal views instructing her professional decisions in order to promote a social agenda."

That bit of gibberish, when translated, means "we Republicans are trying very hard to find a reason to vote against Obama one more time." The Republicans would like everyone to think Kagan kicked military recruiters off the Harvard campus. They conveniently overlook the fact that military recruitment actually increased while Kagan was head of the Harvard Law School.

But then anyone who has watched Texas politics for long shouldn't be surprised at this decision by Hutchison. Hutchison has never been an independent thinker (or an originator of much decent and lasting legislation). She is simply there to give Republican Senate leaders another yes or no vote -- whichever they need at the time (and recently that has been a whole lot of no's).

Hutchison has received her marching orders from the leadership (and the excuses to go with it), and that's all her announcement was about. No surprise there.