Previously, Kagan described her role as a "policy adviser to Clinton." In 2007, Kagan said that "[d]uring most of the time I spent in the White House, I did not serve as an attorney; I was instead a policy adviser . . . . It was part of my job not to give legal advice but to choose when and how to ask for it."
In her testimony to the Judiciary Committee today, however, Kagan said "I tried my hardest when I was in the - when I worked in the Clinton administration, including as a lawyer, to provide good legal advice to the president."
The Clinton Library has released Kagan emails that show her advice included which campaign finance "reform" proposals would hurt Republicans and thereby benefit Democrats: "Soft $ ban - affects Repubs, not Dems!"
In essence, Kagan's legal advice was intertwined with her political advice. That raises the issue of whether Kagan can vote as a Supreme Court justice without weighing the political ramifications of the cases's outcome. Simply put, can this former political operative be neutral?
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