Posted by
Defend America on Friday, June 04, 2010 4:19:13 PM
Clinton-Era Kagan Documents Are Released
Associated Press
The
William J. Clinton Presidential Library on Friday released the first
batch of 160,000 pages of records from Supreme Court nominee Elena
Kagan's service in the former president's White House.
Ms.
Kagan, President Barack Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice John
Paul Stevens, served first as counsel and then as a domestic-policy
adviser to Mr. Clinton between 1995 and 1999. During that time, the
White House was juggling issues that could become flash points in Ms.
Kagan's confirmation hearings, including gun control, abortion rights
and a landmark anti-smoking measure that died in the Republican-led
Congress.
As an aide to Mr. Clinton, Ms. Kagan warned that
slapping tough marketing restrictions on the tobacco industry could be
unconstitutional, according to the papers. The documents reveal her
pragmatic streak as she haggled with a Republican Congress that was
just months away from impeaching her boss. She wanted to strike a
tobacco deal that could not only be enacted but also stand up in court.
In one note, Ms. Kagan argued that tobacco-advertising limits should be
voluntary.
The files, whose release has been awaited by senators
trying to find clues to what kind of justice Ms. Kagan may be, paint
her as practical even to the point of angering key supporters. In one
typical memo from her and Domestic Policy Council Director Bruce Reed,
she acknowledges that alienating public-health advocates might be
necessary in the interest of a deal.
"We should not ask for more
than we need to achieve our public-health goals and in the process
destroy any chance of industry acquiescence,'' they wrote to Mr.
Clinton in April 1998.
"Efforts to push the price too far would
be counterproductive because tobacco-state Democrats will join with
Republicans to derail a bill that goes as far as some in the public
health community might like.''
All but about 200 pages of the
material was made public. Mr. Clinton asked to keep the rest secret, so
they were handed over to the panel on a "committee confidential" basis
that bars public access, a White House official said.
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