Newly released memos from her days as a law clerk confirm what conservatives have suggested all along - that Elena Kagan is a political liberal whose views are outside of the mainstream in America.  And they are a stark reminder for all Americans that elections have consequences.

Just when poll after poll confirms that Americans are becoming more conservative as well as more pro-life, we're faced with a potential lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of someone who would likely use the power of the court to interpret and apply the Constitution in such a way as to move the country in the opposite direction.

Via CBS:

...while working as a law clerk to the late Justice Thurgood
Marshall - made her positions clear on some of the nation's most contentious social issues.

The documents, buried in Marshall's papers in the Library of Congress, show Kagan standing
shoulder-to-shoulder with the liberal left, at a time when the
Rehnquist Supreme Court was moving to the conservative right...

The Marshall documents are legal memos summarizing cases the Court
had been asked to consider. They cover the spectrum of hot-button
social issues: abortion, civil rights, gun rights, prisoners' rights
and the constitutional underpinnings for recognizing gay marriage...

With Obama'a nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to fill Justice Stevens' seat on the high court, the commentary is all over the map.  Some of the most interesting criticism is the supposed liberal complaints that she's not liberal enough.  Uh-huh.  Sounds a lot like the folks in the White House spin lounge are trying to make conservatives feel better by making them think liberals are worried she'll be their version of David Souter.

Not buying it.

On the right side of the aisle, there's plenty to be concerned about, as David Weigel point out today...