Kagan - Obama's nerd to argue for expanding the reach of Federal government?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Kagan has become something of an all-purpose brain in a place full of people who are more smart than wise. Last Tuesday, when aides were preparing the president for a meeting, he was stumped about a question on Supreme Court rulings on federalism. Instead of calling the Justice Department or the counsel's office, Clinton sent for Kagan. Clinton and Kagan sat in the Oval Office discussing various rulings, wonk to wonk. On tobacco, her legal experience often allows her to beat hack challenges from her own side, including concerns the Justice Department had about the constitutionality of liability" provisions and of restrictions on cigarette advertising. Normally; objections from the Justice Department would put a halt to negotiations, leaving the White House negotiator furious but powerless. But Kagan "can engage with us and figure out how we can get it done," says David Ogden, who represents the department on tobacco matters.

Kagan uses knowledge as a weapon, absorbing thou sands of pages of legal and policy minutiae and then deploying information to beat down opposing arguments. "I don't want to tell you that she rolled me, but she was coining at me so hard," says a Hill negotiator who opposed Kagan in much of the negotiation. "She reminds me of Bobby Knight's old [University of Indiana basketball] teams that used to wear you down with defense."

The combination of Reed and Kagan, who takes Reed's place twice a week at the daily 7:45 a.m. meeting with Bowles, has made the White House policy operation more prominent than in the early Clinton years. Some resident eggheads had been fluent in policy but politically tone-deaf, drawing complaints of arrogance from the Hill. And academic purists in the agencies have campaigned vigorously against the White House at times. During welfare reform, the scholarly types at HHS fought tooth and nail against the president's executive orders loosening federal regulation of state programs; several academics resigned after Clinton signed the welfare reform law. But Reed has found a hybrid in Kagan, a nerd who can talk tough. John Raidt, the Commerce Committee's staff director, who sat across the table from her through most of the talks, contrasts Kagan's cool performance with the way some other administration negotiators "lash out and get angry, because they don't always know what's going on."

Kagan says she'll see the tobacco law through, but she doubts she'll stick around for the rest of the Clinton years. "I miss the academic life," she says. If she's lucky, she might even land a judgeship. You can picture it now: the woman who vanquished tobacco, in her chambers, surrounded by legal volumes, finishing off an opinion--and reaching into her desk for a lighter and a highly taxed stogie. Cigarettes are out, Kagan says, but "I still smoke the occasional cigar."

more here - http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/wonderwonk?page=0,0&passthru=YTc4YzBlMWU5NmVhZGRjNWQ4OTY0YjYyYmYyM2VhYjE%3D

Is Kagan's role to promote expansion of the Federal government?  More taxation?  Less freedom for Americans?  Perpetual debt and debt slavery for generations?