offensive. >> she pained herself into this box and academia, probably maybe when she dreamed of being on the court but didn't think she would be on the court and said these hearings are awful. they have to be more candid. >> talking about everything. a situational decision here as when you get in there. i think you don't want a supreme court justice who tells you what they think about a certain issue, abortion or guns. you know they are going to come up. can we just talk a second about the 50 thousand-foot view? i don't think anybody believes that this -- elena kagan is not going to be the next supreme court justice. so what are the hearings about? >> they are about republicans sort of -- we have a mid-term election coming up in november. republicans will use this as an opportunity to talk about barack obama's agenda, the big government democratic agenda, the so-called activist court, democratic agenda, to take on the standard of empathy we were talking about yesterday. and use this as a way to -- as