Kagan hearing check-in | Michael Tomasky

As we established back in the Sonia Sotomayor days, none of us is consumingly fascinated with these kinds of confirmation hearings. If a conservative leaves the court and Obama can replace him with a liberal, shifting the balance of power, that will be interesting and much more intense. But the current business seems pretty pro forma, and the reviews so far say that Elena Kagan is handling herself with aplomb.

The interesting exchange took place between Kagan and Oklahoma Republican Tom...