Specter, a 29-year member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, seemed determined to make the most of what is most likely his final Supreme Court confirmation hearing. He has now had a role in 13 such hearings, and has quizzed every current member of the high court, but he cannot be reelected after switching from the Republican Party and then losing the Democratic primary last month.
Specter, 80, a former prosecutor, has drawn intense interest for his performance at Supreme Court confirmation hearings, especially since his 1991 cross-examination of law professor Anita Hill at the hearing for now-Justice Clarence Thomas.
On Tuesday, Specter told Kagan during his allotted half-hour of examination, "There's a lot of concern in the Senate about the value of these hearings." Senators are tired, he said, of hearing nominees for the court promising to use their power modestly and then "making a 180-degree U-turn."
In 1987, Judge Robert Bork was brutally honest about his constitutional views, such as that there is no right to privacy, during his confirmation hearings. That sunk his nomination, and Specter, as a Republican swing vote on Judiciary, played a key role.
Since then, most nominees have tried to be as bland in their testimony as possible.
Specter tried from the beginning to get Kagan - whom he voted against last year as U.S. solicitor general - to be as vivid as his pastel-striped tie.
He wanted to know: Was the Supreme Court "disrespectful" to Congress' judgment when it ruled in January that limits on corporate spending in elections were unconstitutional?
"When I stepped up to the podium in Citizens United, I thought we had extremely strong arguments," responded Kagan, who as solicitor general defended the corporate-spending ban on behalf of the Obama administration.
"Ms. Kagan, I'm going to move on - I know all of that," Specter said impatiently.
