Elena Kagan is "a New York City radical, Marxist lawyer through and through."
Michael Savage on Monday, May 10th, 2010 in his website

Condensed story from 2009 Pulitzer prize winner, http://politifact.com/ Click here for Full Story.

Michael Savage is a conservative radio commentator, and host of  "The Michael Savage Show," which is syndicated in over 300 U.S. markets. He is also the author of 25 books, including four New York Times bestsellers.

"Now the empty skirts in the media are saying that she doesn't have much of a 'paper trail' that would reveal her views on issues," said conservative radio commentator Michael Savage, "but her senior thesis at Princeton was entitled, 'To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933.' She's a New York City radical, Marxist lawyer through and through."

The question is not whether Kagan wrote the paper. It's available to anyone who's willing to pay the Princeton University Library $54.60 to read it.

The question is whether the thesis reveals Kagan to be "a New York City radical, Marxist lawyer through and through."

Insight into why Kagan selected that topic is in the acknowledgements at the start of the paper, where she wrote, "Finally, I would like to thank my brother Marc, whose involvement in radical causes led me to explore the history of American radicalism in the hope of clarifying my own political ideas."

The rest of the paper is an examination of why the socialist party never took off. Kagan focused on the socialist party in New York City as a microcosm of the national movement, and sought to answer the central question, "What caused the strange death of socialism in New York City?"

And, she concludes, "The socialists' failure to maintain their momentum grew from their failure ever to achieve internal harmony."

Yet there's nothing in her record that suggests she's a Marxist, as Savage claimed. Yes, she wrote a paper about socialism in college. But she never said in the thesis that she subscribed to the political ideas of socialism. In fact, she mostly adopts the dispassionate tone of a historian. And there's certainly nothing in the public record to suggest she has since become one. Writing a history thesis about socialism doesn't amount to endorsing it.

So once again, we have a political commentator attacking someone as a "Marxist" with absolutely no evidence to back it up. That's not just false, it's irresponsibly.


So Michael Savage --- Are you Kidding?