If the past is any guide, a lot will be said but no real insights will emerge from the Kagan nomination hearings.

Every historic moment in this country compelled Americans to assess their values and choose sides. President Barack Obama’s signing of the landmark health insurance reform bill created such a moment. Now Americans must choose whether to side with the rich and the hate mongers or to align themselves with working people and hope.

People are discussing how to best honor the late great Teddy Kennedy, and the first thought is to do what he would have wanted us to do — which is to memorialize him by getting meaningful health care reform passed and made into law. But that’s not allowed for Democrats. Remember the ginned-up real-time media outrage over five minutes of remarks during Paul Wellstone’s Williams Arena memorial event in 2002? Remember also when, a few short weeks later when Strom Thurmond had his 100th birthday party, the media did NOT stage a real-time freakout over partisanship when Thurmond’s birthday party was not only turned into a GOP campaign ad, but into praise for Thurmond’s deeply racist career?