Updated – God’s General, William “Jerry” Boykin, Now Disinvited as Witness at Court Nominee Kagan Hearings

Update: The Hill reports that Lt. General William G. “Jerry” Boykin has now been disinvited from testifying at the confirmation hearing of Elena Kagan.

Looks like retired Lt. General William G. “Jerry” Boykin will be sharing his wisdom with the Senate Judiciary Committee in the hearings on U.S. Supreme Court nominee and Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Boykin will be appearing as a witness at the request of GOP members regarding Harvard’s anti-discrimination guarantees and the Pentagon’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policies.

Kagan is Harvard’s former Law School dean who contended with the discrimination when the Pentagon recruited on the campus.

The outspoken fundamentalist Boykin drew fire for publicly casting “America (as) engaged in a holy war as a ‘Christian nation’ battling Satan” and assorted adversaries, as Thomas D. Williams and JP Briggs II, Ph.D. reported in 2007.

It’s unclear what insights Boykin can offer the Committee on the legal qualifications of Kagan, but his appearance does provide the GOP with an opportunity to trash gays and promote inequality and discrimination, which remain important policy commitments of the likes of Committee member U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the White Party of God as a whole.

The hearings begin Monday, June 28. Steve Clemons has the news.

By Steve Clemons

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I have no issues with her and think that she is a disciplined, fair-minded, creative thinker who will add a lot to the highest court in the land.

That said, I just learned that the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling none other than the God-connected, crusade-obsessed saber rattler retired Lt. General William G. “Jerry” Boykin as one of four military witnesses raising questions about Kagan’s policy of making it tough for the military to recruit at Harvard when there was a conflict over the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policies.

I think DADT is a relic that should be tossed out — but reasonable people can disagree and debate.

But Boykin? If this party is engaged in such self-destructive theatrics, why can’t the White House do a better job of dividing up the Republicans into smart and not-so-smart factions.

I know that I hang out with a good number of Republicans in the smarter faction — but no one is forcing a wedge between they and those with whom they’d rather not be hanging.

This has to be uncomfortable for many in the GOP.