The West Wing Today: May 10, 2010

President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court appears to be Solicitor General Elena Kagan. We'll get an official announcement at 10:00.

Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School, would replace the retiring John Paul Stevens. If confirmed, she would be be the fourth woman to serve on the high court.

Kagan, 50, has never served in the judiciary. The last time a non-judge was appointed was in 1972, when President Richard M. Nixon nominated William H. Rehnquist and Lewis Powell in the same year.

Kagan is the government's top appellate lawyer and representative at the Supreme Court. She was confirmed last year by the Senate in a 61 to 31 vote.

Look for Senate hearings to begin within weeks. This will be Obama’s second Supreme Court pick.

Afghanistan

On the foreign policy front – you may remember Obama wants to start pulling U-S forces out of Afghanistan -- in 15 months. But that could depend on whether the Afghans can step up and keep terror groups like al-Qaeda from returning. That’s an issue between the President and Afghan President Hamid Karzai – who visits the White House on Wednesday.

We’ll get a briefing on all this today from the top American General and the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.

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EDT

8:30AM Pool Call Time

10:00 THE PRESIDENT introduces his Supreme Court nominee

10:45AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

12:05PM THE PRESIDENT meets with the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board
Oval Office
Closed Press

1:00PM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press

2:30PM THE PRESIDENT holds a meeting to review BP efforts to stop the oil leak
Situation Room
Closed Press

4:00PM THE PRESIDENT meets with Secretary of the Treasury Geithner
Oval Office
Closed Press

4:30PM THE PRESIDENT meets with Secretary of Energy Chu
Oval Office
Closed Press


Briefing Schedule

1:30PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, General Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry

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On This Day


1877: President Rutherford B. Hayes has the White House's first telephone installed in the mansion s telegraph room. President Hayes embraced the new technology, though he rarely received phone calls. In fact, the Treasury Department possessed the only other direct phone line to the White House at that time. The White House phone number was "1." Phone service throughout the country was in its infancy in 1877. It was not until a year later that the first telephone exchange was set up in Connecticut and it would be 50 more years until President Herbert Hoover had the first telephone line installed at the President's desk in the Oval Office. - from History.com

Presidential Quote

"All men having power ought to be mistrusted." - James Madison