Kagan’s the One?

Mike Allen at Politico is reporting that President Obama is ready to nominate Elana Kagan to the Supreme Court, probably on Monday.

Meanwhile, Paul Campos writes :

Yesterday, I read everything Elena Kagan has ever published. It didn’t take long . . . . She’s published very little academic scholarship—three law review articles, along with a couple of shorter essays and two brief book reviews . . . .

If Kagan is a brilliant legal scholar, the evidence must be lurking somewhere other than in her publications. Kagan’s scholarly writings are lifeless, dull, and eminently forgettable. They are, on the whole, cautious academic exercises in the sort of banal on-the-other-handing whose prime virtue is that it’s unlikely to offend anyone in a position of power.

Can that be right? Is deaning such a different career track from professoring?

UPDATE : At FOX News, senior White House correspondent Major Garrett has reported that, while Kagan is the front runner, nothing is certain: “‘I can tell you, without any hedging, that he has not made up his mind yet and is still talking to and (looking) through candidates,’ one senior official said. ‘It may well end up being her [Kagan], but there’s no white smoke yet.’”