ms. marshall, this next question going to you. there has been lots of talk about increasing the use of alternative energies here in the united states. as a u.s. senator, how would you promote the use of alternative energy here? >> that is a super great question, one that we ought to be carrying on dialogue about every day. north carolina is well poised, i would say, the best in the country. we have got a robust agricultural community that can help us with biodiesel. we have got the research universities that have all sorts of innovative and creative people doing research, things they can turn into jobs and a better life, jobs that will stay right here. i visited a formerly shuttered plants that is today creating biodiesel. they are going around to poultry plants, collecting chicken fat and turning it into biodiesel. those jobs stay right here. they do not go anywhere else. we have got all the right infrastructure for us to be a leader in this comic in america, and help reduce our emissions, our reliance upon carbon emissions and o

ms. marshall. before the cold spell, president obama wanted to expand drilling off the north carolina coast. he has put a moratorium on drilling, but even before that, if you talk about your offshore drilling opposition. why? >> example #one is the gulf coast. was very clear in the beginning that i was opposed offshore drilling for north carolina. what this bill has brought to the forefront -- what the spill has brought to the fourth one is the ecology of the country and the coziness between corporate america and government. it is clear that senator byrd did nothing to make the minerals management service more efficient, and in fact promoted offshore drilllng. that is a clear difference between me and senatorrbyrd. he is accepted tremendous amounts of contributions from them. he is the senator from the big oil. i like to be the senator from north carolina. >> mr. cunningham, your expression on offshore drilling? >> it raises the question of what our energy future is going to look like, how we balan

ms. kagan recommended that justice marshall deny further review because otherwise would likely create some very bad law on abortion and or prisoners' rights. this kind of naked political judgment appears frequently throughout ms. kagan's work as a judicial clerk. in another case she said the supreme court should take the case because "it's even possible that the good guys might win on this issue." i'm concerned about her characterization of one party as the good guys. too often it sounds to me like ms. kagan shares the view of president obama and justice marshall that the supreme court exists to advance the agenda of certain classes of litigants. in another case, ms. kagan wrote there is no good reason to place an exclusionary rule. and in another memo laced with political considerations, ms. kagan wrote, i see noreason to let this court get a crack at this question. she was even more explicit in a handwritten note after reviewing the government's response in another case saying i continue to believe that the facts did not support the arrest, but i cannot see anything good coming out of re

ms. kagan appears to enthusiastically embrace justice marshall's judicial philosophy calling it a thing of glory. >> reporter: that drew a retort from democrat dick durbin of illinois. >> the results with justice marshall dedicated his life to broke down barriers of racial discrimination that had haunted america for generations. i might also add his most famous case brown versus the board of education. if that is an activist mind at work, we should be grateful as a nation. that he argued before this supreme court based on discrimination in this society and changed america for the better. >> reporter: south carolina's lindsey graham was the only committee republican to vote for sonia sotomayor's nomination to the supreme court last year. he said it's hardly unexpected that kagan is a political liberal. >> what did i expect from president obama? just about what i'm getting. there are a lot of people who are surprised. well, you shouldn't have been if you were listening. i look forward to trying to better understand how you will be able to take political activism, association with liberal cau

ms. kagan has not herself been a judge; those judges she has singled out for particular praise have this same activist judicial philosophy. in a tribute she wrote for her mentor, justice shurgd marshal -- thurgood marshall, for example, she described his judicial philosophy as driven by the belief that the role of the courts and the very purpose of constitutional interpretation is to -- quote -- "safeguard the interests of people who had no other champion." the court existed primarily to fulfill this mission. and, however much some recent justices have sniped at that vision, it remains a thing of glory." unquote. in 2006, when she was dean of harvard law school, ms. kagan praised as her judicial hero aaron bharat who served on the supreme court of israel for nearly 30 years. she called him -- quote -- "the judge or justice in my lifetime whom i think best represents and has best advanced the valves democracy and human -- and the values of democracies and human law." that is not simply high praise, but the highest praise possible, for she says that justice bahrat was literally the best judge anywhere during her lifetime in representing and advancing the rule of law enforcement who is