Senate Republicans kicked off the Judiciary Committee's hearing on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan today with an attack that ranged from Kagan's college thesis to her solicitor general stint, signaling the GOP will redouble efforts to find controversy in the so-far quiet nomination.

Senate Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., faulted Kagan's lack of judicial experience while criticizing particular actions in most of her career stops.

"It's not just that she has never been a judge," said Sessions, who has previously supported nomination of Republicans who have not worked as judges. "Ms. Kagan has less real legal experience than any nominee in 50 years."

Sessions said that Kagan's "college thesis on socialism in New York seems to bemoan socialism's demise there" and that her master's thesis argued the Warren Court should have better justified its activism. He called Kagan "the point person for the Clinton administration's efforts to block congressional restrictions on partial-birth abortions." He renewed attacks on restrictions she put on military recruiting at Harvard Law School while dean there and on arguments she made as solicitor general.

Sessions also said Kagan "has associated herself with well-known activist judges."

The kitchen-sink criticism in part aims to present Kagan as an embodiment of liberal White House policies Republicans want to highlight. It is also partly aimed at motivating conservative voters despite little chance of blocking Kagan's confirmation, GOP aides have said.

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