The following is a fact-check of the May 16, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | Elena Kagan took the position that military recruiters should not be allowed at HLS and the Supreme Court decided 8-0 against that position – TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: Secondly is the issue of the military recruitment at Harvard.  She took the position that Harvard should not allow military recruiters at the law school, later supported that position in a decision in the–in a, in a case in the court system that ended up with the Supreme Court ruling 8-to-nothing against the position that she took.

So Politifact looked at this one last week when analyzing a statement made by John Barrasso on Fox News. Their research and conclusion (TRUE on both) are sound. Key quote:

The Supreme Court, however, disagreed in an 8-0 ruling on March 6, 2006. The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled against FAIR and, in doing so, rejected the claims of Kagan and the other law professors that the school had the right to enforce non-discrimination policies against the military. “Under the statute, military recruiters must be given the same access as recruiters who comply with the policy,” the opinion said.

Senator McConnell is correct on both, his statements are TRUE.

UPDATE: Here is some interesting additional analysis from commenter wesmorgan1

Special thanks to crowd-sourcer SLBinVA for assisiting with this fact-check.

This fact-check took a combined 15 minutes.

The following is a fact-check of the May 16, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | Pres. Obama, VP Biden, Sen. Harry Reid, & Sen. Patrick Leahy filibustered the S.C. nomination of Sam Alito – TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: the way Sam Alito was, who was filibustered by the president, the vice president, the Democratic leader and the chairman of the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination.

From crowd-sourcer James:

In 2006, Senator John Kerry along with Obama, Biden, Reid and Leahy (at the time the ranking member of the Judiciary) did mount a brief but unsucessful filibuster of Alito’s nomination. Here is the link to the cloture vote:
U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote

Page 2 of this pdf by the Congressional Research Service has detailed information and history on cloture attempts on nominations. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32878.pdf

James’ research and conclusion is sound. Senator McConnell’s statement gets a TRUE.

This fact-check took a combined 20 minutes.

The following is a fact-check of the May 16, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | “I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination” – TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination.

From crowd-sourcer James:

It’s true that McConnell has never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination. There have only been four: Abe Fortas in 1968, Rehquist twice, in 1971 and 1986, and Samuel Alito in 2006. All were unsuccessful. McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984, so he has only had two chances to join a filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination, Rehnquist for Chief Justice, and Samuel Alito. Those two filibusters — though it is disputed whether the Rehnquist debate was actually a filibuster — were mounted by the Democrats, and it is true, McConnell did not join them.

Page 2 of this pdf by the Congressional Research Service has detailed information and history on cloture attempts on nominations. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32878.pdf

James’ research and conclusion is sound. Senator McConnell’s statement gets a TRUE.

This fact-check took a combined 25 minutes.

Rep. Mike Pence (R – IN) | Arizona Immigration/Crime Stats | TRUE

From the 5/2/2010 transcript:

REP. PENCE: Well, well, let, let’s be clear for a second. This is no laughing matter for the people of Arizona who are–have been profoundly affected by the fact that there’s nearly a half a million illegal immigrants and, and a rampant drug trade and, and, and human trafficking trade that’s been besetting. Phoenix, Arizona, is, is the kidnapping capital of the United States of America.

According to a 2009 report from the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2008 the estimated number of unauthorized immigrants in Arizona was between 475,000 to 550,000 (6th highest in America among states). While we were unable to find a government report with official numbers to back it up, last year both ABC News and the LA Times reported that in 2008 Arizona had the highest number of kidnappings in America. Both articles indicate the high rate is due primarily to the activity of drug cartels.  Therefore we rate both of these facts from Rep. Pence as TRUE.

Special thanks to Jonah and Scott for contributing work on this fact-check.

Rep. Mike Pence (R – IN) | Stimulus Effect on Employment | HALF TRUE

From the 5/2/2010 transcript:

REP. PENCE:  Yeah.  The so-called stimulus bill that has taken us from 7.5 percent unemployment* to nearly 10 percent unemployment nationwide; worse in Michigan.

According the the US Govt. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in February 2009 when President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law was 8.1%. In March of 2010 the BLS has the unemployment number at 9.7%. Also according to the BLS, Michigan currently has an unemployment rate of 14.1%. Therefore while Rep. Pence is slightly incorrect on the numbers, this statement is true. However, Rep. Pence clearly uses these numbers to indicate that the “so-called stimulus bill” has made unemployment worse. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office report we found via FactCheck.org, the CBO estimated ( pg.8 ) that in the fourth quarter of 2009 the unemployment rate would have been 0.5 to 1.0% higher had the stimulus bill not been passed. Additionally in a recent USA Today survey of economists, they agreed that unemployment would have been (a median estimate of) .8% higher in December without the stimulus bill. Therefore it seems clear that the stimulus bill did not contribute to unemployment but instead reduced it. Because this makes Rep. Pence’s statement obviously misleading, we rate it HALF TRUE.

It’s also worth noting after Rep. Pence’s above comment and a few additional remarks about the Florida race, this was Mr. Gregory’s response:

MR. GREGORY:  All right.  I want to move on.

*In the transcript of the 5/2 show that Meet the Press provided, they incorrectly quote Rep. Pence as saying the “employment” rate was 7.5% – he said “unemployment.”

Special thanks to Jonah, Scott, and Brian for all helping with this fact-check.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) | Joe Lieberman’s 2006 Campaign | HALF TRUE

MR. GREGORY: But why–you know, when Senator Lieberman ran as an independent, the Democratic Party did not push him away. They said, “No, we’re still, still–stay with us here.” And yet the Republican leadership has said, “No thanks, Governor.” You know, “We’ve changed our mind about you,” as you just said. Is that a right strategy?

SEN. ALEXANDER: Senator Lieberman was different. First, he ran as an independent at the same time he was running as a Democrat. Second, he had a very strong principled opposition to the Iraq war. And third, the Democratic leadership in that case said that they didn’t, they didn’t support him.

Senator Alexander here was trying to differentiate Senator Lieberman’s 2006 Senate campaign from Florida Governor Crist’s current Senate campaign. Senator Alexander is correct that Lieberman ran in 2006 not only as an Independent but as an “Independent Democrat.” However he is very incorrect regarding Lieberman’s war stance, as he was not only an original supporter of the Iraq War but remained a vocal one during his 2006 campaign. It was one of the main reasons Democratic voters supported Lieberman’s primary opponent, who he later defeated in the general election. Finally, while Senator Alexander is correct that Democratic leadership did not support Lieberman’s independent bid, it is worth noting that he did continue to have the support of several Democratic senators even after he chose to become an independent. After he won the general election he was welcomed back by the Democratic leadership and encouraged to caucus with them. We rate this statement HALF TRUE.

In Conn., Lieberman Defends Seat, War Stance (Washington Post, 7/6/2006)
Support for War Tests Lieberman’s Re-election Prospects (New York Times, 4/2/2006)
In Lieberman Fight, Some Faithful Feel Torn (New York Times, 8/2/2006)
Enter, Pariah: Now It’s Hugs for Lieberman (New York Times, 11/15/2006)