Eliot Spitzer: Elena Kagan Will 'Get The Fifth Vote'

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a longtime friend of Elena Kagan's who first crossed her path when both were undergraduates at Princeton, effusively praised President Obama's second choice for the Supreme Court during an interview with CBS on Monday.

"She will get the fifth vote," Spitzer told CBS's Maggie Rodriguez. "To put this in the context of the Supreme Court, when she is on the court and she's looking for a fifth vote because she needs to get the majority, she will argue for a perspective that will get -- whether it's a (Justice Anthony) Kennedy or a (Justice Antoinin) Scalia, whomever it may be, she will be persuasive to get that vote."

Spitzer described Kagan as "unbelievably smart and thoughtful and careful, the sort of perfect qualifications to be a justice of the Supreme Court -- somebody who will look at every case, think about the constitutional issues and do what is right for the country. She is not an ideologue from the left or the right, and that is clear from what she did as dean of Harvard Law School - just a perfect temperament to be a justice.

"I guess you could say (she is) moderate, but I would say she's really thoughtful and passionate about what she believes, but very careful about what she believes. And that is why it's very hard to pigeonhole her."

WATCH:

Watch CBS News Videos Online