Warren (Ike) -- Was expected to be a "centrist", turned out to be a rabid liberal activist
Brennan (Ike) -- he was a card-carrying Democrat from New England at the time Eisenhower appointed him. That would have told me right away that the guy is probably a liberal and not to trust him. Why Ike appointed the guy is beyond me. Maybe he wanted to give the Dems a token appointment so they'd confirm one of his guys.
Stewart (Ike) -- Was a squishy moderate Republican expected to a centrist, and pretty much did exactly that on the court.
Blackmun (Nixon) -- He was considered a fairly good conservative at the time of his appointment and expected to vote like like Burger (as Alito was considered to be Scalia-like) He started off good, went off the reservation during Roe v. Wade, and became more and more liberal after that, until he was a super liberal by his retirement in the 90s.
Powell (Nixon) -- He was sent to the Senate as a "package deal" with Rehnquist, the idea being it would be a compromise where the conservatives get a SCOTUS seat (Rehnquist) and the moderates get one as well (Powell). He was expected to vote like a moderate Republican, and pretty much did exactly that on the court.
Stevens (Ford) -- Another expected "centrist" who "evolved" into a flaming left socialist during his time on the court. He moved further and further left after Rehnquist became CJ.
O’Connor (Reagan) -- Reagan sold her as a confirmable conservative, social conservatives didn't trust her and didn't like the appointment (had FR been around in '81, a bunch of freepers would have whined "this is NOT the time to talk about social issues!" and "we need to stand behind OUR president") Their fears were correct, she usually voted conservative but was lousy on social issues and couldn't be trusted.
Kennedy (Reagan) -- He was appointed hastily after the Dems had destroyed Reagan's two previous nominees, both outspoken conservatives. He was a low-key, unknown who was expected to vote moderate-to-conservtive on the bench. He's pretty much done exactly that.
Souter (GHW Bush) -- Was considered to be "Bork without a paper trail", a bunch of Democrat Senators figured he was a closet conservative and opposed his nomination. Republicans bought the idea he that he was a "confirmable conservative" that the Dems couldn't find dirt on. Both sides were wrong, he turned out to be a screwy liberal.
Overall, Warren, Blackmun, Stevens, and Souter turned out to be significantly different than was assumed about them during their confirmation, while Brennan, Stewart, Powell and Kennedy were never solid conservatives (they ranged from fairly conservative to liberal douchebag), but they were never advertised as conservatives in the first place and their voting record was not surprising (again, why Ike would knowingly appoint a liberal Democrat from New England is beyond me). Reagan was warned in advance about O'Connor, she raised some red flags, but choose to ignore it and appoint her anyway. Other than that, she voted as expected on other issues.
Still, 4 renegade GOP appointments vs. 1 renegade Dem appointment is still too much. I really think GOP presidents like Nixon and both Bush's placed too much focus on "judicial philosophy" instead of looking at the person's career and personal values (Bush also thought Harriet Miers would be trustworthy for that reason!), and it looks like Ike didn't even TRY during ANY his 5 appointments to name a reliable conservative (Ike's nominees were disastrous overall, I can't imagine Adali Stevenson would do any worse) . And #1 problem is still lifetime federal appointments where these guys get drunk on power. I suspect that's a big factor why none of the Dem appointees "evolved" and decided 30 years later they'd like to decease their authority and the court's reach.
I think you overstate the degree to which Brennan, Stewart, Powell and Kennedy voted as expected by the president who nominated them.
Ike certainly did *not* expect Brennan (who, BTW, was from New Jersey, not New England) to become arguably the most liberal Justice in history. Ike wanted to nominate a Catholic Democrat from the Northeast for political reasons, and thought Brennan would be a moderate-to-conservative Justice because he had been appointed to the NJ state Superior Court and Supreme Court by Republican Governor Alfred Driscoll and because Ike’s AG, Herbert Brownell, had been impressed with a speech that Brennan gave about criminal matters. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Brennan,_Jr.. So Brennan certainly belongs on the list of appointees who ended up being far more liberal than the GOP president thought.
Potter Stewart was expected to be a moderate-to-conservative Justice, and started out as such, and dissented in Griswold and Miranda. But then he joined the liberals in the ridiculous Eisenstadt v. Baird case (which, after Griswold forced states that banned the sale of contraception to exempt married people from the prohibition (due to the unique nature of the marriage relationship and penumbras and whatnot), used the Equal Protection Clause to strike down a state law that allowed contraception to be sold only to married persons—I swear I’m not making it up), and then voted with the majority in Furman (declaring the death penalty to be “cruel and unusual punishment”) and Roe v. Wade. Stewart certainly “grew in office,” almost as much as Blackmun.
Lewis Powell was presumed to be a conservative corporate lawyer and became the most centrist of centrists, although he certainly leaned to the left (he voted with the majority in Roe and his compromise opinion in Bakke was a disgrace). I’d count him as a disappointment.
As for Kennedy, no one expected him to become a defender of Roe, or to require special rights for gays, or to discover a “privacy” right to homosexual sodomy, or to strike down both the death penaly and mandatory life sentences to murderers solely because they were under 18 years old. Year in and year out, Kennedy has been far less conservative than President Reagan, or anyone else who weighed his nomination, assumed he would be.