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"....Great point! We voted for President Reagan thinking he was "Mr. Right" and when he turned out to be "Mr. Reasonably Close" we didn't hold his few mis-steps against him!...."

When Saint Ron of the Palisades nominated O'Connor his administration already was in a halting and rapidly sinking second term. He was crippled by Iran-Contra and was basically punching the clock. O'Connor was a diversity hire intended to avoid the bruising taken in the Bork hearings and boost the flagging popularity ratings.

I don't hold it against RWR. But why make the same mistake twice? As I wrote in another post, history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.

For those keeping score, this is the farce. Bush just cooked the remainder of his second term. His base is demoralized and he looks weak to his enemies. He has saddled the court with a nobody who may vote correctly on some key cases but will provide no intellectual heft to the Scalia/Thomas/Roberts block. Unable to earn respect for her mind, she may drift left to earn respect from the WaPo in its favorite Lifestyle Section column: "how the conservative ideologue has grown since he/she moved to Washington. We are pleased to introduce the new, hip Harriet Meirs."

In the words of the immortal Robert Nesta Marley, from "I Shot the Sheriff:" "I grieve."

O'Connor was nominated in 1981....not RWR's second term.

President Reagan nominated Justice O'Connor in 1981.

Iran-Contra did not occur until 1986. I do believe that it affected the selection of Justice Kennedy.