My point is that it is too early to know. For many, a judge's tenure on the bench can be an act of self discovery.
If Bush appointed judicial activists that just happen to tilt to the conservative side then we will be in trouble. It's not like we've had a chance to evaluate every one of Bush's nominees.
Mostly we've gone by trust but Miers showed us that Bush's was relying on Mier's political and personal views more than her judicial philosophy.
It is too soon to tell on Roberts too. He seems like he will be really good, but let's give a few years before we claim victory.
We'll see. But I would also point out that Bush was governor of Texas for one and a half terms, and appointed a great number of people, and I don't think anyone would say that Texas courts, on the whole, are squishy. 8) ALmost nine years of appointing Judges and not one identifiable liberal or squishy moderate yet. It doesn't take that long to determine a judge. A good look at the first year of decisions does tend to indicate the pattern of the judge. kennedy, o'conner, and suiter for example. They never had a year where they were as conservative as they were thought to be. They were liberal to moderate from the get go.