why all this praise of o'connor? remember, it was her vote on bush v gore (5-4) that brought bush and his gang of partisan bums into power. so the current make-up of the Supremes is due to her cronyism. please stop painting her as a saint!

O'Connor was a conservative judge. These two newbies are conservative politicians. There is a difference. I suspect that she regrets that vote more than any other in her career.

Please! It was KENNEDY, the swing vote, who pushed the chicken Court into handing Bush a victory he did not deserve.

Anybody read an article by Kennedy in which he depicted himself as "agonizing" over which way to vote?

Yeah, right! Like Robert MacNamara spilling his cursed guts about Vietnam, decades after his participation.

Don't dump on O'Connor; rather weep for her departure. Look what we have now as a swing vote. Raaaaaht!