The Moderate Voice

Let us not forget, in all this talk of Sandra Day O'Connor as a "swing vote" and a "voice of moderation," who this lady really is:

[A]t an election-night party on Nov. 7, surrounded for the most part by friends and familiar acquaintances, [Justice O'Connor] let her guard drop for a moment when she heard the first critical returns shortly before 8 p.m. Sitting in her hostess's den, staring at a small black-and-white television set, she visibly started when CBS anchor Dan Rather called Florida for Al Gore. "This is terrible," she exclaimed. She explained to another partygoer that Gore's reported victory in Florida meant that the election was "over," since Gore had already carried two other swing states, Michigan and Illinois.

Moments later, with an air of obvious disgust, she rose to get a plate of food, leaving it to her husband to explain her somewhat uncharacteristic outburst. John O'Connor said his wife was upset because they wanted to retire to Arizona, and a Gore win meant they'd have to wait another four years. O'Connor, the former Republican majority leader of the Arizona State Senate and a 1981 Ronald Reagan appointee, did not want a Democrat to name her successor. Two witnesses described this extraordinary scene to Newsweek. Responding through a spokesman at the high court, O'Connor had no comment.

Read that whole article. It's clear her vote on Bush v. Gore was completely tainted by personal interests. Then, after a few years to take the heat off, she makes the decision she always wanted to make, leaving her seat on the bench in Republican hands.

In our system, that's her right, and nobody can stop her, but the fact that it influenced arguably the most important SCOTUS decision of the last 20 years is disgusting.