Sandra Day O'Conner will for be remembered for two things.

[annabanana]

1) First woman on The Court.

2) The disastrous Bush Presidency.

[Botany]

1. and the BP Gulf Oil Spill too

no bush V Gore and then no w Presidency and then no Dick Cheney energy task force which
got the acoustical kill switches on all deep water rigs removed because they were too expensive.

thanx for all the good work Sandy!

[OnyxCollie]

10. You previously blamed Ralph Nader for the bp oil spill.

See if you can work in Kevin Bacon, too.

[Botany]

19. If Nader hadn't been taking republican money to run campaign ads in Florida in 2000 ...

.... then he should not have gotten as many votes and then the race wouldn't have
been so close and it would not have wound up in front of the SCOTUS.

"The differences between Gore and Bush were minimal," he (Nader) insisted.

and yes if we didn't have bush V Gore where the loser of the election was allowed
to argue that counting all the votes in Florida would cause him harm and so all the
votes weren't counted and we got 8 years of W during which Dick Cheney's energy
task force stopped the requirement for automatic kill switches at the well head for
deep sea oil rigs ..... if the BP rig that blew up had such a switch then massive
oil spill would never have happened.

Both Nader and Sandra Day O'Connor were players in the Florida 2000. End of story.

BTW DU rules say you shouldn't take arguments from one thread to another.

[OnyxCollie]

23. And Scalia should have recused himself

for going hunting with his son and Dick Cheney before Cheney v US District Court.

And if Stevens and Breyer had sided with Ginsberg and Souter, it would have been a 4-4 decision.

Somehow, in your twisted logic, Nader had a greater influence on the bp oil spill than those other people.

So, which person is more responsible for the bp oil spill? Nader or O'Connor? You were confident in your previous claim that Nader was responsible, but now you say it was O'Connor's fault. Your "argument" is pretty weak on logic.

You're the one taking arguments from one thread to another, BTW.

[Botany]

26. what ever

[bluestate10]

43. Scalia is an ass-wipe. Why do you think Scalia would turn down a freebie that Nader

teed up for Scalia? Put blame where it belongs, smack at the feet of Ralph Nader.

[sabrina 1]

32. So were all the Democrats who voted for Bush. And all those citizens were engaging

a process known as democracy. Are there rules about how citizens should vote, and is there a memo somewhere that states if they vote a certain way they will be held accountable for their 'actions'? No? Good, because that would mean we are not a democracy.

There are however, rules, laws, that forbid the SC from participating in determining the results of an election. Their role is made clear in the document that we still accept as the supreme law of the land.

No person, not even the Democrats who voted for Bush, stupid and misguided as they were, bear any responsibility for the Bush presidency. All were engaged in perfectly legal activities.

But the SC does not have that excuse, they knew will what they were doing and admitted by claiming their treasonous decision would not set a precedent.

If the SC had refused to intervene, as they should have, in an election, Bush would never have been president. But then that is why they did it. It was, as Vincent Bugliosi stated in his book 'None Dare Call it Treason', a treasonous act which has had disastrous consequences for millions of innocent human beings.

Voters and candidates can never be held accountable for this crime, unless of course we want to protect them. As Scalia said, 'get over it'. I'm sure he appreciates the help from the 'Nader did it' defenders.

[Botany]

37. you are 100% right about the SCOTUS actions as per Florida 2000

Scalia's taking the case because if they didn't the plaintiff had a chance for
"embarrassment" .... if i remember it correctly ...... & Sandy Day's writings
that bush v Gore could not be used as precedent for any future or past
cases that might come before the Fed. courts.

I still have a hard time wrapping my little pea brain around the idea that the
SCOTUS ruled that it was illegal to count all the votes in Florida. .... And after
that to correct the problems Rove/Bob Nye/Jack Abramoff got HAVA* pushed through
so as to make even more people vote on the electronic voting machines and all
the crap "they" have pulled since.

My point on Nader that by pulling off X # of votes from Gore that allowed all that
other shit to happen. Ralph is not stupid and yet he took money from republicans
to run ads for his campaign in Florida ..... besides I have seen Ralph up close and
in person and he is a real dick.

peace!

* help america vote act

[OnyxCollie]

38. Guess who helped author HAVA

and had a financial interest in ES&S-

Our new Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel.

[madinmaryland]

45. ??? There is a six degrees of separation there?? Edited to add:

Ralph Nader's Bacon number is 2

Ralph Nader and Woody Harrelson appeared in Hempsters: Plant the Seed.

Woody Harrelson and Kevin Bacon appeared in She's Having a Baby.

[graham4anything]

2. She won't be remembered at all. Most Justices are forgotten in time.

Whereas Presidents and Vice Presidents are eternal.

I remember Sandy said "I now sleep well at night" years after 12/12/2000.
That meant she did not sleep well at night for a long time after.

[leftynyc]

4. The first woman on the court

will be remembered.

[graham4anything]

6. I guess for that reason. I just think of her as one of those 5

for the second ruling the night of 12/12/2000.

[leftynyc]

9. That's why her reputation will suffer, however

trivia questions always ask stuff like "who was the first...."?

[intheflow]

7. Vice presidents aren't remembered, etiher.

Unless they become president. And sometimes, even barely then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tyler

[PearliePoo2]

3. That was the first thing I thought of ....

when I watched her on Morning Joe this morning.
BUSH!

[Sheldon Cooper]

5. I hope she is ignored for eternity.

[CTyankee]

8. didn't she save Roe v. Wade in the Casey v. Planned Parenthood case?

Ithought she cast the deciding vote in that one.

[iandhr]

34. I think your right.

[bluestate10]

44. O'Connor cast some other important votes with the liberal-moderate block on the Court.

She is a mixed bag. She is wrapped up in her republicanism, but she came up big for values at several important times. Had she not voted with the liberal-moderates, a lot of social progress that we are seeing would not be happening.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Mrs. 5-4 will be remembered for ONE thing.

Ruining the country for selfish purposes.

Nothing more.

Eight years of death and collapse negates any accomplishment. There was no getting to the other Filthy Five members, since they were hopeless pigs beyond repair. She knew better and did the wrong thing. She knew Bewsh was a partying, sociopathic, do-nothing dry drunk incompetent with a horrible political record and even worse business resume. Mrs. 5-4 did the wrong thing.

But hey, as long as you can sleep well at night . . .. right, Mrs. 5-4?

[OnyxCollie]

18. She wanted to retire during a Republican administration.

She retired and her husband developed Alzheimer's. He later fell in love with another woman.

I'm not excusing what she did, but I don't think she's beaming with happiness, either. Karma's a bitch.

[BlueStreak]

12. No matter how bad she was, her replacement Alito is 10 times worse

It is an ironic story that O'Connor really never should have left the bench. Her husband had somewhat advanced Alzheimer's, but by the time she could actually leave the bench it was so advanced he didn't even recognize her. I would never second guess such a personal decision, and I respect her for doing that. But had she known that it ultimately would make no difference to her husband, then I'm thinking she would have remained on the bench. She would have been on the conservative side, but more like Kennedy -- i.e. not an automatic vote in every damn case.

[graham4anything]

13. The US Supreme Court proved Ralph Nader was a liar. Gore wouldn't have picked Alito.

gore wouldn't have picked Roberts, Thomas, Scalia, Kennedy or Rehnquist or OConnor either.

He would have picked great people like Bruce Babbitt perhaps.

nader lied and Alito and Roberts were picked.

And O'Connor did not have to retire, Bush forced it, Bush put up a choice he knew wouldn't get passed (Meirs) and was able to take who he wanted.

President Obama should keep that in mind if the rpeublicans are still like it.

[former9thward]

15. O'Conner was not forced by anyone to retire.

What a ridiculous claim.

[graham4anything]

16. Bush needed to replace her while he could. And he did.

She shouldn't have. She ended up staying in DC almost all of the time, and not where her husband was. She even temped at lower courts some days.

Had President Obama not been 100% sure of winning in 2012, some werre saying he should have pressured some to leave so Mitt wouldn't have picked the republican replacement.
Luckily Mitt never had even a 1% chance of winning so it didn't matter.

Here's hoping president Obama gets 3 or 4 picks, and HIllary gets alot more, including being able to pick Barack Obama himself in 2018 or 2019.

SCOTUS has to look at when/where people will replace.

After all, Souter, who was one of the most liberal, left immediately and early soon as a Democratic president was in place. (and he was a stealth candidate. 41 didn't know who he was hiring).

[BlueStreak]

21. She ended up with a long delay after her resignation

She announced her intent to leave on July 1, 2005. Then Rehnquist died in September of the same year. Because of this, Bush pulled the Roberts nomination to replace SDO and re-nominated Roberts to fill Rehnquist's seat. That meant that SDO had to remain on the court basically an extra year. And during that year, her husband's disease progressed to the point that there was really no reason to leave the bench. That is why she remained in the DC area.

I wish she would/could have un-resigned, but she didn't and we ended up with Alito. Say what you will about SDO, she isn't nearly the personification of evil that Alito is.

[graham4anything]

28. and don't forget Harriet Meirs.

Bush first named Harriet after Rehnquist died to replace O'connor (cynical move by Bush to replace the woman with another (but Harriet was not qualified and the republicans themselves had a fit and said they would not confirm her).
So Bush then nominated Alito.

Would Meirs have been better? Hard to say. But Bush got lucky getting the 2nd pick.
Rehnquist probably would not have retired had he not been ill.

[former9thward]

14. On a personal level she is a very nice person.

I took a class from her in law school and she was not arrogant like many law professors. I am going to an event Thursday night where she is the main speaker.

[graham4anything]

17. I don't know as I wasn't there

but someone I know yesterday went to get a book signed by her and said he was shocked how frail she looked and how slow she walked going into a tv talk show.
He was not able to get his book signed. Have no idea as I wasn't there. Have no reason to think it wasn't true.

[former9thward]

20. People get old.

It happens to all of us if we are lucky. President Carter and Roselyn ate at a restaurant my sister manages a couple nights ago. She told me she was shocked at how fragile Carter appeared.

[Beacool]

40. Carter will be 89 in October.

Justice O'Connor will be 83 this month. Everyone gets old, at least if they are lucky enough to live that long.

[graham4anything]

46. Jimmy Carter is still vibrant, walks briskly, with a purpose.Jimmy sleeps well at night.

Her age wasn't the point I was making.
She looked ill was the point.
Bush41 looks ill.

[Beacool]

48. Bush 41 is ill.

I don't know about O'Connor.

[no_hypocrisy]

22. The third thing:

O'Connor retired to spend more time with her ailing husband who eventually couldn't recognize her due to his Alzheimer's and he fell in love with another resident of the home he was living in.

[BlueStreak]

25. I'm sure you didn't mean any criticism by that, but just to be clear

that is EXTREMELY common in Alzheimer's cases. It is just part of the tragedy of this disease. In many respects, Alzheimer's is harder on the loved ones than on the one suffering the disease.

[no_hypocrisy]

39. I didn't mean criticism, correct.

I found life to be so random that you can't predict what will happen with any of your decisions.

[City Lights]

24. I will always remember her for #2.

Can't stand her!

[n2doc]

27. How can you possibly forget her interactions with John Riggins? Loosen up, Sandy Baby!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2012/10/29/john-riggins-and-loosen-up-sandy/

One of those at Riggins’ table, People’s Washington bureau chief Garry Clifford, confirmed that Riggins told Mrs. O’Connor, “Come on Sandy baby, loosen up. You’re too tight.”

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. I got a story about that. I was in law school when she was appointed.

I was talking to a couple of rich male yuppy students about it.

One of them said, "Well, since we have a woman on the Supreme Court, maybe someday we'll have a black person."

I blew up. I said, "There's already a black man on the Supreme Court. His name is Thurgood Marshall and he was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson. And by the way, there's a law school named after him about 5 miles to the southwest of here at Texas Southern University."

We were attending South Texas College of Law which is a private freestanding law school in downtown Houston. Texas Southern University is an historically Black state school with a law school in Houston. The third law school in Houston is at the University of Houston, which is a big state school as well.

These guys knew nothing about history or politics. They looked at me like I was nuts.

[HiPointDem]

47. they were law students and they didn't know that?

[samsingh]

30. more for the second one

[Dem2TheCore]

31. Those and . . .

For me, she will always be known as the woman who claimed never to have been the subject of gender discrimination, despite her inability to get hired as a lawyer after graduating third in her class (Rhenquist was No. 1 in the class that year) from Stanford Law School in just two years, receiving Order of the Coif, etc. The only private sector job she could get out of law school with these stellar credentials was as a legal secretary position. But no, gender discrimination didn't exist and she never suffered it.

[Helen Reddy]

33. What a self serving interview

she had with Rachel Maddow last night.

Gag. Book to sell baby.

[Wait Wut]

35. She was rude and condescending.

Rachel was incredibly polite and tolerant.

O'Conner acted as if the whole interview was a huge inconvenience and thought she'd just be talking about her awesome book.

[Helen Reddy]

36. Agreed!

Rachel is a class act, unlike most interviewers.

[Octafish]

41. M a f i a

NAZI Branch

[bluestate10]

42. Sandra Day O'Connor was the vote that held back a lot of right-wing activism from the court.

She sided with the liberals and moderates on the court in some key rulings. My observation of her post court life is that she is dismayed by the unprincipled right-wing irrationality of Scala, Thomas and Alito.