How do you solve a problem like retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor? On the one hand, she was the first lady justice on the court, so attention must be paid. Also, she often (though not always) stood up for lady rights on said court, so attention must be paid to that too. Thank you, Justice O'Connor, for all of that.Buuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttt, on the other hand, she cast what was probably the deciding vote in one of the most egregious, despicable, are-you-fucking-kidding-us-SCOTUS? decisions EVER, the abomination known as Bush v. Gore. You remember that case, don't you, boys and girls? When the Supreme Court stuck its big judicial nose in Florida's electoral bidness, and decided to make George Dubya Bush the president of these United States? Even though he lost the election, and his brother helped rig the voter rolls in Florida, and his pals at Fox "News" tried to call the election for him before the votes were counted? No, you have probably forgotten by now. We know we had.
The Court, as you do not recall, knew at the time it was a bullshit ruling, which is why it included that little asterisk saying basically, "Yes, we know this is a bullshit ruling, so let us never speak of it again." And O'Connor voted in favor of the aforementioned bullshit ruling, so thanks for nothing.
But on the third hand (what? some people have three hands), now Sandy feels sort of bad about that whole Bush v. Gore thing. In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, she kinda sorta expressed the tiniest shred of regret about that:
Looking back, O'Connor said, she isn't sure the high court should have taken the case."It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue," O'Connor said during a talk Friday with the Tribune editorial board. "Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye.'"
The case, she said, "stirred up the public" and "gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation."
"Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision," she said. "It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day."
Um, yeah. Yeah, the Supreme Court kind of did add to the problem, what with handing the keys to the White House to that som'bitch who did not actually win the election and then strutted around the globe bombing shit and destroying shit and then smirking and chuckling about it, like, "Whoops, invaded the wrong country for a made up reason, heh heh, oh well, now I'm gonna go paint something." It's nice that after 13 years, O'Connor is willing to consider the possibility that maybe it wasn't such a good call after all, and by "nice" we mean what the hell took so long.
