Thread by @LindaHirshman1

I wrote a long scholarly bio of Sandra Day O'Connor and RBG, Sisters in Law. Although most of the attention has been focused on Ginsburg, actually SOC tells the more relevant story in today's #Kavanaugh times. 1/

2/ SOC was always an odd fit; a symbolic powerhouse first woman on the Supreme Court, or the FWOTSC, as she called herself. She was technically supportive of abortion rights and voting w/ RBG on most women's cases at #SCOTUS, including in 1986 a vote for harassment victim Vinson

3/ but SOC was also a lifelong #Republican and an operative at that -- committeewoman, nominated to her first office by the #GOP committee, mentored by Barry Goldwater, William Rehnquist and Warren Burger were her sponsors on the #SCOTUS.

4/ Everybody loved SOC. Burger moved her inauguration to larger quarters. But in 2000, she faced the nonnegotiable conflict between her mildly feminist principles and her loyalty to the Party that brung her to the dance. Bush v, Gore.
If she voted to put Bush in, he'd replace her

She voted for Bush and he replaced her w/ Alito so antichoice even SOC had reversed him. #SCOTUS then upheld the horrible partial birth abortion law, undid campaign finance, and weaponized the #SecondAmendment. SOC hated those decisions, but she was famous for never looking back.

6/ that's where @SenatorCollins and @lisamurkowski are now: trapped with no exit, between their centrist feminist principles, pro choice, same sex marriage, and the current Republican Party, which makes SOC's GOP look like the Dems. They may want to consider what I know about SOC

7/ She never got her good name back. Everywhere she went people asked her "how could you how could you?" She hated it when they did that stifffened up refused to answer, a chill over the whole adoring crowd. I saw it myself many times. Even her dear Jon Stewart tortured her w/ it

8/ Finally, in 2013 SOC, who was LEGENDARY for never, ever reconsidering anything she ever did including getting lost or any decision she ever made, told the @chicagotribune that maybe she had made a mistake in voting GOP in Bush v. Gore. It cost #SCOTUS immensely, she noted.

9/ I did a lot of book talks in the two years after Sisters in Law made the bestseller list, and I never once stood up AZ or NY, left or right, w/o someone, usually a woman, asking me How Could She? #HOWCOULDSHE?

10/ SOC was a great first; disciplined, agreeable, great EQ. Time was, she could never walk a block in under 15 minutes in DC w/o people asking for an autograph. Her critical vote in Hogan v. MI set up the great RBG decision in the VMI case. But Bush v. Gore is her legacy forever

11/ I don't now if @SenatorCollins or @lisamurkowski will ever see this sorry fate of legendary FWOTSC Sandra Day O'Connor. If they do, they should know that the woman who never looked back looked back. and wished she had not chosen party over principle. When the chips were down

12/ Been sitting on this unique information for days, worrying @SenatorCollins or @lisamurkowski might be put off. But I am 74, I know something they should know, about the woman they most resemble and I could not live w/ myself if I did not come forward. Geeky writer's #MeToo