Bork’s Shadow–Larger Than Recognized:

The Washington Post assesses Bork’s shadow:

While conservatives still nurse grievances, liberals hold up the Block Bork campaign as a heroic moment in modern politics. “Keeping him off the Court ranks among the most important achievements of the progressive coalition over the past seven decades,” Ralph G. Neas, who led the anti-Bork battle, wrote in an essay on the Web site of his group, People for the American Way.

Focusing just on the precise moment of the defeat of Bork and appointment of Justice Kennedy, however, understates the true shadow cast by the event. It also led to the counterstrategy by Republicans to nominate a “stealth” candidate (David Souter) in order to try to avoid having him “Borked.” As subsequent history has shown the “stealth candidate” strategy has its own limitations for an appointing President.

So, in fact, it would probably be more accurate to give credit (in a realpolitic sense) to Ralph Neas and the others who led the fight against Bork not just for getting Kennedy instead of Bork, but for Justice Souter as well.