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New book claims Bush has done what previous conservative presidents haven't: move the Supreme Court far right

Even as more commentators on both the left and the right are using the adjective “incompetent” to describe the administration of George W. Bush, historians like Douglas Brinkley, Sean Wilentz and Eric Foner have begun to argue that Mr. Bush is in contention for the title of worst president in history, citing reasons like the metastasizing war in Iraq, a ballooning deficit, the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and a widening credibility gap.

Yet in a lively new book on the Supreme Court, the ABC News correspondent Jan Crawford Greenberg argues that in one area President Bush has succeeded where his father, as well as Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon, did not, achieving a longtime conservative goal: he has moved the Supreme Court decisively to the right and shaped its direction for the next three to four decades.

In appointing Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the court, Ms. Greenburg writes, the president gave Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas solid conservative support, placing on the bench two “collegial and savvy” allies who “can help keep moderate” Justice Anthony Kennedy (now the key swing vote) “in check.”
Read entire article at NYT