NPR: O'Connor the Moderate?

Sandra Day O'Connor's speech yesterday at Georgetown University was not available for broadcast, but NPR has a cracking good report on it. I have never been so in love with Nina Totenberg.

Without naming names, O'Connor ripped into the rhetorical bullshit of Tom DeLay and John Cornyn, and the dangers of partisan attacks on the judicial system.

Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

Follow the link to hear the story, or click to read a transcript.