so reagan first nominated robert bork to the supreme court. nservative scholar, law professor, very prominent but very controversial in some of his views. and the term borking has now become a verb. it stands for doing away with somebody in the confirmation process, voting them down and sort of destroying their nomination and that came away from very contentious hearings that robert bork had in the senate. that was very contentious and that was probably shortly after -- well, i'd say that was one of the first hearings that had a lot of tv coverage which i think really contributed to the contentiousness of it. i guess i can't say that hearings now are more contentiously because you can go back all the way to george washington to find contentious. he tried to make him he appointed him and couldn't get him confirmed. and you had nixon and nixon had two supreme court nominees go down in flames. it's tv and 24 news cycle but it's not a new phenomenal >> we're joined by our friends at c-span today and we're grateful for that coverage and wider exposu

seat went to anthony kennedy, and i do not think kennedy is a liberal, but he is certainly not robert bork. the court has reflected that over the years. the appointment of bork -- kennedy set the stage for the rehnquist years on the court. that is what my book was about. was inspired to write "the nine " buy a book called "the brethren," the first behind the scenes look at the court, published in 1979. if you recall, the theme of that book, the theme of that book was how all the justices, without regard to politics, could not stand warren burger. they thought he was a pompous jerk. i get to report about all -- about how all the justices did not get along and they do not like the chief justice. to my disappointment as a journalist, i learned that was not all the case. chief justice rehnquist was a very popular figure around the supreme court, that regard to political affiliation. he really learned a lot from i would submit the-example of warren buerger, and one of the things he learned and one of the things rehnquist did was he engineered a tremendous reduction in the court's workload. the

and anthony kennedy, i don't think you can say is any liberal, but he's certainly not robert bork and the court has reflected that over the years. now the appointment of bork really sort of -- kennedy not bork, set the stage really for the rehnquist years on the court. that's what my book "the nine" was about. the rehnquist years. i was inspired to write "the nine" by a book that is familiar, i'm sure, to a lot of you which is called "the brethren" by bob woodward and mr. armstrong. first look at the behind-the. scenes look at supreme court which was published a long time ago now. if you recall the theme, the theme of the book was how all of the justices without regard to politics couldn't stand warren berger, they thought that was a pompous jerk. as i started to work on "the nine" great, i get to report about how all of the justices don't get along and like the chief justice. to my great disappointment as a journalist, but satisfaction as a citizen, i learned that was not at all the case under chief justice rehnquist. chief justice rehnquist was a very popular figure around the supre

robert bork -- kennedy set the stage. i was inspired to write "the nine" by a book familiar to a lot of you due to a book called "the brethren" published in 1979. a long time ago, now. if you recall the theme of that book, the theme of that book was how all the justices, without regard to politics, really couldn't stand warren berger. they thought he ways pompous jerk. as i started to work on "the nine" i thought, great, i get to report on how the justices really don't get along. well, to my great disappointment as a journalist but to my satisfaction as a citizen, i learned that was not at all the case under chief justice rehnquist. chief justice rehnquist was a very popular figure around the supreme court without regard to political affiliation. he really learned a lot from, i would submit, the negative example of warren berger. one of the things that he learned, and one of the things chief justice rehnquist did was he engineered a tremendous reduction in the court's workload. the justices liked this very much. in the 19