I thought conventional wisdom was Republicans hate women. Want to hold them (ahem, us) down. Want women barefoot and preggers, seen but not heard, always ready with the dinner and never breaking “glass ceilings.”

But check this out from Dahlia Lithwick on Slate last month:

“What we forget—what I forget—is that O’Connor single-handedly blew open more doors for young women than almost any human being alive on this planet. What we forget is that it’s possible to be baffled by her ideology, worried by her power at the center of the high court, anxious about many of her views, and still feel the impulse to hug her.”

Yeah, ew, I know.

But a lot of people are going to be mimicing this woman-would-be-nothing-without-her kinda thing to some degree. So–just to play along with the gender game a sec–can I just point out RONALD REAGAN nominated her.