O’Connor’s Senate visits appear to end opposition

WASHINGTON (AP) -Almost singlehandedly, Sandra D. -O’Connor seems to ha~e.defused any serious conservative opposition to her becoming the first woman on the Supreme Court. In four days of sometimes helter- skelter meetings on Capitol Hill, O’Connor has drawn praise from senators normally on opposite sides of almost any political issue. “I’m convinced that Judge O’Connor will receive confirmation by an overwhelming if not a unanimous Senate,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the principal Democratic liberal voice in the Senate and a major ideological opponent of the Reagan administration. Kennedy is as enthusiastic on O’Connor’s behalf as conservative stalwart Barry Goldwater, the Republican senator who is the nominee’s home-state sponsor. Other key conservatives, such as Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina have said they will support the quiet-s~ken graduate of Stanford University Law School. Thus far, no senator has come out in opposition. In all, O’Connor met with 24 of the 100 members of the Senate. Most meetings ended or began with a photograph that will no doubt find its way into mail to voters in each senator’s state. Constantly trailed by a band of reporters and television crews, O’Connor seemed amused at only one point in her Washington visit, when she and a few aides and reporters were briefly trapped in a crowded, stubborn elevator that refused to stop at the proper floor. O’Connor’s travels through the Senate recalled one of Reagan’s