Right-wing mudslinger misses Judge O’Connor

A rizona Appeals J udge Sandra O’Connor is no shrinking violet. She’s fully able to handle her end of it during U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, which open Wednesday in the Senate. But the archconservatives will be in Washington in full force to cut her down because she isn’t fully in their camp on the abortion i’ssue and the doomed Equal Rights Amendment. Both are emotional issues. Judge O’Connor, because of her legal training , does not view important issues on an emotional basis. No competent judge does. Judge O’Connor is a political conservative . In her years in the Arizona Senate, and as the first woman majority leader, she amply demonstrated to my satisfaction that she supports a limited government, free enterprise and the lowest tax rate possible. But what bothers the Moral Majority is that she’s not a zealot like its members, that she believes there are some areas in life where human beings must make moral decisions for themselves . The Conservative Digest, in its August issue, includes two post cards that readers are asked to send to their senators in Washington. They are headed, “I strongly urge you not to support the Supreme Court nomination of Sandra O’Connor.” The digest’s publisher is right-wing extremist Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail fund-raising expert. “It is clear from her record in the Arizona Senate that she is a supporter of legalized abortion,” the post card contends. “Her choice is a violation of the 1980 Republican platform, which pledged