The Blackmun Files.(Harry Blackmun)

It was not until about a week before Justice Harry Blackmun's vast trove of files were officially unsealed that there was much notice in the popular press. Part of that was probably resentment that the Blackmun estate had given Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times and Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio a two-month head start on deciphering the staggering paper trail, consisting of more than 1,500 boxes of documents and more than 530,000 items. This allowed the two longtime apologists for the author of Roe v. Wade to file in-depth stories March 4, the day the cache was opened to the public.

Based on the initial spate of news stories, Blackmun's papers provide much grist for the mill, although most of what he wrote merely confirmed what we already knew about him. One thing we're reminded of for sure: the late Supreme Court justice had perfected the art of attributing his own unpleasant behavior to others.

For example, he was the Rembrandt of scolding other justices for playing "politics" at the very same time his intra-court maneuvering and opinions were drenched in political machinations. The Washington Post reported on March 5 that "from the beginning," the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case "was viewed through a political lens in Blackmun's chambers." Understandably so, for at the time pro-abortionists were terrified that the justices would use the Pennsylvania case to say that Roe was not good constitutional law.

According to the Post, one of Blackmun's law clerks counseled Blackmun to make sure the case was heard and decided in an election year. "If you believe that there are enough votes on the court now to overturn Roe," Molly McUsic advised, "it would be better to do it this year before the election and give women the opportunity to vote their outrage."

Blackmun agreed. Without citing a shred of evidence, Blackmun persuaded himself that Roe v. Wade foe Chief Justice William Rehnquist was "deliberately delaying the court's consideration of the case so that it would not be heard until after the election," according to the Post.

Blackmun's politicking didn't end there. When Casey reaffirmed the "right" to abortion, "Politics also dictated the blast Blackmun aimed at the court's conservatives in his own separate opinion concurring in the court's judgment," the Post reported. "It was an open appeal to abortion rights supporters to remain vigilant on future court appointments despite their victory."

In that self-pitying/self-aggrandizing/woe-is-me voice he adopted in his later years on the Court, Blackmun intoned, "I fear for the darkness as four Justices anxiously await the single vote necessary to extinguish the light," he wrote. "I am 83 years old. I cannot remain on this Court forever, and when I do step down, the confirmation process for my successor well may focus on the issue before us today." Old Horatio at the Gate wasn't going to be at his post forever.