Your acting like he is clueless about this woman and the situation is the exact opposite.
Maybe I'm no longer convinced that President Bush really wants to use the opportunity to move SCOTUS rightward. Maybe she, like Putin, has fooled Bush. In any case, I can't trust this pick to be any more (or less for that matter) than O'Connor was at this point; not without more, non-conflicting info.
I don't think Bush is fooled and as far as Bush being fooled with Putin, Putin was never solid. Putin has the Russian mafia and old KGB threatening to kill him all the time. If they get to him, a former cooperative person would be rendered uncooperative.
I think Russia is a hell hole and there is no way to predict from one day to the next what politicians there will have the power to do. They can be threatened, blackmailed and hurt in many ways and that has NOTHING to do with Bush misjudging them, it has to do with the way Russia is and the effect that would have on a leader from there.