Defendind Kennedy over Nixon, you write:
<< Cointelpro
Well, the FBI anticommunist war continued under JFK.
<< Hideous appointments to the Supreme Court
Some and some. Rehnquist, Bleh. But Blackmun and Stevens were pretty good, to name two. And Kennedy gave us, among others, Byron White, author of Bowers v. Hardwick (no fundamental right to homosexual sodomy).
Backpedaling on civil rights legislation
>>
Yes and no. Kennedy had to be dragged kicking and screaming towards civil rights and couldn't quite bring himself to make the jump. (LBJ did it.) Nixon gave us affirmative action, the EEOC, and, malgre lui, Warren Burger, who authored Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Sch. Dist (authorizing busing for school integration).
--jks