Sandra Day O'Connor announced Friday she will retire from the Supreme Court, setting off high fives amongst conservatives and eliciting groans from liberals.

Despite Chief Justice William Rehnquist's ailing health, it's O'Connor who has wanted to retire for some time. In 2000, upon hearing Al Gore was to win the presidential election, O'Connor reportedly freaked:

"This is terrible," Sandra Day O'Connor said when she heard that Al Gore had won Florida on Election Night 2000. According to Newsweek, O'Connor, then 69, wanted to retire from the Supreme Court. But she wanted to leave under a Republican president so that her seat would go to a fellow Republican. According to court watchers, O'Connor was so eager to retire to her beloved Arizona that she overlooked the constitutional separation of powers by agreeing to hear Bush v. Gore, effectively appointing George W. Bush to the presidency.