http://bostonreview.net/BR31.1/hansonbenforado.html
Richard Nixon, for instance, thought he was getting solid right-wingers when he appointed Harry Blackmun and Lewis Powell, only to find, several years later, Blackmun authoring Roe v. Wade and Powell swing-voting to permit affirmative action in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.
The authors make a pretty compelling case. I'm suddenly a lot less anxious about Alito's impending confirmation. If history is any indication, they will both vote conservative values for the next decade or so, and then shift gradually leftward.