doc_text: In the two years since his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected, Robert Bork has found a new forum.
  From his base at a conservative think tank he has become a best-selling author and he's soon to hit the lecture circuit.
  No, he doesn't think he will ever get another shot at the high court.
  By JOHN BARBOUR, AP Newsfeatures Writer : WASHINGTON (AP) : 
  The man who would have been a member of the U.S. Supreme Court and was stingingly rebuffed by the Senate is quick to smile at the irony the last two years have brought.
  Robert Heron Bork does not dwell on past disappointments.
  In fact, he sees himself having a bigger impact on the law from the sidelines than he would have had from the bench.
  He says he is taking his case to a higher court, the American public and the next generation.
  One reason why is that Robert Bork, former Marine, former practicing lawyer, former Yale professor of law, former solicitor general, former professor at Yale again, former judge of the U.S. Circuit of Appeals, is now a best-selling writer.
  To his surprise, "The Tempting of America, The Political Seduction Of The Law," has been on the best-seller list for more than 10 weeks, and there are more than 190,000 copies in print.
  Has that vindicated his views?
  "I never felt the need for vindication," he says with a chuckle.
  Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court in July 1987 and four months later the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, after an often vitriolic debate, found him unfit for the job.
  His strict constructionist views of the Constitution threatened the inclusion of women's rights under the 14th Amendment, and evoked a public outcry from blacks and labor.
  In the political undercurrent it was also remembered that Bork as solicitor general dismissed special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Saturday Night Massacre in the Nixon administration.
  Sitting in his office at the American Enterprise Institute, his back to his word processor, he briefly considers what might have been: "I don't want to spend the rest of my life reliving it.
  I have other things to do."
  He recalls the impact of a book he wrote a dozen years ago on antitrust law.
  "A lot of people were good enough to say it had a great influence on moving antitrust laws from where they were to where they are now."
  "I hope in the same way to have some effect with this one," he says, pointing out the antitrust book had a greater impact than a few opinions he might have handed down from the bench.
  "You know if you are on a court, you are one vote.
  And you can't sit down and write 300 pages of connected argument to show why this is the right approach.
  "I think this book has the chance to have more impact.
  I think I am talking to the next generation."
  He says he has has received more than 200 letters from readers, some short, some long, some funny, some analytical, all supporting, he says.
  The law reviews have yet to come out, but one university is planning four of them.
  The book is also planned for paperback, which should reach a student audience.
  Bork has plans for perhaps two more books, one in more academic detail on constitutional law aimed at law schools, and another on the relationship of law and the culture.
  He will hit the lecture circuit this spring and fall and will teach a constitutional law course next year at George Mason University.
  Occasionally he writes magazine commentary articles.
  Perhaps another shot at the court?
  "I don't think so.
  I don't think that's in the cards ...
  The first time around when I was nominated for the Court of Appeals, the Senate approved me unanimously, as did the committee."
  But now he feels the Senate has taken a position on him that would preclude its backing down.
  He relishes what free time he has.
  He is catching up on reading he's not had a chance to do, making up for longtime neglect: Flexner's four volumes on Washington, English philosopher John Stuart Mill and his critics.
  He and his wife, Mary Ellen, eschew most commercial television programs and rent videotapes instead.
  "Popular culture as far as I'm concerned has gone straight downhill," Bork says.
  During the hearings, Bork was astonished to learn that a radio reporter had gone to the video store he frequents and obtained a list of all of the tapes he had rented.
  "I guess he was hoping for something really scandalous, but all he got was Fred Astaire and Cary Grant."
  There is now a law against giving out such lists.
  At his bedside table are mysteries, his other pastime, Martha Grimes, Dorothy Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham.
  But it's hard to follow a story when you read only four pages a night, he says.
  The sedentary life has taken its toll.
  Asked what his ideal weight would be, he smiles and offers an understatement, "less than it is now.
  I have to get myself back in shape so I can get back to tennis.
  I used to like to ski
  but I wouldn't dare now."
  He went skiing once when he was out of shape.
  He was halfway down the slope, he says, "when the muscles began to flutter and that's not very good because you have to get down the rest of the mountain."
  Bork enjoys the atmosphere at the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative think tank that has become his small university.
  His colleagues include Irving Kristol, publisher of The National Interest, former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former State Department arms negotiator Richard Perle and political, economic and social commentators such as Ben Wattenberg, Michael Novak, Norman Ornstein and Walter Berns.
  The institute does not make grave demands on its members.
  There is an occasional brown-bag lunch where a speaker is brought in from the outside.
  Bork, who abhored grading papers when he taught, says with a self-satisfied grin, "It's a very good faculty, with no blue books."
  The faculty often gets together for dinner.
  But, one suggests, given that many active minds around the dinner table, the soup must get cold.
  "Not mine," says Bork.
summary_text: Robert Bork, after being defeated as nominee to the Supreme Court, joined the American Enterprise Institute and then became a best selling author by authoring "The Tempting of America."
  He believes this book on legal theory may have a positive effect on the views of future generations, even more so than decisions he may have made on the Supreme Court.
  Are his views vindicated?
  He said that he never felt the need for vindication.
  He plans to write two more books, hit the lecture circuit, teach, write magazine commentary and catch up on his reading.
  Beside mysteries are his other pastime.