NO ONE HAS yet to mistake Federal Appeals Court Judge Anthony M. Kennedy for a liberal. Ronald Reagan's latest nominee to the Supreme Court appears to be a conservative in the truest sense of the word, conservative both in temperment and practice. Unlike either Robert Bork or Douglas Ginsburg, he seems to have few ideological axes to grind. If the words of colleagues of all persuasions can be trusted, Kennedy is a most judicious judge, one whose written opinions demonstrate a painstaking commitment to weighing the facts of a given case in light of applicable law and not to remaking the judiciary and society so they accord with his own convictions.

Kennedy's likely confirmation by the Senate to fill the seat left vacant by Justice Lewis F. Powell is thus no small consolation to those who were troubled by the prospect of a Justice Bork and unsure what to make of a Justice Ginsburg. At the very least, liberals can take comfort in the make-up of the rogue's gallery which virulently opposed his nomination after Bork's bid went down to defeat in the Senate. Anyone who could so arouse the wrath of Ed Meese, Jesse Helms, Orrin Hatch and Strom Thurmond can't be all bad.

There no doubt will come to light several decisions handed down by Judge Kennedy which will offend the sensibilities of many of the same individuals and groups which united to defeat Bork. That is to be expected. He is, after all, the nominee of Ronald Reagan.

But anyone who watched a humbled Reagan introduce him to the country last week can't believe that the president was happy with the nomination. Battered, bruised and beaten by the Bork and Ginsburg fiascos, the Administration's right-flank--which, strangely enough, includes the President--has been forced to swallow its ideological pride and promise to support for the Court a nominee with whom they clearly are not enamored.

That Kennedy still will find himself on the Court's right testifies only to the importance of the upcoming presidential election. If Democrats want jurists of their own stripe on the Court, they have to put one of their own in the White House.