Sentence:  Presidential coercion had succeeded not only in poisoning the courtiers , `` toadies '' and sycophants of the `` bench '' against me , but it had <WSD>been</WSD> so far-reaching as to discourage any lawyer in the nation from representing me ! 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)