Just Plain Creepy

I tuned into C-Span last night just in time to catch Tom DeLay's video rant to a "conservative conference in Washington entitled "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith." Geez.

Maybe it didn't look so bad for the people at the conference, but the extra layer of video for a television viewer cast a blue pall over the visage of the Majority Leader. And the rhetoric, combined with this, gave me the impression of a Peckerwood Big Brother exhorting those in attendence to do their best two-minute hate:

Judicial independence does not equal judicial supremacy," Mr. DeLay said...[he] faulted courts for what he said was their invention of rights to abortion and prohibitions on school prayer, saying courts had ignored the intent of Congress and improperly cited international standards and precedents. "These are not examples of a mature society," he said, "but of a judiciary run amok."

"The failure is to a great degree Congress's," Mr. DeLay said. "The response of the legislative branch has mostly been to complain. There is another way, ladies and gentlemen, and that is to reassert our constitutional authority over the courts."

Mr. DeLay's comments are the latest evidence of his determination to follow through on his vows to hold federal judges accountable in the aftermath of the failure of the federal courts to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube as Congressional conservatives intended...

Mr. DeLay criticized Congress as failing to act vigorously enough. "I believe the judiciary branch of our government has overstepped its authority on countless occasions, overturning and in some cases just ignoring the legitimate will of the people," he said. "Legislatures for too long have in effect washed our hands on controversial issues from abortion to religious expression to racial prejudice, leaving them to judges who we then excoriate for legislating from the bench. This era of constitutional cowardice must end."

Mr. DeLay alluded to Congressional authority to "set the parameters" of courts' jurisdictions and its obligation "to make sure the judges administer their responsibilities."

The organizers of the conference and Congressional staff members who spoke there called for several specific steps: impeaching judges deemed to have ignored the will of Congress or to have followed foreign laws; passing bills to remove court jurisdiction from certain social issues or the place of God in public life; changing Senate rules that allow the Democratic minority to filibuster Mr. Bush's appeals court nominees; and using Congress's authority over court budgets to punish judges whom it considers to have overstepped their authority.

"I am in favor of impeachment," Michael Schwartz, chief of staff to Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said in a panel discussion on abortion, suggesting "mass impeachment" might be needed...

Dr. Rick Scarborough, chief organizer of the conference, called on Congress "to protect us from an overactive judiciary," saying: "Right now they are ruling as an oligarchy. They are the kings of the land."

Mr. DeLay, who was previously criticized by some Democrats who said his open-ended remarks about holding judges accountable might incite violence, took care to warn the few dozen attendees at the conference to keep their emotions in check.

"As passionately as we all feel, especially about issues of life and death, the fact is that constitutional rule of law is a matter for serious and rational discussion," he said. "People on all sides of this debate need to approach the issue for what it is: a legitimate debate by people of good will trying to clarify the proper constitutional role of courts."

"People on all sides of the debate..." ? WTF? DeLay is truly giving in to his inner dementia, while fellow travelers like Schwartz call for batshit insane measures like "mass impeachment"? That's a debate? No, that's wingnuttery. And they don't stand a chance of doing anything like that. However, by extending the line ever rightward, I'm sure they're hoping to practice some good old fashioned strong arming--more or less the same thing that Cornyn did earlier in the week. But the fact that they feel comfortable enough to bully their way around like that is plenty troubling.

Of course, this could be the dying gasps of a hammerhead shark flopping around on dry land--DeLay, as most folks know, isn't merely ethically challenged--he's ethically retarded. Cornyn's speech was roundly criticized, and the article above notes even William Rhenquist's concern. After all, there are plenty of conservative judges: the GOP has held the White House for sixteen of the last twenty-five years. DeLay--and Cornyn's--rantings are as much infantile pouting as they are veiled threats.

So, let's hope the public sees through this and votes those bastards (and the minions who follow them) out on their ear. The last thing this country needs in positions of power are people who can't decide if they're crybabies or thugs...