With the coverage over the last few days of the folks down in Arizona, you probably thought this post was about the US Border Patrol and immigration. Sorry to disappoint. No, this diary is about a new vigilante group in the South and Southwest, and heading up the posse are folks like Texans Tom DeLay and John Cornyn.
These guys are looking to retaliate against judges they feel are "activists" who have the temerity to rule based on law instead of ideology. But the level of attack has been ratcheted up to new levels in the last 48 hours. They want to ride these guys out of town, or worse.
More below the fold -
First, DeLay made the following statement following the death of Terri Schiavo:
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."
A thinly veiled threat, but one that at least hints at political pressure to remove justices who don't agree with DeLay's view of how things should run.
Then came Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).
"It causes a lot of people, including me, great distress to see judges use the authority that they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions," he said. Sometimes, he said, "the Supreme Court has taken on this role as a policymaker rather than an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people."
"I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. . . . And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have."
So according to Cornyn, judges like the Chicago judge whose family was killed, or the Atlanta Superior Court judge who was murdered in his courtroom have "asked for it" by way of their rulings.
Oh, and just in case you thought this was just picking things out of the ether, DeLay, along with a whole host of other folks will be speaking at a conference this coming weekend in Washington, DC, whose organizers have named "Confronting The Judicial War On Faith". Who else will be speaking? Try Senator Sam Brownback (considered one of the most conservative congressmen serving), former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (he of the 10 Commandments ruling), and Alan Keyes, whose record far precedes him.
And what will they be talking about?
The conference also will consider Ten Commandments displays and the right of Americans to publicly acknowledge God, judicial nominations, the judicial assault on marriage and remedies to judicial tyranny.
"This will be an action-oriented conference. Our purpose is to draw up a plan of action to oppose the liberal judges who have abrogated our most precious human rights - including Terri Schiavo's right to life. Out of it will come a coalition of family groups, ministries and churches dedicated to restoring constitutional rights and liberty."
Sound like the boys are saddling up, and getting their lynch mob organized.
So while you're worrying about a bunch of armchair border patrol agents in Arizona, these guys are the true vigilantes. They're arming themselves with fear, hypocrisy, and bibles, and they're gonna round up them judicial varmints that don't toe the line.
Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter. What these guys are doing is blackmail and intimidation, plain and simple. And Cornyn's comments are practically begging for someone to take matters into their own hands with another judge.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, these types of comments used to be veiled, hidden, spoken soto voce. But now, perhaps emboldened by by November's elections, they've brought their venom into the light. They don't want dialogue, nor rule of law. They want their will be done, regardless of the law of the land, the will of the people, ethics or morals. If it doesn't fit their view of how things should be, eradicate it, exterminate it. Ask DeLay, the former exterminator.
Raise your guard, friends. The "Hole-In-The-Head" gang is mounting up.