The Wall Street Journal Law Blog pretty much confirms that the audience member at the Federalist Society dinner in D.C. last week who called Mukasey a "tyrant" shortly before he fainted was Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders, a libertarian member of the Federalist Society.
"Heckler" Judge at Mukasey Dinner Speaks to the Law Blog:
Reports of last week’s Federalist Society dinner in Washington, where Attorney General Michael Mukasey fainted at the conclusion of his speech, mentioned that a "heckler" briefly disrupted the speech.
"Tyrant, you are a tyrant," the man said, before being shouted down by other attendees. Soon after, the man left the room. There is no reason to believe the outburst helped cause Mukasey’s collapse, which occurred 15 minutes later. Mukasey, of course, was given a clean bill of health and released from the hospital the next day.
Later, reports James Taranto of OpinionJournal.com, Wendy Long of the Judicial Confirmation Network identified the heckler as Justice Richard B. Sanders of the Washington state Supreme Court.
The Law Blog on Monday caught up with the 63-year-old Sanders (pictured, right). Sanders didn’t confirm that he was the one who shouted at Mukasey, but didn’t deny it, either. He said he had "no comment except to say that having reviewed the video of the speech" on the Federalist Society’s web site, "it doesn’t appear that whatever was said was heard by [Attorney] General Mukasey. I left the dinner before the General unfortunately collapsed." He added that "in my mind a heckler is someone who is making repeated comments audible to the speaker [and] you’ll see that that just didn’t happen."
Conservatives like Michelle Malkin seem to think it was shameful for Sanders to heckle Mukasey.
My own feeling is that it's about time for a member of the Federalist Society to stick up for the society's alleged beliefs in constitutionalism and limited government. For too long have they supported the Bush regime's power grabs.