I know that every blog with a pulse had this yesterday, but I don’t care. It’s a comment that’s so stunning, it speaks volumes about the lawmaker who said it and the party that encourages such twisted thinking.
Senator John Cornyn: “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. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that’s been on the news 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.” [Senate Floor, 4/4/05]
Just when I thought Republican lawmakers could stoop no lower, that their insanity could no longer surprise me, a new lunatic steps up to lower the bar to new depths.
Consider what’s happened the last month or so. A federal judge in Chicago saw her family killed by a man whose medical malpractice lawsuit had been dismissed. Shortly thereafter, a Georgia judge was killed in his courtroom by a madman who grabbed a deputy’s gun. All the while, the Florida judge who heard the Terri Schiavo case has needed constant protection because the “pro-life” crowd keeps threatening to kill him.
And yet, John Cornyn — who is a former judge — believes these judges brought this violence upon themselves. If some right-wing shock jock had tried to rationalize domestic terrorism like this on the air, it’d be disgusting. The fact that a member of United States Senate would utter such lunacy from the chamber’s floor makes one wonder if there’s even any hope left for today’s Republican Party.
The context for Cornyn’s remarks, if anything, make his comments worse. Immediately preceding his the senator’s justification for anti-judge violence, Cornyn said:
“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.”
The broader truth is Cornyn is a hack of the worst kind. Like Matthew Yglesias, I don’t think Cornyn was literally advocating violence against judges, but rather seeking to exploit recent tragedies to advance his political agenda. Cornyn has been a leading right-wing voice on the “nuclear option” and attempts to undermine the judiciary. Yesterday’s breathtaking, almost traitorous remarks were Cornyn’s way of manipulating anti-judge violence to move the political ball forward: Unless the judiciary starts ruling in a more conservative way, Cornyn seemed to argue, judges will be subjected to violence, so we better start seeing some better rulings soon. Or else.
So, what happens next? So far, there’s been no formal response that I can find from Cornyn. That won’t do. Moreover, I haven’t seen any quotes from other Republicans denouncing Cornyn’s insanity. That will have to change as well.
Dems, meanwhile, are outraged, but need to channel their repugnance into specific demands. I’d recommend, as a first step, that they ask Cornyn be replaced as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. An apologist for violence against judges has no business serving on a committee that helps evaluate the qualifications of judicial nominees.
Dems can’t let this fade away. The Bush years may be a time of “anything goes”-style politics, but Cornyn needs to be held accountable for his conduct.