It’s supposed to be an easy yes-or-no question. A reporter asks a presumably sane member of Congress whether he or she will pursue impeachment charges against federal judges who’ve done nothing wrong. The sensible, non-crazy answer is, “No.” With Tom DeLay, the answer consistently seems to be, “Maybe.”
Last week, for example, the ultra-conservative Washington Times asked DeLay, “Are you going to pursue impeaching judges?” DeLay responded, simply, “I’m not going to answer that.”
Yesterday, he was at it again.
[DeLay] said he could not predict whether Congress might try to remove any federal judges as a result of the committee’s review.
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to look at this issue and look at the Constitution, try to educate the American people as to what the checks and balances are, and who knows where that will lead us,” Mr. DeLay said.
He singled out Justice Kennedy, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan but has been criticized by conservatives for citing international law in a recent ruling barring the execution of juveniles.
“That’s just outrageous,” Mr. DeLay said in the Fox interview. “And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous.”
Why DeLay is suddenly against Internet research remains a mystery, but the fact that he’s still seriously talking about judicial impeachments is breathtaking. He’s not threatening judges with bodily harm anymore, but these are threats nevertheless. And this time, there will be no apology forthcoming.
I’d love to see how many of DeLay’s GOP colleagues would stand by such lunacy. How about some Dems get a resolution onto the House floor, asking lawmakers to vote up or down on a statement that no federal judge should face impeachment charges short of criminal activity and/or obvious malfeasance and misconduct? Let’s isolate DeLay and let him stand alone on his far-right fringe.