THREATS AGAINST THE JUDICIARY

The Sage is asleep and I am catching up (at midnight) on the news and political developments. The scariest items I am currently reading concern Republican politicans and their rash and irresponsible condemnations of judges who rule according to the law and not to conservative ideology.

Tom DeLay's dire predictions concerning the judges in the Terri Schiavo case and Sen. John Cornyn's (R-TX) remarks, I was told today by executives at my company, are not "threats" as they are generally accepted to mean, but are statements about the "eternal" price such people will pay for their actions here on earth. To which I responded, "Yeah, that reminds me of the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh pre-the Oklahoma City bombing, wherein Rush screeched against the evil federal government but later resorted to the coward's 'It's not my fault if some crazy took me seriously!' defense."

If some other wingnut decides to take it upon him/herself to avenge Terri Schiavo (how did one youngish white woman become such a singular cause celebre among the hundreds of thousands of twixt-life-and-death Americans?) by attacking and/or killing one of the judges involved because of their sworn duty to uphold the law, Tom DeLay and other cynical opportunitistic politicians and broadcast media personalities will have to face their own responsibility for creating a political climate in which such an action could be perceived as noble and justified.