Alphecca

Far Right Threatens Courts

I'm not going to repeat myself on the sad case concerning the end of Terri Schiavo. It was pathetic that Congress tried to intervene at all. The courts made their decisions and in a country that considers itself to be a nation of laws, that should be the last word. But it isn't.

Two right-wing extremists of Congress have decided that if courts won't rule to their satisfaction then heads must roll. From AP/Yahoo:

In death as much as in life, political controversy surrounds Terri Schiavo. "The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme Court are unconscionable," Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said Thursday, attacking judges who repeatedly had refused to order tube-fed nourishment restored to the brain-damaged woman.

"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay added in a statement issued hours after Schiavo's death at a Florida hospice.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," said the Texan. DeLay was a driving force behind legislation Congress passed two weeks ago that gave federal courts jurisdiction in an attempt to save Schiavo's life.

Asked later at a news conference about possible impeachment proceedings against judges in the case, DeLay said, "There's plenty of time to look into that."

DeLay complained of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."

So to suggest that because things didn't go their way should now lead to impeachment of the various judges involved is tantamount to advocating that we should no longer have a balance of powers in the United States and that the U.S. District Court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court merely exist to impose the wishes of a Congress regardless of the constitutionality of the bills they pass.

If Delay really thinks that the judiciary is "arrogant and out of control" and "thumbing it's nose at Congress and the President", then I suggest that he and Santorum and the President are arrogant and out of control and are disregarding the wishes of the American people; polls indicate that over two-thirds of them wanted Congress to stay the hell out of the Schiavo case in the first place.

If anyone should be thrown out of office, it is Delay and Santorum.