April 05, 2005
Cornyn Makes Excuses for Terrorists
By Byron LaMasters
Via America Blog is our senator making excuses for terrorism against judges:
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]
It would seem as if John Cornyn is attempting to use the recent violence and threats of violence against our judiciary for political gain. That is utterly shameless. Is this really the best arguement that Republicans can make in favor of ending the filibuster?
I will say this to John Cornyn. The next time a judge is murdered, you have blood on your hands.
Via Supreme Irony.
Update: It's over on Kuff as well now.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at April 5, 2005 12:46 AM
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Accountable to the public? Since When?
Where did Corny take civics?
"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,"
The reason many judicial positions are appointed is to relieve them from public pressure and scrutiny and the need to taylor decisions to the public in order to secure re-election.
Judges are accountable to the law and the constitution, not the public at large. What a bunch of ignorant hogwash.
I don't know if he will have blood on his hands, but that was a pretty shitty thing to say.
I have been mentioning this at dKos and MyDD and gotten some good response. I want to put together a big open-source blog for Texas bloggers to chronicle the actioons of the Texas right wing and act as a one stop shop for the latest information about their dealings. It should also be a place for cross posting for anything related to the Texas wingnuts. Time to tie them all together in one place for the use of activists and candidates who will run against them in 2006. Otherwise so many of these stories will be forgotten.
Here is my dKos diary. Email me if you are interested in joining up. I am the blogger from Corked Bats in Dallas.
Cornyn is a disgrace for blaming judges for being attacked...Never did he consider that the assault weapons ban he fought to end contributes to these killings .........What a loser
America Blog, which you link, didn't quote the full speech. It left out important introductory paragraphs in which Sen. Cornyn pleaded not to be misunderstood in exactly the way many blog posts (unfortunately including this one) have done. And it bold-faced everything except the very important disclaimers even in the midst of its truncated quotation. Other sources — amazingly including some center and right-leaning blogs — have also been a bit fast and loose with their quotations.
Please read the whole speech, please, and consider Sen. Cornyn's career as a trial and appellate judge and Texas Attorney General before jumping to the conclusion that he's calling for violence against judges.
Then read his clarifying remarks from the Senate floor today, which I've quoted in full in an update to a post on my own blog.
There are legitimate issues raised in his speech that would profit from civil discussion from the right and left. But with due respect, guys, this is a red herring. He didn't call for violence against judges, and that's not even a reasonable inference from what he actually did say yesterday.
Save your ammo for DeLay, I'd suggest.
