Senator John Conyn (R - TX) on the floor of the Senate today..
Wow. In light of the reaction Tom DeLay's recent threats have received, this guy either has some serious balls, or is just a monumental idiot.
I'm sure he'd like us to think it's the former, but it's not.
What, exactly, is he hoping to accomplish by "wondering" in the Senate whether there is some relationship between judicial opinions he disagrees with and judges and their families being threatened with violence and/or actually killed?
It's all carefully phrased as an analysis and not a direct provocation to violence, but it still amounts to a tacit justification and a thinly veiled threat.
One would expect that our leaders, mere weeks after a judge's husband and mother were murdered, would stake out firm ground on the side of the judges over the murderers, but not Senator Cornyn. He can sort of see where they're coming from. He could have made perfectly clear that, while we may disagree with some decisions made by the courts, there is absolutely no excuse for threats or violence against judges. We are a nation of laws. But he didn't say that, did he?
It reminds me of nothing more than the mob offering protection to the neighborhood businesses.
"We're not saying you gotta pay us the money, see, but let's just say that this other guy -- you remember Angelo? -- he didn't pay, and one day he turns up a little bit dead. That's all I'm gonna say. Capisce?"
Yglesias:
