Lautenberg Slams DeLay, Cornyn

Go Frank. As John notes below, Lautenberg blasted DeLay and Cornyn for their judge bashing comments. RawStory.com has the text of Senator Lautenberg's floor statement. I think it's worth a read and seeing some of the key excerpts:

A few highlights:

Today there is an orchestrated effort to smear the reputation of the judiciary, especially federal judges.

This effort is being waged by Republicans in Congress, as a prelude to an attempt to change the rules for confirming judicial appointments.

In order to justify the “nuclear option,” they are trying to paint judges as “activists” and “out of control.”

In reality, it is the leadership of this Congress that is out of control and endangering the future of a fair court system.

Lautenberg read these remarks from that Cornyn made on Monday (and which every other Democrat should be talkng about):

"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."

That's when Lautenberg let them have it:

These remarks are almost unbelievable.

Yet they echo the words last week of the House Majority Leader.

Speaking of the judges in the Schiavo case, the House Majority Leader said, “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

These are inflammatory words.

They ignore the fact that our Founding Fathers wanted judges to be insulated from political pressure.

And they are words that could easily incite violence against judges.

This is good stuff. We need more of it. And we need the groups to start including this message in everything they write and send.

From now on, as Lautenberg's statement made clear, the debate about the filibuster and judicial nominations should link Cornyn and DeLay to violence against judges. Lautenberg's right: their remarks are unbelievable, inflammatory and could incite violence against judges. We now have our talking points, let's stick with them.

Thanks, once again, Senator Lautenberg, for saying what has to be said.