All this report tells me is that the Republican spin machine has succeeded in brainwashing the American public and that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propagandist, has been truly been reincarnated in Karl Rove.

The same nitwits that have been telling us of "judicial activism" were the ones trying to force the Terry Schiavo case, a state case based purely on state law, into federal court, as TChris wrote here and several other postings. The best example of judicial activism in Schiavo in the dissenting opinion where the dissenter was suckered into believing that there was a federal issue there, somehow. Or was he just being a Republican judicial activist?

Congress can meet into the night to pass a statute for one person's family to go federal court to override her own belief in a right to die and override state courts that had ruled on the question several times over the years. A political horse to ride. Creating judicial activism, and then criticizing the judges who aren't as active as they want.

Yet, we can't get Congress to talk about Social Security reform over lunch, let alone work into the night.

In 1950, politics and judging were recognized by Justice Frankfurter: "[W]here one comes out on a case depends on where one goes in." United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). If one is a Republican hack appointed to the federal bench, well, then that judge is going to do what the power that put them there wants. If it is an issue dear to the Paleo-Cons and they lose, the judge who ruled against them is an activist. If they win, it is "justice."

Get me a barf bag.