The Washington Monthly

April 9, 2005

FRINGE WATCH....Dana Milbank reports today on the escalating rhetoric at a recent conservative conference about out-of-control judges. First came Phyllis Schlafly, suggesting that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy ought to be impeached. Up next was Michael Farris, who said that not only should Kennedy be impeached, but so should anyone who voted against impeaching him. Then there was the climax of the day:

Not to be outdone, lawyer-author Edwin Vieira told the gathering that Kennedy should be impeached because his philosophy, evidenced in his opinion striking down an anti-sodomy statute, "upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law."

Ominously, Vieira continued by saying his "bottom line" for dealing with the Supreme Court comes from Joseph Stalin. "He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem,' " Vieira said.

The full Stalin quote, for those who don't recognize it, is "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem."

Lovely. But here's the scariest part: as Milbank says, "This was no collection of fringe characters."

He's right. Increasingly, this is the mainstream of the Republican party. It's time for some housecleaning, folks.

The Debate Link has more.

—Kevin Drum 5:07 PM Permalink | Trackbacks

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