In saying publicly that he can understand why some people go ballistic and kill "activist" judges, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas gives tacit approval to extremists to go out and kill those federal judges who follow the Constitution to the detriment of right wing causes.

 

The timing of Cornyn's statement coincided conveniently with the killing of a judge and several other court officials in Atlanta, but the fact is his comment is irrelevant to this incident: the killer was on trial for the second time for a rape charge after the first had ended in a mistrial. He had already spent eight or nine months in jail and he simply snapped. Thoughts of judicial activism were not a factor.  

 

This didn't keep Sen. Cornyn from using the Atlanta incident as cover to attack the federal judiciary. While Cornyn may not actually want federal judges to be picked off  (maybe he's just running interference for his pal DeLay), he certainly wants to intimidate the judiciary. 

The parallels to pre-World War II Germany get stronger every day. Hitler changed the laws and took over the judiciary, so that everything the Nazis did after that would be "legal".