Remember the whole Terri Schiavo fiasco? Or the spate of gay marriage certificates being issued in New Paltz NY, San Francisco CA, and Portland OR? One thing you couldn’t hear enough from the Religious Reich is how it was the nefarious “activist judges” who “legislate from the bench” and “subvert the will of the people” that were to blame. Laws, they reminded us, are to be made by the people through their representatives in the legislature, not determined by interference from a judge.
So it was delicious to see ultra-right-wing gasbag Tom “I Can Tell You’re Lying” Coburn (Wingnut-OK) on Meet The Press warn us about that activist judge Scalito that Bush has nominated to the Supreme Court:
RUSSERT: Do you believe Congress has the right to restrict the sale and transfer of machine guns or do you think that Judge Alito is correct that Congress should not be interfering in that?
SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK): No, I think we probably have the right to do it. But I don’t think a judge has the right. That brings us back to the whole point. Those aren’t decisions judges should be making. Those are decisions legislatures should be making. That’s how we’ve gotten off on this track that we allowed judges to start deciding the law, new law, rather than interpret the law that the Congress — what should have napped this case is this is an area that’s up for debate and needs to go back to Congress. And if Congress decides that, then it should be there.
RUSSERT: So Judge Alito was wrong?
COBURN: Sure.
RUSSERT: And he was legislating?
COBURN: Sure.
MR. RUSSERT: So conservative jurists or strict constructionists can also legislate.
SEN. COBURN: Well, I’m not sure that’s what he is yet. You’ve assumed that.
That’s not the only juicy bit of wisdom from Tom “There’s rampant lesbianism in the schools!” Coburn. Apparently gay people are just a symptom — not the cause of — the undermining of the American family unit, except that the gay people are a threat to undermine the family.
MR. RUSSERT: But voicing his opinion, as he did there on gay rights, you recall in the campaign back in Rogers County, when you made comments like this, telling a group of local Republicans that– “[Coburn] told a meeting of local Republicans that ‘the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power. They are the greatest threat, that agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom we face today.'”
SEN. COBURN: It’s a threat to undermine the family. It does undermine the family. And if you look at the structural problems with our country today, what is happening to us at every level as a nation and in our culture? Our families are falling apart. If you look at how we spend money in the federal government, the increasing amounts that we’re spending are to attack–attack–the very problems where the family is falling apart.
MR. RUSSERT: Is that because of gays?
SEN. COBURN: No. It’s a symptom of it. There’s–it’s–there’s not a cause and effect. But if we look at any problem that we’re facing today in our nation, anything that detracts or undermines this very basic unit of culture is going to undermine our entire country.
Hey, all you gays, stop undermining our entire country with your agenda of securing government recognition of your monogamous relationships, just so you can have the same legal rights that protect the children of straight kids.
