Activist judges

Even as he keeps one eye on a run for the White House in 2008, Sen. Sam Brownback continues to be one of the loudest national voices critiquing “activist judges.”

MSNBC.com reported last week that Republicans have all but settled on the “nuclear option” to override a Democratic filibuster of conservative judicial nominees. Brownback told the Web site that judges are overstepping their boundaries.

“Are they the rulers in America? That’s what I get asked by people,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. “Particularly when judges deal with such fundamental social issues that go counter (to the people), these are issues the country ought to engage. You’ve got marriage and (judges) going counter to the whole country, so is there nobody that can push back against the courts?”

Tiahrt, too

The Washington Post reports that U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Wichita Republican, is joining Brownback in the criticism.

During a budget hearing on Capitol Hill last week, the Post reported, Tiahrt lectured Appellate Judge Julia Smith Gibbons about the judiciary’s failure to deeply review the Terri Schiavo case despite a special law passed by Congress.

“You know, we don’t ask much from the courts. We just pay the bills,” Tiahrt said during the hearing. “The one time that we did ask something from the courts, a simple judicial review of the facts of a case, we were ignored.”

Quote of the week

“It’s way early. I’m keeping the options open.”

Sen. Sam Brownback, in New Hampshire, on the possibility of a 2008 presidential bid.