Please Don't Shoot the Judges

WaPo:

Sen. John Cornyn said yesterday that recent examples of courthouse violence may be linked to public anger over judges who make politically charged decisions without being held accountable.

In a Senate floor speech in which he sharply criticized a recent Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty, Cornyn (R-Tex.) -- a former Texas Supreme Court justice and member of the Judiciary Committee -- said Americans are growing increasingly frustrated by what he describes as activist jurists.

(snip)

Cornyn, who spoke in a nearly empty chamber, did not specify cases of violence against judges. Two fatal episodes made headlines this year, although authorities said the motives appeared to be personal, not political. In Chicago, a man fatally shot the husband and mother of a federal judge who had ruled against him in a medical malpractice suit. And in Atlanta last month, a man broke away from a deputy and fatally shot four people, including the judge presiding over his rape trial.

This whole "Can you blame them?" attitude from Cornyn is irresponsible and unbecoming a Senator. Instead of looking for excuses, why not condemn the shootings out right and praising the brave judicial system? No one suggests that people would be alright shooting Senators because they write the laws that judges are forced to rule on, do they?

Shame on you Senator Cornyn.

*UPDATE* I read over the words Cornyn spoke, captured at the lovely Americablog. Should I mention that it is the GOP that for years has been trying to paint judges as liberal activists even though they aren't, and it is the words of those Republicans that have created what Cornyn suggests is the current situation he seems to excuse?

Is the sick irony that obvious? Or did I need to just point it out?

And is this "lifetime appointment" rhetoric a step in the direction of term limits for judges? Perhaps a system like they have in Indiana? If that's the end result they have in mind, there are better ways to go about suggesting it.