Tom Delay vs Judicial Activism

According to an Associated Press article by April Castro she reports that County District Attorney Ronnie Earle requested Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub a Republican withdraw from consider after Rep. Tom Delay challenges District Judge Bob Perkins a Democrat the donated to John Kerry and Moveon.org. The article goes on to state the following half-truth.

Lawyers on both sides in DeLay's case have argued that political contributions by judges have harmed at least the appearance of impartiality. But in a state where judges are elected and free to contribute to candidates and political parties, it could be a challenge to find a judge who meets both sides' definition of impartial.

Why I state it is a half truth is the Delay has made similar complaints about federal judge whom are not elected as you can see in this excerpt from an article by Charles Babington in the Washington Post.

Liberal activists criticized Cornyn's remarks, and compared them to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's comments last week following the death of a brain-damaged Florida woman, Terri Schiavo. DeLay (R-Tex.) rebuked federal and state judges who had ruled in the Schiavo case, saying, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

When he “apologized” for the comments he also expressed the need to curb activist judges according to this Washington Post article by Mike Allen,

Nevertheless, DeLay said he wants the Judiciary Committee to look for ways to deal with what he called "judicial activism," and suggested possibilities such as curtailing certain courts' jurisdiction and even redrawing boundaries of the federal circuits.

"Congress has constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities over the judiciary," he said. "We would be shirking our constitutional obligations if we did not look at these issues as they come up."

Tom Delay is correct in that Congress and more specifically the Senate has a constitutional mandated oversight responsibility over the judiciary. The are given that responsibility by their ability to impeach judges, make rules for the government, regulate jurisdiction, and exercise of other powers. My opinion is that at least in Texas the judges are open about their affiliation and don’t keep them secret as they do other places.