It is with some reluctance and with a heavy heart that I must join the chorus of Republican lawmakers who are speaking out against the abuses of a biased and arrogant judiciary in this country.

Here is what House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has to say on the subject:

DeLay issued a statement asserting that "the time will come for the men responsible for [the Terri Schiavo ruling] to answer for their behavior." He later said in front of television cameras that he wants to "look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."

It causes a lot of people, including me, great distress to see judges use the authority that they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions.... I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country.... And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence.

There was a time, and not too long ago, when I would have seen statements such as these as nothing more than crass intimidation and strong-arm tactics worthy of a banana republic or a post-Soviet satellite state. But that was before my heart was broken and my eyes were opened to the truth.

I'm speaking, of course, about Paula Abdul, who gives the term "activist judge" a whole new meaning. As ABC reported last night, the American Idol judge stands accused of improperly assisting--not to mention carrying on an illicit relationship with--contestant Corey Clark in 2003.

First appointed to the bench in 2002, Abdul is at the center of a case that clearly illustrates the danger posed to our democracy by an unaccountable judiciary hell-bent on subverting the Constitution and the will of the people.

Now is the time--before it is too late and yet another generation of Americans succumbs to cynicism--for Judge Abdul to step down. The work of the judiciary is a sacred trust, and as such, is far too important to be placed in the hands of false idols.

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