Republican right wingers - really wrong whiners - never stop. They shamelessly complain that Democrats treat them almost as bad as they treat Democrats. The nerve! But the truth is, no one treats Republicans the way Republicans treat everyone else. Take the judicial appointment controversy. Republicans whine that Democratic Senators "obstruct" Bush's choices for judgeships to the point of crisis. They never admit the few blocked choices - and some who have been confirmed - fall far outside the mainstream. Others are inexperienced and / or otherwise unqualified.

If that were the extent of this controversy, the Republicans would have a point. They don't. Even if all Clinton's choices sailed through the Senate, the three blocked judges - Pickering, Owen and Estrada - do not deserve a vote on the Senate floor. Pickering violated legal and judicial ethics intervening on behalf of domestic terrorists who committed arson and assault against a mixed-race couple. No one so willing to coddle criminals, so hostile to racial justice and so extreme he is eager to turn back the judicial clock to Plessy v. Ferguson deserves a seat on the federal bench.

Owen is tainted by decisions which favored her campaign contributors and a ruthlessly rigid ideological extremism. My sources allege she has abused her authority from the bench before. She does not deserve a promotion. The inexperienced, extreme Estrada refuses to even make a good faith effort to cooperate with the Senate's confirmation process. No one who refuses to fill out the application has any claim to a lifetime appointment just a step away from the already degraded US Supreme Court.

Suddenly all these courtesies the Republicans demand for the far right wing choices of an unelected "president" are constitutionally mandated. Three years ago, they refused to follow this mandate for moderate choices made by a duly elected President Clinton.

The Republicans blocked numerous Clinton appointments – often not even giving them a committee hearing, much less a committee vote, much less a floor vote. Jesse Helms held up our Ambassadors to China and Japan for months. Months with no top-level diplomatic representation to both of these critically important nations, insulting them in the process. Republicans did nothing.

Republicans blocked some Clinton choices because they were Black and others because they were gay. They blocked some for being liberal and others for being moderate. Republicans wrecked the appointment process for the worst reasons - bigotry, resentment, partisanship.

Three years ago the party that resorted to the judicial process short-circuiting and rigging the electoral process itself. Suddenly majority rule is all the rage with these anti-republic Republican Party. Calling them hypocrites will not even scratch the surface. But it’s even worse.

The fact show the "judicial crisis" Republicans scream about doesn’t even exist. Here are the facts: Judicial vacancies are lower than any time in over 12 years. Republican complaints about Democratic "payback" - their admitted mistreatment of Democrats they claim provoked this alleged backlash - are lies.

Those "obstructionist" Democrats in the Senate allowed votes on nearly all Bush’s choices, and approved more than 98 percent of them! More than 120 judges in all! See: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/135/oped/The_war_over_the_judiciary+.shtml

Why are the Republicans so desperate to pack the judiciary with far right wing judges? So desperate that they rely on the most facile and transparent lies? That they eagerly risk their reputation?

The answer is simple. Right wing judges in Florida and on the US Supreme Court overruled the voters to select Bush. Now, Bush is selecting more right wing judges who will then overrule more elections to put more right wingers in office over our objections.

Where does this vicious cycle leave the voters? In the famous words of AWOL Bush's father, this leaves us "Out of the loop." These right wing Republicans aren't getting the "pay back" they deserve (and complain about). They're not just whiners. They're not just hypocrites. These whiny wrong wing Republicans are not just liars. They're enemies of the republic itself, and do not deserve the name Republican Party.