| In his response, penned
Wednesday, DeLay said that he had received Lautenberg's
letter with a "combination of confusion and regret,"
and asserted that none of his remarks were "threatening,
irresponsible, dangerous, inappropriate, intimidating
or reckless."
"Mischaracterizing a call for the judiciary to
publicly explain its reasons for taking an innocent
woman's life as threatening 'our fundamental democracy'
reveals either ignorance or contempt for the framework
of checks and balances that make our constitutional
republic possible," DeLay concluded in the letter,
obtained by RAW STORY.
In response, Lautenberg said DeLay's statements speak
for themselves.
“If there is any question about what Majority
Leader DeLay meant in his statement, one only needs
to look at his history of threatening and inflammatory
rhetoric against our nation’s judges,” the
New Jersey senator remarked, citing previous quotes
DeLay made.
"We will look at an unaccountable, arrogant, out-of-control
judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the
president," DeLay told the Houston Chronicle
Apr. 1. "The time will come for the men responsible
for this to answer for their behavior."
A more direct quote Lautenberg cited DeLay made in
the Washington Post in September 1997.
"The judges need to be intimidated," the
Sugarland Republican told the Post. "If they don't
behave, "we're going to go after them in a big
way."
DeLay's letter follows.
Article originally published Apr. 8, 2005.
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