OH PLEASE – AT 11:23 A.M. ET:  Speak of the pot calling the kettle racially diverse:  The Dems are upset at some Supreme Court justices, as The Politico reports:

Senate Democrats are furious with Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — and Alito’s silent State of the Union rebuke of the president is the least of their concerns.

Democrats say Alito crossed the line when he mouthed the words “not true” during President Barack Obama’s speech Wednesday night. But worse, they say, both Roberts and Alito misled them during their confirmation hearings when they represented themselves as jurists who would respect precedent.

Is this serious?  What line did Alito cross?  What about The One's crossing a very thick line – criticizing a Supreme Court decision in the presence of the justices, and getting the facts wrong?  Guess it doesn't count.

“You bet they misled,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the assistant majority leader and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At issue is the ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the campaign finance decision Obama was discussing Wednesday night when Alito mouthed his objections.

In last week’s 5-4 decision, a majority of the justices — including Roberts and Alito — ruled that the government cannot restrict corporations and labor unions from spending general funds on advertising to support or oppose specific candidates in federal elections. Some analysts predict that the decision will open the door to a flood of campaign advertising by corporations and unions leading up to Election Day — and that Republicans will be the primary beneficiaries.

COMMENT:  Apparently, some Dems are shocked, shocked, to find out that John Roberts and Sam Alito are conservatives. 

As for crossing a line, some senior Democrats, although they must have known that Obama was misstating the facts in denouncing the Court's decision, clapped for him loudly as they sat in a row just behind the Supreme Court justices.  An act of supreme rudeness, if nothing else.

January 29, 2010