The good news for the extreme right is the ACA will help them cover the new expenses incurred by antidepressants and blood pressure meds. The bad news is that may not be anywhere near enough to ease their rage. Some right-wing reaction below the fold.
Over at Media Matters we learn, among other things, that conservatives now think Chief Justice John Roberts is a “loathsome, black-robed political weasel” and that his decision means “the end of America … No exaggeration.”
There are demands all over the nutosphere that Roberts be impeached. (I’m not sure if they’ve really thought that one through: any action to remove Roberts sure wouldn’t be held up by progressives.)
TPM reports that one prankster managed to change Roberts’ wiki page to read “17th Chief Traitor of the United States,” until it was taken down.
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-bugfuck) even tweeted he no longer considers Roberts a friend. But the Romney campaign hasn’t gotten that memo yet. Their Courts & Constitution webpage still states in part, “As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts …”
I think most of this stuff is harmless, and even understandable, given the bizarro parallel universe conservatives dwell in these days. They’ve been told again and again, i.e. savagely lied to, by sources they trust from TV, from radio, in some cases from their pastors and their bosses, that this conservative approach to healthcare — championed by the Heritage Foundation and enacted by Mitt Romney — is actually the greatest communist threat to America since fluoridation. They’re responding the way you’d expect.
But there are a few dangerous, violent nuts in that group. Well armed ones too, some of them with a history of not just making threats, but carrying them out. I don’t think there’s any doubt that John Roberts will be under stepped up, around the clock, police protection going forward, if he isn’t already, and that it may have to last for the rest of his life.
As I commented on Ed Brayton’s blog, Justice Roberts is about to find out what Judge John Jones went through. I suspect that the death threats are already coming fast and furiously.
Yeap.
On a personal note, this has been good day all around. I had to take my truck into the shop, transmission suddenly started slipping horribly. Since I only make 12 bucks an hour, I had some real worries. Turns out it’s just the seal, it’s shot nd the trans was losing fluid. It’ll cost a few hundred, but that’s great news compared to what I thought it would be.
Their problem is that they don’t recognize that John Roberts is their weasel.
I strongly suspect he saw dems going single-payer-public option & republican running on certain provisions of the ACA (though not admitting that’s the law they came from) and the upcomming election and blinked. It is by no means clear that the (R) would gain from repeal of the ACA.
Also, I think it’s difficult to overstate the importance that Chief Justice Roberts was the swing vote. I think the oligarchs want Roberts to play a long game and take the central steering role that Kennedy has been de-facto taking.
Lastly, as a progressive, I’ll be laughing my hiney off if it’s the right that gets him off the bench.
@baal:My guess was that he wasn’t willing to make such a bit strikedown on federal powers a big precedent, and he wasn’t willing to degrade his own reputation and legacy (of the right wing of the court, I think he’s the only one who really cares two bits about it) and make it non-precedent, thus, we got the ruling that we got.