Politics is politics, but U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas hit an all-new low in stupidity and irresponsibility by making a connection between judges who make decisions he opposes and judges who become the target of violence.

The judicial decisions the Texas Republican didn't like were those that didn't stop Terri Schiavo from dying. The recent judges who were victims of violence were U.S. District Court Judge Joan H. Lefkow, whose husband and 89-year-old mother were murdered in Chicago by a disappointed plaintiff, and Georgia Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes, who was killed in Atlanta with three others by an accused rapist who was on trial before him.

While on the Senate floor Monday, Mr. Cornyn criticized the Schiavo court rulings, saying, "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." Then he said, "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. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have."

Both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney have expressed reservations about taking steps against what Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has called "judicial tyranny."

The political backdrop for Sen. Cornyn's warning about activist judges is the Democratic effort to block some of the administration's judicial nominations. President Bush has made more than 200 appointments successfully during his 51 months in power; the Democrats have blocked only 10.

At the same time, the Republican majority in the Senate is threatening to make it more difficult to use the time-honored filibuster, traditionally invoked by the minority party to block actions and nominations that they consider particularly egregious. The Republicans became quite good at it when they were in the minority.

With his party in control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, Sen. Cornyn is trying to make judges toe the line. He is, in effect, telling them that if they hand down decisions that he and his base don't like, it will be no surprise if someone knocks them or one of their loved ones off. That is an outrageous threat and a disgusting attempt at intimidation -- something utterly incompatible with an independent American judiciary.

It is not enough that Mr. Cornyn's party controls two branches of the government -- it seems determined to get hold of the third. That may be normal politics, given the Republicans' conviction that they reflect current American opinion. But implying on the Senate floor that it is understandable if people kill judges whose decisions they disagree with is appalling. If there is such a thing as honor in the U.S. Senate, Mr. Cornyn should apologize, now.