Pat Toomey, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, is adding fuel to his party's fire in calls for impeaching judges.
Pennsylvania Republicans are panicking about the state's new, fairer congressional maps and talking about impeaching judges to punish them for it. And now Sen. Pat Toomey is joining them.
The state Supreme Court struck down the gerrymandered maps and issued new nonpartisan ones after state lawmakers refused to comply with the court's order to redo the maps. And that has some Republicans openly calling for impeachment of the justices whose ruling they don't like.
"It's a conversation that has to happen," Toomey told reporters Wednesday, during an extended rant in which he accused the court of "a blatant, unconstitutional power grab."
@SenToomey was asked about impeachment talk surrounding the PA Supreme Court on their gerrymandering decision. He calls it conversation that has to happen. pic.twitter.com/RAkRdQHVdX
— Sean Kitchen 🌹 (@RCPress_Sean) February 21, 2018
The shockingly undemocratic conversation started earlier this month. Republican state Rep. Cris Dush circulated a memo declaring five of the state's justices "guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office."
This week, Rep. Ryan Costello, who now faces a more competitive re-election bid under the new maps, joined the calls for impeachment. He accused the justices of engaging in "a politically corrupted process" and claimed they had rigged the election against him.
The response from Pennsylvania's Republicans is nothing short of hysterical. They had every opportunity to engage in the process of redrawing the districts, but they chose not to. Instead, they took their complaint to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to interfere.
So now they want to overthrow the court entirely. It's a terrifying response that shows just how afraid Republicans are of losing their firm grip on power in the state, and possibly the House of Representatives, now that the districts are no longer rigged to favor them.
