So did you see the statement issued by recess judicial appointee and coddler of cross-burners Charles Pickering when he announced he was leaving the federal bench? The New York Times has it:

"Extreme special-interest groups opposed my nomination primarily due to their hostility to any nominee with strong religious convictions who personally disagrees with them on abortion, marriage and references to God at public ceremonies and institutions," Judge Pickering wrote in a statement, issued late Wednesday. "These far-left groups cowed Democrat leadership into opposing my nomination. In doing so, they pushed those senators out of the American mainstream, some out of their Senate seats, and the Democratic Party out of entire regions of the country."

Yeah, that's the sort of even judicial temperament we want on the federal bench, isn't it?

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The obvious thing to say here is, "Gee, maybe William Donohue can replace Pickering on the bench."

By now you may have seen what Donohue said last night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country in a discussion about Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ:

Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It‘s not a secret, OK? And I‘m not afraid to say it. That‘s why they hate this movie. It‘s about Jesus Christ, and it‘s about truth. It‘s about the messiah.

Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.

Yikes.

Incidentally, go to the link and note the makeup of the panel: conservative substitute host Pat Buchanan; Donohue, also a conservative; Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a Bush supporter and Kerry basher; Govindini Murty, director of the right-wing Liberty Film Festival; and Jennifer Giroux of Women Influencing the Nation, which is conservative and appears to be, er, natalist. There's your "liberal media": There's not even a pretense of balance on this panel. And this isn't even Fox News.

And can we please let go of this notion that the cultural elite is hell-bent on lavishing Michael Moore with awards? Look at the independent filmmakers' organization IFP, which recently announced the winners of its Gotham Awards (can you get more blue-state than that?). F9/11 wasn't even nominated for Best Feature, although it did win a Best Documentary nomination. Thing is, it didn't win for Best Documentary -- that award went to The Agronomist. (Nope, I don't know anything about it either.) Sideways won Best Feature. (Michael Moore did win the Filmmaker Award, not to be confused with the Filmmaker Award for Lifetime Achievement, which went to Mike Leigh.)