Until I read this New York Times story by Jason DeParle, I didn't quite realize that one of the big names in the Justice-Anthony-Kennedy-is-Satan's-regional-manager-in-America crowd is Mike Farris, founder of Patrick Henry College, the right-wing institution that shepherds home-schooled Christians into significant government jobs. DeParle notes that Farris has called for Kennedy's impeachment; I know I read his name back in April in the Washington Post story on the anti-Kennedy fatwa, but I didn't make the connection.

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Incidentally, I don't have a clue as to why Atrios declares DeParle his Wanker of the Day. The Times story gives Kennedy-haters a hearing, and why not? Some of them -- Robert Bork and James Dobson, to name two -- are big names. These people have great influence in the all-GOP federal government. Why is it inappropriate to report what they say? And for what it's worth, they come off as arrogant maniacs who seem determined to win total victory or engage in total war, the country be damned:

As he often does, Dr. Dobson labeled Justice Kennedy "the most dangerous man in America."...

Calling most justices "judicial oligarchs," Mr. Bork said they reflected "the intelligentsia's attitude, which is to the cultural left of the American people." ...

One critic at a forum on the "Judicial War on Faith" accused Justice Kennedy of upholding "Marxist-Leninist, satanic principles."

Why does letting these people remind us how crazy they are make DeParle a wanker?

I like DeParle. In the past he's written eloquently about people struggling to get by in the wake of welfare reform. If he's a wingnut, or a uselful idiot for the wingnuts, I've seen no evidence.