THE POST EDITORIALIZES:

If judges and lawyers wonder about why they are held in such low esteem by so many Americans, they might consider the loose lips of Federal Appeals Court Judge Guido Calabresi. . . .

The New York Sun reports that at last weekend’s annual convention of the American Constitution Society in Washington, Judge Calabrese compared Bush’s election to the rise of totalitarian despots Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. . . .

But common sense — and judicial fairness — demand that, given his blatant and public political bias, Judge Calabrese recuse himself from any and all cases involving the Bush administration, including any case on which the administration has taken a public position.

Clearly, he is in no position to evaluate such cases fairly.

(Via Howard Bashman). As I said on Hugh Hewitt’s show last night, I’m genuinely shocked by Calabresi’s comments, which by now I guess must have been reported accurately — at least, there’s no evidence otherwise, and you’d think he’d have said so if he were misquoted. I’m shocked that he’d think something as absurd, ahistorical, and illogical, and I’m even more shocked that when he did think such a thing, he had the poor judgment to proclaim it in a public speech.

Calabresi was always, in my experience, diplomatic; it’s sad to think that he might be less concerned with public propriety as a judge than he was as a law school dean. These comments have, as this editorial indicates, damaged his reputation, and that of the federal judiciary.