It appears the domestic terrorist who gunned down Dr. George Tiller at the door of his church this morning has been caught. His name is Scott Philip Roeder. There are stories spreading throughout the internet, many of which are backed by google cache pages from Operation Rescue’s web site, that show Scott Roeder to be active in the organization’s harrassment of Dr. Tiller. Daily Kos has some of the evidence here and here, and there will surely be more evidence linking Roeder to Operation Rescue. One TV station is reporting that Roeder had Operation Rescue’s phone number on a post-it note on his dash.

Last night many people in Wichita gathered to honor Dr. George Tiller and to mourn, but Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, made a statement that has some pretty ugly overtones. It may be the case that Terry has it right, though, as he seems to worry more about the reaction of the Obama Administration than he does about a fellow human who is dead. Barack Obama has recently and famously called for less rancor in the abortion debate in his speech at Notre Dame, trying to find a peaceful middle ground, and it is my bet that Americans are with him for the most part. To that end there will be pressure from the public and from law enforcement on the people who influenced Scott Roeper in perpetrating this act. Number one on the FBI hit parade will be Operation Rescue, but the public will be upset with all of those on the extremist right, such as Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter, who consistently use the inflammatory rhetoric of the anti-choice movement, words like “babykiller” and the like.

Of course Operation Rescue itself is running scared. Mark Hendricks, a columnist with the Kansas City Star, is up front in connecting all of the extremists on the anti-choice side with moral responsibility for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, but Operation Rescue itself seems to know its culpability. In the last day they have scrubbed the web pages designed to foment harrassment of Dr. Tiller from its web site. There is also suspicion that they have attempted to scrub domestic terrorist Scott Roeper’s participation from their web site. These are futile efforts, and it is likely that law enforcement has already impoounded their servers and are going over their membership records. Yes, Operation Rescue is in potential legal trouble more than they have ever been. This isn’t any minor protest infraction in front of a Women’s Health Clinic, but a murder in the front door of a church in front of people gathered for worship. That image isn’t going to sit well with law enforcement or the American public.

The Republican Party is also in trouble, but in this case it is not legal trouble. They recently brought the subject of Dr. Tiller front and center in the Kathleen Sibelius confirmation hearings, delaying the HHS Secretary from confronting the Swine Flu outbreak. That likely appeased the whack job Republican base on the religious extremism end of things, and I’m sure the Republicans were looking forward to making abortion a centerpiece in the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor. Those plans have likely changed. The Republicans will be less likely to heartily grill Judge Sotomayor on the topic of abortion now that the anti-choice crowd has one of their own in jail for domestic terrorism. Instead they will focus on RICO and its application to combatting domestic terrorism.

There’s the problem for Republicans, that they have already lost millions of independent voters because of the way the extremists have ruled their policy formation. Now one of those extremist groups has incubated a homegrown terrorist in the heartland. Oh what’s the matter with Kansas? Nothing, really, except the injection of Operation Rescue to incite stalking and violence and murder by nutjobs. More independents will likely look askance at the Republican Party, and I’m thinking most of those GOP Senators are not as stupid as they look. They’re going to steer away from questions about Roe v. Wade at Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, but they’ll still snipe around the edges, in this case asking about applications of RICO laws.

The Sotomayor confirmation hearings have shifted focus starting today. First, the right wing whack jobs will relegate Sonia Sotomayor to the back pages because of the George Tiller shooting and this case of domestic terrorism in service to a cause Republicans have always supported. The GOP powers that be are going to have to tread very carefully to distance themselves without wholly abandoning the extremist religious right, the ones who support Operation Rescue with money and volunteers. Nobody wants to look like they support the Fred Phelps of the world, who was out protesting at the vigil for Dr. Tiller last night, but that’s the risk here for Republicans. The risk, frankly, is showing their true face, showing the world that they are aligned with these domestic terrorists.

The Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee will therefore not confront Roe v. Wade at those confirmation hearings, and I’m guessing they will instead focus on terrorism law, but even there it will be sticky going, as they do not want to appear to be questioning the trial and punishment of domestic terrorist Scott Roeper. Oh, this is going to be very good. Remember, the GOP has given Jeff Sessions the lead role in that questioning, and he’s a good friend to extremists on the religious right. He’s also a loose cannon. Yes, this could be a very interesting summer.