From Kim Davis to Oregon militia, the GOP's love affair with lawbreakers: Dana Milbank

Ammon Bundy and the other armed militants occupying a federal facility at a wildlife refuge in Oregon have a beef with the administration — the Teddy Roosevelt administration.

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So why have the militants chosen this moment, more than a century after the fact, to "unwind all these unconstitutional land transactions," as Bundy put it? Perhaps it's because they think the political atmosphere now condones such anti-government activity.

You can see why they might think so. Several of the Republican presidential candidates have been encouraging lawbreaking, winking at it or simply looking the other way.

A few months ago, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and others rushed to defend Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to obey federal law. A federal judge had held her in contempt of court for refusing to recognize same-sex marriages, and the Supreme Court specifically declined to give Davis relief. But Cruz identified her jailing as "judicial tyranny" and said Davis was operating "under God's authority."

Donald Trump has put at the center of his campaign an extra-constitutional ban on admitting Muslims into the country. Marco Rubio said that if the law conflicts with the Gospel, "God's rules always win," and that "we are called to ignore" the government's authority. Huckabee and Rick Santorum signed a pledge not to "respect an unjust law that directly conflicts with higher law." Huckabee floated the notion of using federal troops to block people from getting abortions and questioned the Supreme Court's authority.

And, of course, there was the 2014 standoff in which Cliven Bundy, who refused to pay grazing fees for his use of federal land, got support or sympathy from Cruz, Trump, Huckabee, Rand Paul and Ben Carson. Cruz denounced the federal government for "using the jackboot of authoritarianism."

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http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/01/from_kim_davis_to_oregon_milit.html

And what has gotten into Milbank? He's firing off one great piece after another.