The president, speaking with reporters as he flew to Texas from Rome, where he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, was reacting to statements made after the death of Terri Schiavo.

DeLay, R-Texas, suggested an impeachment case could made against judges who rebuffed Congress' will in the Schiavo case. As the severely brain-damaged Florida woman faded, Congress passed a law allowing federal courts to review the decisions of state judges who turned down her parents' efforts to resume her feeding. But federal judges all the way up to the Supreme Court held up those decisions.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," DeLay said when Schiavo died.

Few other Republicans have gone that far in criticizing an independent branch of government. But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he wondered if frustration against perceived political decisions by judges "builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence, certainly without any justification."

Democrats have called the comments tantamount to inciting violence against judges.

Bush, asked about DeLay's remarks, did say he would "continue to put judges on the bench who strictly and faithfully interpret the Constitution."

© 2005 Associated Press.

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