What does it say about a judge’s competence and judicial temperament when he can’t restrain himself from posting attacks on conservatives while presiding over a politically-charged trial? It says, I think, “Time to retire!” In the case at hand, it also said; “Your recusal light is flashing.”

Maricopa County Judge Bruce Cohen, the judge overseeing Arizona’s case against allies of Once and Future President Donald Trump based on their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, recused himself last week after it was revealed that he had emailed colleagues urging them to speak out against conservative attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign.

In an email sent to fellow judicial officers on August 29, Cohen criticized those who labeled Harris a “DEI hire” and said he was “sickened” when Fox News host Jesse Watters said on air that if she were elected, she would “get paralyzed in the Situation Room while the generals have their way with her.”

“White men…must speak out,” he wrote in the email, which was obtained by state Rep. Travis Grantham (R) and reported by local news media. Based on the email, one of the defendants’ lawyers called for his dismissal. Based on that email I conclude that the call for the judge’s recusal was a proper response. Even if the message didn’t prove that he would be biased against the pro-Trump defendants, it definitely proves he is incapable of processing information, either because bias has made him stupid, age has crippled his faculties, or because he was dumb to begin with.

Cohen also showed a severe lack of originality in his email by quoting the familiar passage about not speaking out when others were targeted by the Nazis. “When we cannot or do not stand with others, the words of Martin Niemoller are no longer a historic reference to the atrocities of WWII, those words describe the present,” Cohen wrote, adding “We cannot allow our female colleagues to feel as if they stand alone when there are those who may intimate that their ascension was anything other than based upon exceptionalism.”

“Exceptionalism”!!! Harris has never been exceptional in any of her career pursuits except showing exceptional ambition. (Maybe she was an exceptional McDonald’s employee, but no records of that seem to exist.) That she was a “D.E.I. hire” is a fact: Joe Biden, who nominated her for Vice-President, said as much, and it was a matter of record before she was named as his running mate that the role must be filled by a “woman of color.”

Then, after managing to be regarded by a majority of the public as an incompetent Vice-President—something that is almost impossible to do since the Veep has no  official duties other than to preside over the Senate and to, as Daniel Day Lewis said to Madeleine Stowe, “Stay alive!“—she was selected to take over for Biden on the 2024 ticket because Democrats were afraid of the backlash from the party’s many race-baiters if they held an open convention that embodied that democracy stuff they were so keen on protecting. Her party (and Cohen’s) also gambled that the news media would help them hide the fact that she was a far left extremist who can’t speak intelligently without a teleprompter.

Well, the news media certainly tried (See: “Sixty Minutes”). The only exceptional thing about Kamala Harris is that she parlayed her color and gender to get as far as she did.

Cohen had a “never mind” moment the day after sending the fateful message, and the next day apologized to his colleagues for using the court’s internal forum to share his opinion, and explained that he had allowed his passion to cloud his judgment. Judges aren’t supposed to allow their passion to cloud their judgment, and if they can do that, they need to get off the bench.

Judge Cohen still defended his emails as he recused himself, saying they were “not reflective of bias” and were intended as a “cry for decency and respect” that could equally have been made “about disparaging comments from either political sphere.”

Sure, judge. Bye! He also added that he was recusing himself “out of a commitment to justice” and to avoid “even the appearance of bias.” Cohen was considering motions to dismiss the case. Now another judge will be assigned to it.