Sen. Conrad Burns has fired full-bore at the federal judge who vacated a decision allowing snowmobiles into Yellowstone Park this winter. Among other things, the senator says in a letter to Secretary of Interior Gale Norton that Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision is "completely insupportable," "cruel," "outrageous and offensive," "does not follow the law, is not balanced, and is gratuitously unfair," and "does not offer a balanced assessment of the facts." Of the judge himself, the senator says he "completely overstepped his bounds," is guilty of "judicial arrogance masquerading as law," and "shares the values of the environmentalist plaintiffs who despise the recreational choices of average Americans and who look to the courts, rather than the political branches, for their legislation."

No word on what the senator really thought.