People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. In this case, it is the political hatchet that the Sierra Club is trying to throw at Associate Supreme Court Justice Scalia, announcing last week that it was considering formally asking the Justice to recuse himself from the pending Cheney energy task force case, claiming that his personal relationship with Vice President Cheney will unfairly influence his decision in the pending case. (Recall that Justice Scalia accompanied Vice President Cheney on a recent duck-hunting trip to Louisiana.)

In the meantime, the Sierra Club is reportedly under attack from within by three candidates for its governing board who are accusing the organization and some of its top officials of unfairly trying to influence the club’s upcoming election. The three candidates claim individuals who were nominated by board members are being unfairly favored over those who gathered signatures to qualify for the ballot.

In a lawsuit filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court, the plaintiffs claim the environmental group is violating California state law and the organization’s own rules by supporting nominated candidates over petition candidates. The lawsuit seeks to bar the club from using resources to back the other eight candidates.

The Sierra Club knows better than most that politics is a dirty game. What they need to learn, however, is that if they are going to try to dirty someone else’s laundry, they better make sure their own shorts are sparkling clean.

While the Sierra Club is desperately trying to duck its own internal conflicts, Justice Scalia strongly indicated this week that he will ignore calls to recuse himself. At a gathering at Amherst College, Scalia defended his position, saying "[This case does] not involve a lawsuit against Dick Cheney as a private individual. This was a government issue. It’s acceptable practice to socialize with executive branch officials when there are not personal claims against them. That’s all I’m going to say for now. Quack, quack."

Thus far, two Justices have refused to permit a duck trip to be turned into a juicy liberal pâté. Last month, in strong defense of his colleague and the judicial branch, Chief Justice Rehnquist responded to a request from Senate Democratic Leaders asking for an inquiry into the Scalia recusal matter by calling such concerns "ill considered" and stating that "each Justice must decide such a question for himself."