If you recall, Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, is now a lobbyist, and as Lawrence O’Donnell said a few days ago on The Last Word, “…she brags about her influence.”

As luck would have it, Ginni now lobbies for repeal of the health care law, or as she likely calls it, “Obamacare”, a law which will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. And of course, her hubby is 1/9 of that court.

Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

A few Congress members have a thing or two to say about that:

Seventy-four House Democrats have signed a letter to Clarence Thomas asking the Supreme Court justice to recuse himself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of the national health care overhaul, arguing that his wife’s work as a lobbyist creates “the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

The move is the latest indication that the court battle over the health-care law’s constitutionality — which is expected to be ultimately decided by the Supreme Court — has already become a political tit-for-tat.

Orrin Hatch had a request of his own. He thinks it’s Judge Elena Kagan who has a problem because of her work as Solicitor General during the endless health care reform debate-slash-town hall mob scenes:

“I think that Kagan, who was the solicitor general at the time this was all done, probably should recuse herself, which means it might not be resolved by the Supreme Court,” Hatch told Fox News last week. “That means the lower court decision will be the acting law.“

How adorable. Dueling recusal requests.

Well, Anthony Weiner has a zinger or three of his own:

The appearance of a conflict of interest merits recusal under federal law. From what we have already seen, the line between your impartiality and you and your wife’s financial stake in the overturn of healthcare reform is blurred. Your spouse is advertising herself as a lobbyist who has “experience and connections” and appeals to clients who want a particular decision – they want to overturn health care reform. Moreover, your failure to disclose Ginny Thomas’s receipt of $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, a prominent opponent of healthcare reform, between 2003 and 2007 has raised great concern. [My post about that here]

And then he goes on to mention Common Cause’s efforts to investigate the visits by Supreme Court Justices to “closed-door political gatherings sponsored by two top Republican donors and industrialists”, as in the Koch brothers, for instance.

You can read the entire letter from the House Dems here.