He was "rhetorically harsh" because he didn't appreciate the ID people making up stories that might fly whenever it suited them to do so, and he called them on it.
Nah, we was playing to the press corps.
But Sandra O'Connor says that harsh language contributes to a climate of violence and dictatorship. She says that some Republican lawmakers are contributing to this "climate" by their denouncements of certain decisions. (Never mind her inane, "...At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.")
They are offended when people get too uppity and start usurping that which is strictly reserved only to the province of certain judges, you know, things like using harsh language and defining what is and isn't science and all sorts of what not.
Cordially,