Salon's Joan Walsh on GOP anger at Roberts: They believed they controlled the court

Joan Walsh, editor at large from Salon.com, said Tuesday that Republicans were incredibly upset with Chief Justice John Roberts because they believed the Supreme Court was in their control.

"I think the attacks on Chief Justice John Roberts have been tragic and awful, you know, people going so far as to suggest that his illness caused him to change his mind or medication, as well as people just being very angry and calling him a traitor," she told PBS host Tavis Smiley.

"There is such anger that it really points to the fact that I think a lot of Republicans believed that they controlled the court and there was only one way this ruling was going to come down."

Last week, Roberts sided with the four liberal justices on the Supreme Court to uphold President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Roberts, who was nominated by George W. Bush, disagreed that individual mandate in the law was constitutional under the Commerce Clause, but ruled the mandate was allowable under Congress’s taxing power.

"We don't want the court to just be the arm of one party or another, so some of the personal anger and nastiness has surprised me," Walsh said.

Watch video, courtesy of PBS, below: