As a Senate staffer during the last years of the Bush administration, I was appalled at the behavior of Code Pink, and equally appalled that Congress would allow it. Freedom of speech is no justification for allowing people to disrupt democratic procedure. Procedure is one of the most precious things we have. It’s what elevates our institutions above demagogic personalities. It’s what ultimately gives everyone a seat at the table of self-government. We should cherish it and protect it from hooligans like Code Pink, just as we protect our monuments from vandalism.

We are incredibly lucky to live in a society where political speech, the freedom to dissent, is protected — outside university campuses, at any rate. No one is denying Code Pink’s clown show the right to speak publicly. If what they have to say is so stupid that nobody’s interested in listening, that’s their problem, not ours. If they think this or that person should be arrested for war crimes, but can’t convince any judge anywhere to pay attention, that’s their problem, not ours. Nothing can justify today’s absolutely disgraceful and revolting episode.

As lucky as we are to have freedom of speech, we are also lucky to live in a society in which we — the public — can freely attend proceedings of Congress. We are lucky that we can sit in on a congressional hearing such as the one held today in the Senate Armed Services Committee, in which senators representing tens of millions of Americans engaged in a democratic dialogue with living giants of American history. We are lucky to live in a society in which our elected leaders put procedure above their own whims and fancies because they put us — the people — above themselves.

Code Pink abuses that privilege. It disrupts the democratic process that all Americans depend on, and replaces it with its own whims and fancies, as if the just causes it thinks it has stumbled upon justify cancelling democracy for the rest of us.

It’s time for Congress to impose criminal penalties on those who disrupt committee hearings and floor debates. Code Pink is not exercising freedom of speech. It is committing a crime against democracy itself, and it should be punished.