Roberts: Congress wrong about Schiavo intervention?

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

[S]enator, Ron Wyden of Oregon, said that Roberts, while not addressing the Schiavo case specifically, made clear during an hourlong meeting that he was displeased with Congress' attempt to force the federal judiciary to overturn a court order withdrawing her feeding tube.

"I asked whether it was constitutional for Congress to intervene in an end-of-life case with a specific remedy," Wyden said, in a telephone interview after the meeting. "His answer was, 'I am concerned with judicial independence. Congress can prescribe standards, but when Congress starts to act like a court and prescribe particular remedies in particular cases, Congress has overstepped its bounds.' "

The answer, which Wyden said his aides wrote down word for word, would seem to put Roberts at odds with leading Republicans in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, both of whom led the charge for congressional intervention in the Schiavo case this past spring. DeLay said at the time that the federal judiciary had "run amok."

Now, let's look at that answer again:

'I am concerned with judicial independence. Congress can prescribe standards, but when Congress starts to act like a court and prescribe particular remedies in particular cases, Congress has overstepped its bounds.'

I do not believe the Congress was prescribing a "particular remedy" to the Schaivo case, they were only asking the appeals court with jurisdiction to look again at this case. Though those members of Congress supporting this legislation may have wanted a "particular remedy", the legislation itself did not direct it.

IMHO, this is another attempt, much like the pro bono work on the Romer case, to paint Judge Roberts in a bad light with conservatives. Liberals like Sen Wyden are having a difficult time opposing Judge Roberts so they are trying to get conservatives to oppose him instead. Will it work?

UPDATE: Shannen Coffin clears up what really happened at the Wyden-Roberts meeting.

UPDATE II: Ed Gillespie's letter to the NYT provides some more info.