Legally Insane, or just Cynical as Hell?

Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was trying to influence the SCOTUS decision on ObamaCare the other day. Remember, this is the Chairman of the Committee that is charged to give advise and consent to the President's nominees for the federal bench, the so called Article III judges. He has been joined in this opinion that the SCOTUS should rule that the ObamaCare mandate is Constitutional by no less a learned law professor than our own President and the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (otherwise known as the decision maker on which way to vote for our very own Jon Tester).
As Leahy said:

I trust that he will be a chief justice for all of us and that he has a strong institutional sense of the proper role of the judicial branch," said Leahy. "The conservative activism of recent years has not been good for the court. Given the ideological challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the extensive, supportive precedent, it would be extraordinary for the Supreme Court not to defer to Congress in this matter that so clearly affects interstate commerce

In a way, I am appalled that a lawyer would try to use ex parte influence on a court to influence its decision. That is just one of those basic "Thou Shall Nots" of being a lawyer. But in another way, it's kind of hilarious. Let's see now, Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed for life and can only be removed by impeachment. Is going against Sen. Leahy impeachable? No, in fact going the way that idiot wants would be though. To ignore the Constitution because the SCOTUS should defer to the popular will as expressed by Congress is easily refutable by the opinion polls which show the Act to be very much disliked.
But, won't the court be perceived as partisan if they don't do what the Democrats want? I am always amazed that only the conservatives are partisan. The Left is worse, with my favorite example being their ruling in Bush v. Gore, where by 7-2 they found the recount methods to violate due process and equal protection, but two who said it was a violation flipped to try and let Florida keep counting the flawed ballots.
I am sure though, that Roberts is smart enough, in fact I think he is smarter than Scalia, that he could find a way to mildly rebuke the Democrats for their unseemly behavior. My thinking is that he could point out that the Senate Finance Chairman said he never read the whole bill, so by ruling it unconstitutional, it would give them another try at it.
The real audience in all of this though is not the court, but the Left base. When ObamaCare goes down in flames, Leahy, Reid and Obama are prepping the battlefield for the outrage that is going to be artificially generated. They will stoke that anger for the sole purpose of getting the base out to vote. The trouble with this tactic is that the base was always going to vote for Obama anyway, and the outrage, venting, and yes, the inevitable violence of the Left's temper tantrum are just going to further alienate the middle.
The problem for the Left is that they live in a sheltered cocoon, immune from any dissident thoughts or voices. Leahy thinks that this will help. I think that ship has already left and he is still standing on the dock.