R i g h t a r d i a: Gingrich panders the flag and cross humpers

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Gingrich panders the flag and cross humpers

In the last Fox News debate, The Newtster went off on federal judges. Newt has been obsessed with two cases. In one the judge rule made the Pledge of Allegiance optional. The second was about prayer in commencements. In that case, the Supreme Court overruled the Federal District court judge and allowed prayer.

So here we go again. The nation is finally coming out of a huge recession and half of Americans are in poverty or poor. The Newster brings up symbolic issues about prayer and the pledge.

Oh, just gag me with a spoon!

The descent of the Newster into irrelevancy isn't helping him

Newt said on on CBS's "Face the Nation, Newt to Bob Scheiffer.

"If you had to . . .you would instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshal." However, Newt would prefer to to impeach the judge whose ruling he disagreed with.

Of course, the justice department works for the president, not the congress. Undoubtedly, if a president took such an action, a constitutional crises would occur that the Supremes would weigh in on.

The Founders gave us constitutional government with separation of powers for a reason. What Newt is really proposing is an expansion of executive branch powers that would allow president to apprehend a judge prior to impeachment.

President's should not apprehend and arrest judges because they don't like their judicial rulings. The basis for impeachment is judicial misconduct, not an unpopular judicial ruling.

Newt has made criticism of the judiciary a rallying point a Cause Célèbre for many years.He wants to close the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and also fire U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio.

"You have an increasingly arrogant judiciary," he said on "Face the Nation." This is a recurring conservative theme that Democrats are elitist and Republicans are not. Of course, most Americans know the GOP is he party of the 1 per cent that has been protecting "the Bush tax cuts."

That statement doesn't imply that there aren't elites in the Democratic party. There are. The Democrats simply aren't the affluent leg huggers the GOP is.

Newt has a grudge against the Ninth Circuit court that ruled that it was unconstitutional for public schools to require the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. It made the pledge optional.

As a historian, Newt had to know that the pledge was developed by a flag salesman in the late 19th century. There are only two nations that have pledges today: the US and the Philippines.