The Rule of Law is for other people

By BJ Bjornson

How nice of Newt Gingrich to remind everyone of how absolutely bugfuck nuts he and his party actually are:

Newt Gingrich on Sunday hammered at the nation�s judiciary system, saying that if a court�s decision was out of step with American popular opinion, it should be ignored.

There�s �no reason the American people need to tolerate a judge that out of touch with American culture,� Gingrich said on CBS� Face the Nation, referring to a case where a judge ruled that explicit references to religion were barred from a high school graduation ceremony. And Gingrich recently has said judges should have to explain some of their decisions before Congress.

Host Bob Schieffer asked Gingrich how he planned to enforce that. Would you call in the Capitol Police to apprehend a federal judge, he asked.

�If you had to,� Gingrich said. �Or you�d instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshall in.

This particular line of attack has been ongoing since the debate on Thursday, but is part and parcel of the Republicans ongoing assault against �activist� judges, meaning any judge who makes a ruling not in line with their ideology of the day, going back for nearly as long as I can remember from following such things, though even by those standards, Gingrich�s attacks are looking fairly radical.

In order to restore balance between Congress, the White House, and the courts, Gingrich recommended ignoring rulings, impeaching judges, subpoenaing justices to have them explain their rulings and, as a last resort, abolishing the courts altogether.

Well, I suppose once you start detaining people without trial, having courts to run those trials does seem kind of redundant. Still, this kind of idiocy should put to rest any lingering doubts about Newt being any kind of intellectual, though given the competition he�s currently running against, and the quality of the village media, that seems unlikely.