A few months ago, I was seriously considering Newt Gingrich for my caucus vote. But then he came out with his absurd and dangerous suggestion that the political branches of government have the power to haul federal judges before boards of inquiry, and that they be subject to impeachment if we don’t like their legal analyses. I wrote a post excoriating the former Speaker for that position. And ultimately that, coupled with his petulant breakdowns after a series of primary/caucus losses and his attack on Romney’s wealth from the left, was pretty much the end of any serious consideration from me of Newt.
Fast forward to now, when President Obama is picking a very public fight with Supreme Court before they even render a decision on Obamacare. It’s clear how right I was to be so hard on Gingrich. For example, I said:
If Newt Gingrich can either harass the courts into submission or ignore them altogether, then so can Barack Obama.
Obama is trying to do this even without any legal justification for it. Can you imagine if Obama could threaten any of the Justices with impeachment if they didn’t uphold his signature legislative “accomplishment?” Can you imagine if he could drag them before a public cross examination before they had even announced the decision in a case?
It’s a good thing Gingrich didn’t think of this back when he had real power, and a good thing he’ll never have the chance to implement such an attack on the very foundation of the judiciary.
I do hope that Romney makes this the issue that it deserves to be in the general. The President isn’t going to intimidate this Supreme Court, but elections have consequences. And it’s too stressful to just keep praying for the perpetual health of Scalia and Kennedy.
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It’s always worth keeping in mind that no matter what new policy you put in place when your guy is in office, eventually someone you don’t like will be in office with the power you gave to his predecessor. The mantra of Republicans for the next several decades should be, “before I vote on this law, would I be OK with the next President Obama being in control of this regulation/tax/agency?”
Oh, and to all you liberals who want Obamacare to live, or to morph into fully government controlled single payer health care – how would you feel about President Santorum in charge of such an apparatus?
If that scares the hell out of you as much as it does me, then you get the crucial point of having a strictly limited government at all levels, regardless of which political party is in charge of things at the moment.
Update: And right on cue, the preemptive impeachment threats from the left have begun. I wonder if Newt will be consistent, and support this leftist position…
Orrin – You articulated something I have often thought about, but never written about – what would ‘the other guys’ do with this law. I worried about that when the Patriot Act was passed, and I’ve considered it when other conservative measures were put forth, but hadn’t thought enough to put it in words. Kudos!