Sliding in the polls in Iowa Newt serves up fresh caca to the masses. Wow!

“GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich said Congress has the power to dispatch the Capitol Police or U.S. Marshals to apprehend a federal judge who renders a decision lawmakers broadly oppose.

Gingrich says if there is broad opposition to a court decision, Congress should subpoena the ruling judge to defend his or her action in a hearing room.

When asked if Congress could enforce the subpoena by sending the Capitol Police to arrest a judge, Gingrich assented.

“If you had to,” Gingrich said. “Or you’d instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshall.”

Gingrich made his remarks during a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” where he defended his position that the president has the power to eliminate federal courts to disempower judges who hand down decisions out of step with the rest of the nation.

Gingrich cited the 9th Circuit’s decision that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional as an example of a decision drastically out of step with the values of the country.”

Talk about a Hail Mary pass to the “Activist Judges” crowd. There is so much bizarrely wrong with this statement that I hardly know where to begin. Do we have activist judges who I feel overstep their mandate and rule from their politics? Sure. Can we arrest them for doing so? I’m not sure. For one I believe this would lead to utter chaos since both side I must defer to an attorney over Outside the Beltway, one Doug Mataconis:

“What’s most striking about Gingrich’s position on this issue, though, is the violence it does to the principle of Separation of Powers. Under our Constitution, the Executive. Legislative, and Judicial Branches are deemed co-equal within their own spheres of power. Gingrich, however, proposes ideas that would completely upend this system by drastically reducing judicial independence. Requiring Federal Judges to appear before Congress every time they issue a decision that some Committee Chairman decides they don’t would be an utter disaster. For one thing, it’s entirely likely that this Congressional power would quickly become subject to abuse as Congressmen and Senators use such hearings not only for political grandstanding but also to put pressure on judges to rule in a certain way in pending cases. Judges would quickly be faced with the dilemma of following the law as best they could and worrying about whether the ruling they issue means they end up on C-Span in three months time getting grilled by a Senator with dreams of running for President one day. It would be the death of judicial independence, and would be harm the rights of those seeking their day in Court who would find that there is an 800lb gorilla called the United States Congress looking over the Judge’s shoulder.

Another thought occurs, of course. If Gingrich believes that it would be proper for Congress to summon a Supreme Court Justice before it to explain themselves, then why wouldn’t it also be proper to summon the President himself before Congress to be questioned and forced to explain the basis for his decisions? What Gingrich is really talking about here is an idea that would set off a Constitutional crisis between the three branches of government.”

I would agree to a point. Yet isn’t the Executive , when it’s out of control, answerable to the Legislative, such as impeachment? While all three are equal they cannot reign unchecked. True judges can be impeached for misconduct and crimes, but not for rendering judgments which are clearly based only upon their political bias. Should they have to answer to that?