Last Call

Republicans running for President keep telegraphing their intent to ignore the laws as they stand now as they simply believe that they won't apply to them once they reach the Oval Office.  Nobody's been worse on this than Newt Gingrich, who infamously said last month that he would simply ignore Supreme Court decisions he didn't agree with.  Now he's following that nonsense up with the notion that he can impose loyalty oaths on federal employees and simply fire anyone who is liberal.  TPM's Ryan Reilly:

Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested at a Fox News forum hosted by Mike Huckabee in South Carolina on Saturday that it would be a good idea to fire federal employees for being too liberal. Federal law, on the other hand, says Gingrich’s plan would be illegal.

“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal employees delivering the right services in a highly efficient way and then wants to get rid of those folks who are in fact wasteful, or those folks who are ideologically so far to the left, or those people who want to frankly dictate to the rest of us,” Gingrich said in response to a question from a federal employee at the forum (emphasis ours).

Gingrich wants the ability to fire federal employees who are "so far to the left"?  Hey, didn't Dubya get in trouble for doing that with US attorneys, a move that eventually cost AG Alberto Gonzales his job?

It's funny how we keep hearing how President Obama is going to purge conservatives from the country any second now, but apparently that outrage doesn't apply to Newt going after people for being liberal.