During Thursday night’s debate there was a strong message coming from Newt Gingrich. He believes in an imperial presidency and he isn’t backing down now:

Newt Gingrich says as president he would ignore Supreme Court decisions that conflicted with his powers as commander in chief, and he would press for impeaching judges or even abolishing certain courts if he disagreed with their rulings.

“I’m fed up with elitist judges” who seek to impose their “radically un-American” views, Gingrich said Saturday in a conference call with reporters.

In recent weeks, the Republican presidential contender has been telling conservative audiences he is determined to expose the myth of “judicial supremacy” and restrain judges to a more limited role in American government. “The courts have become grotesquely dictatorial and far too powerful,” he said in Thursday’s Iowa debate.

Newt bases his claims off the Federalist Papers, which talks about the importance of limiting the power of each branch of government. Of course the actions he is proposing to do just that also violates these papers, as he would be exceeding the power of the presidency.

But I will ask the same question that I asked the other night. How would Republicans feel if Barack Obama or any other Democratic President had these powers? There’s a reason a lot of what was proposed in the Federalist Papers wasn’t included in the Constitution.

And for another interesting tidbit, the Federalist Papers were against the Bill of Rights. Now Republicans might be thinking “oh yeah” on that, but that also means no Second Amendment. Remember that when you beat your chest as the Federalist Papers being viewed as some sort of absolute interpretation of meaning of the Constitution.