Newt Having Trouble Keeping His Tyrants Straight

Last Friday’s edition of the exercise in narcissism that is the “Newt and Callista Weekly Recap” email from Gingrich Productions included what may be a strange Freudian slip.  The email linked to a wildly over-the-top column in Human Events in which Newt referred to President Obama’s decision to temporarily halt deportations of some young undocumented immigrants as a “dictatorial action” that historians might one day consider “the day the Constitution died.”   As part of his fulminations, Newt declared, “Now, in one bold move worthy of Cesar Chavez or Vladimir Putin, President Obama has added the role of Congress to that of president.”   Cesar Chavez? Presumably, Gingrich meant to pair Putin with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. But then again, maybe he has a Big Thinker theory connecting the legendary farmworker organizer to Russia’s current president. It may be no more far-fetched than Newt’s idea that the deportation deferrals are proof that “No president in our history has been as willing to destroy the Constitution as Obama.”