Republicans love to pontificate about deregulation, smaller government and less federal intrusion into local matters, except when it comes to Islam, then they’re ready to abandon even their most coveted “principles” for the sake of political posturing. Take Newt Gingrich’s latest asinine idea to block the construction of an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan. He wants to turn Ground Zero into a Gettsyburg.

His actual words: “I think the Congress has the ability to declare the area a national battlefield memorial because I think we should think of the World Trade Center as a battlefield site; this is a war.” And this would effect the status of a building on private property two blocks away how? |TPM|