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On this Sunday's Meet the Press, Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom pointed out the sad and sorry fact that the GOP needs to get "permission" from the talking heads on right-wing hate radio in order to act on immigration reform.

Newsom was responding to his fellow panel member, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, who let the cat out of the bag while accusing President Obama of using the immigration debate to polarize Republicans on the issue, as though they needed any help with that.

DAVID GREGORY: Alex, the question of whether Democrats want the issue on immigration, the reality is Democrats do want the success, and as you look at what the president's doing, how he's appealing to various groups in his coalition, he wants to lock these folks in. This is the president thinking about the long-term prospects of the Democratic party. And he also knows Republicans need a deal on this.

ALEX CASTELLANOS: Well, I think he's maybe thinking about the long-term, but he's also thinking about two years from now and taking the House. And going back to the first two years of his administration when he could run the table and of course do anything he wants, this is his last shot at legacy. So keeping Republicans polarized on immigration-- is not bad political strategy for him.

What I think you're going to see Republicans do though, is look, federal government's job is to enforce the border. But we've got to move somewhere else. You know, talk radio has already given Republicans a little room to move on immigration. But if r-- right now, immigrants have no economic value in the American system.

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From ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Peggy Noonan manages to downright embarrass herself with this ridiculous statement, but what else is new? Nooners apparently thinks that if Mittens new running mate Paul Ryan just gets out there and does some interviews, stat, Democrats won't have a chance to define him in campaign ads. And he'd never do anything to hurt grandma. How could he when he looks like such a nice young man?

NOONAN: What Ryan ought to be doing is going out there, I think now, and showing himself in very long and thoughtful interviews and talking about exactly what he thinks and why and what his intentions are. [...] Let the American people look at him literally over the next few days so that when the Dems come with Demiscare and he'll take -- Grandma is being thrown off the train or off the sled or whatever the metaphor is [...] think, my goodness, he doesn't look like the type of young man who would throw Grandma off the sled.

I guess Noonan thinks that one, he's going to say anything different than what he's already been saying in interview after interview for the last fourteen years or so now. And two, that if he does, it would matter since we've got, you know, these modern day things called recording devices.

I'm not sure what they're paying Noonan in wingnut welfare to appear on these shows, but if it's more than a penny, it's too much.

Full transcript of the clip above below the fold.

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California courts agreed to hear a challenge to Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage. The question before the court asks if Proposition 8 is an amendment to California's Constitution or a revision. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told CNN's Anderson Cooper that if Proposition 8 is a revision to the Constitution it would mean that the courts no longer had a role in determining if the rights of minorities had been violated.

"Should we go in front of the voters every time there is an adjudication in the courts that we don't like and submit the rights of minorities to the whims of the majority, based upon the morality of the day?" asked Newsom. "That's what's happened here in California."

I mean, this is an interesting point. Look, if we were having this conversation in 1967, we would have had a U.S. Supreme Court, the loving court, that unanimously decided to get rid of all of those laws in the remaining 16 states that denied interracial marriage.

If we had gone to the voters, almost every public opinion poll showed that the overwhelming majority of voters would have overturned that court decision

Newsom argued, "Well, what's next? I mean, now, if this is the basis of principle, what other rights should we take away? And is the court powerless in each and every case when the voters by a majority decide to change the constitution, again based upon the issue of the day?"

CNN transcripts:

COOPER: Protesters this past weekend against California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. There was a major new development today. The state's highest court said the initiative can be enforced. They're not going to try to delay it. But at the same time, the court agreed in March to hear arguments on its validity.

And they're going to focus on three questions: does Prop 8 revise the state's constitution instead of amending it? Does it also violate the state's constitution separation of powers doctrine, violating judges' ability to guarantee equal rights? And the court is going to try to decide what happens to the thousands of gay marriages that have already taken place.

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