Preach on, brother.

Congressman Steve Scalise today released the following statement after Vice-President Joe Biden indicated that the White House would pursue gun control through Executive Order.

“Vice-President Biden would do well to read the 2nd Amendment and revisit the meaning of the phrase ‘shall not be infringed,’” Scalise said. “Bypassing Congress to implement radical policies is never acceptable, and it’s particularly heinous when such actions trample on the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the Bill of Rights.

“Efforts to restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans will only punish those who play by the rules and will be ignored by criminals who break the law. This radical attempt by the Obama Administration to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution will launch our nation down a slippery slope as the White House shows a dangerous disregard for the rights and freedoms guaranteed to every American. Instead of trying to violate a cornerstone of our Constitution, the Obama Administration should focus on promoting American values that encourage strong families and a respect for the sanctity of life while working to ensure that those with mental illnesses are able to receive the care they need.”

Biden’s statement that the administration would go the Executive Order route to pursue gun control is the creepiest thing anybody from Obama’s camp has said publicly yet. Executive Orders are for outlining the methods by which a president will implement policies passed by Congress, not unilaterally making law.

Scalise wasn’t the only Republican Congressman to pound on Biden’s statements. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) brought up the Obama-as-dictator angle…

“The Founding Fathers never envisioned Executive Orders being used to restrict our Constitutional rights. We live in a republic, not a dictatorship.”

“The President should not be able to act unilaterally when it comes to our Constitutional rights. Executive Orders were meant as a way for the president to implement legislatively passed laws, not to make law.

“I will use every means at my disposal to combat the agenda of the Executive branch to undermine our Second Amendment rights. I will also fight any legislative action that is taken to implement more gun control. Americans don’t want their Second Amendment freedoms restricted in any way and I will continue to fully support the right to bear arms for all law abiding citizens.”

And it wasn’t just Congress where the dictatorship imagery came out. The Drudge Report’s front page yesterday was really something…

The Washington Examiner’s Charlie Spiering aggregated the media reaction to that Drudge cover…

Shocked journalists this afternoon were quick to react to the Drudge Report’s controversial header photo comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin. The item linked to a Weekly Standard article reporting that President Obama was willing to address the gun issue with an executive order.

“Hitler and Stalin!” exclaimed BuzzFeed Editor Ben Smith on Twitter alerting most of his followers by linking directly to the Drudge Report.

“Drudge rules our world,” responded Slate journalist David Weigel to Smith’s post on Twitter, later adding sarcastically, “SOMETHING SHOCKING HAS BEEN POSTED ON THE INTERNET.”

“Our right is nuttier than your right (US to 193 countries),” wrote the Al-Monitor’s Laura Rozen.

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent begged his followers not to talk about or visit the Drudge Report.

“Dear everyone: Talking about how Drudge’s visuals are ruse to get attention = giving Drudge attention,” he wrote.

“Also, don’t link to Drudge – link to twitpic,” the Washington Post’s James Downie added.

“Why didn’t @Drudge just go all the way and put Obama’s photo between Adolph and Josef?” asked Michael Rosten, a social media editor for the New York Times.

“The new gold standard in Godwin’s Law violations,” wrote Business Insider’s Joseph Weisenthal in reaction to the picture.

“Seriously Drudge?” asked Newsweek’s Michael Moynihan who added a link to one of his own columns, “Someone needs to read my @tabletmag column.”

“Yep, Obama is just like Hitler and Stalin by trying to clean up databases on gun purchases and violence,” Sam Stein from the Huffington Post tweeted sarcastically.

“Has the Drudge Report ever been Drudgier than it is right now?” tweeted The Washington City Paper’s Mike Madden.

“Drudge thinks that there hasn’t been enough Drudge talk lately,” surmised Mike Memoli a reporter in the Tribune/LA Times DC Bureau.

“Really? Drudge is shocking people?” asked Roll Call’s David Drucker sarcastically. “C’mon.”

“Whoa. Drudge sending a message today. Wow,” tweeted Breitbart.com’s Matthew Boyle.

“So Drudge is right now comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin on his homepage,” reported John Avlon, a Senior Columnist for Newsweek & The Daily Beast.

“Current splash on Drudge Report should satisfy the entirety of their mouthbreather audience,” tweeted the Huffington Post’s Drew Guarini.

“Disgusting,” tweeted The Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel retweeting a Teletubbies parody of the controversial headline tweeted by the @HuffPostHill account. The message read: “Drudge has crossed the line: pic.twitter.com/BYCn6MPE”

The left-wing reaction to Drudge and the congressional reaction is pretty typical, but it’s ironic – after all, it wasn’t that long ago that the Patriot Act was seen as the worst abuse of constitutional rights since the Japanese internment camps in World War II (or, y’know, McCarthy).

But given that this is an administration which apparently swung the gate wide open for Mexican drug cartels to arm themselves with American weaponry in an effort to create a gun violence narrative setting the table for gun control legislation (if that’s not your reading of Fast And Furious we’ll be glad to hear a different explanation, but it had better be good), and given the high-pitched shrieking for gun control in the wake of the Newtown school massacre which looks for all the world like ghoulish opportunism on the part of Obama’s political allies, is it really so insane for conservatives to use the imagery of the last century’s most prominent gun-grabbers to make the point that an Executive Order infringing on the right to keep and bear arms is the wrong road to travel?

One thinks not.

Of course, there is this…