Monday, April 25, 2005
Justice Sunday And The Filibuster - The Day After
John Leo had a piece from yesterday that I missed in the prior post.
According to the NYTimes account of the event, Frist played things just right.
Opinion pieces are still trying to catch up with events, so there is little to point to. David Brooks, here as carried in the Minneapolis Strib, points out precisely how much damage Roe v Wade has done to our society. From MichNews, J. Grant Swank points out campaign appearances by Clinton and Kerry made in churches, and wonders why Frist's appearance was so different.
UPDATE 10:20AM
Holy Coast looks at John Fund's Political Diary (WSJ) entry on the topic today. Says Rick:
UPDATE 10:35AM
Hedgehog Blog looks at comment by Laura Ingraham and notes that the future strength of the Republican party may very well be at stake. He also points to the importance of the judiciary issue with the example of the Boy Scouts. I have to agree with him, it is hard to imagine something that just a few years ago was considered the epitome of American life is under judicial attack. We have to win this fight -- and leaning on the philanderers is the way to do it.
UPDATE 11:20AM
Hedgehog Blog reprints a policy email just received from the Senate Republican Policy Committee. It's obvious, they are laying the table to bust the filibuster.
Accusing the Democrats of running a jihad against believers clearly implies that people who vote Democratic are either terribly ignorant or simply not good Christians, Jews or Muslims.I understand what he is saying here, and it concerns me, but the church has been riven by so many other issues, many far less consequential than this, that I am not sure we can use it to stop us. Also reported before the event on Sunday was that, during Passover, Rabbi Daniel Lapin was going to participate.
According to the NYTimes account of the event, Frist played things just right.
In a short videotaped statement included in the telecast, which was called Justice Sunday and emanated from a packed Baptist mega-church here, Dr. Frist, the Senate majority leader, neither referred to religious faith nor addressed criticism that the event was inappropriately dragging religion into a partisan battle.The Kansas City Star tells much the same story, as does the LATimes, though seemingly giving even more coverage to the counter event held elsewhere in Louisville. Most interesting to me is the continual thrusting forward of Jim Wallis, quoted in the LATimes
Instead, he focused on accusations by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, that Dr. Frist was a "radical Republican" for participating in the telecast, which aimed to build conservative Christian support for his threat to eliminate the filibuster of presidential nominees
Jim Wallis, a liberal evangelical who edits the magazine Sojourners, said that the religious conservatives' stance favoring one party and one position on judges "borders on idolatry."I have to wonder if it has occurred to Wallis that by making these comments and entering the political fray he is doing precisely that which he accuses religious conservatives of doing? Besides, if faith does not have some definition of those who are "in" and those who are "out" it becomes utterly meaningless. I would also remind Wallis that the left started this fight by excluding judicial nominees based on deeply held beliefs.
"When they say that people who disagree with their views and their strategy are not people of faith, they've crossed a line," Wallis said. "When they use faith as a weapon, as a wedge, it feels like instigation of a religious war. And the creation of a Republican theocracy."
Opinion pieces are still trying to catch up with events, so there is little to point to. David Brooks, here as carried in the Minneapolis Strib, points out precisely how much damage Roe v Wade has done to our society. From MichNews, J. Grant Swank points out campaign appearances by Clinton and Kerry made in churches, and wonders why Frist's appearance was so different.
UPDATE 10:20AM
Holy Coast looks at John Fund's Political Diary (WSJ) entry on the topic today. Says Rick:
My only fear now (besides the possibility of weak-kneed Republican Senators) is that the Dems will fold now in hopes of saving the battle for the Supreme Court. I'd rather have Frist trigger the nuclear option now, than have another battle when the first Supreme Court nominee doesn't meet the liberal standards of the Dems.Got to agree, better a small tactical atom bomb now than a startegic hydrogen bomb later.
UPDATE 10:35AM
Hedgehog Blog looks at comment by Laura Ingraham and notes that the future strength of the Republican party may very well be at stake. He also points to the importance of the judiciary issue with the example of the Boy Scouts. I have to agree with him, it is hard to imagine something that just a few years ago was considered the epitome of American life is under judicial attack. We have to win this fight -- and leaning on the philanderers is the way to do it.
UPDATE 11:20AM
Hedgehog Blog reprints a policy email just received from the Senate Republican Policy Committee. It's obvious, they are laying the table to bust the filibuster.
