Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is speaking at a telecast organized by the Family Research Council. The event is set around the theme that using filibusters to block President Bush’s judicial nominees is acting against people of faith. It’s all “sick, dark and demented.” ;)
Just to make it clear, I also find the equating of “people of faith” with “supports Bush’s nominees” to be offensive, but in a political, religious sort of way, not a “The culture war is starting!” sort of way. Are the folks speaking at this event wrong? Yep. Are they calling for a culture war against the judiciary? If they aren’t now, they have been. But can we act like this is shocking behavior, never before seen?
Geez, folks, this is Bill Frist and the Family Research Council. If he wants to screw up his Presidential election chances by courting the other Bob Jones University, let him. He may say stupid things, but in the end he’s a politician, opportunistically lying for all it’s worth. As he will find out, it’s worth less than he thinks. And, yes, that’s disgusting, and potentially dangerous, but that’s our politics. It isn’t polite, it isn’t well-considered, and it’s always skirting the edge.
What I find as interesting is that, like many parties in power, Republicans have started casting about for an enemy to fight against. After all, if you’re the majority and you aren’t getting “frustrated at every turn by some shadowy force,” any bad situation in this country is pretty much your fault, isn’t it? :) What’s fascinating is that they’ve once again picked judges, a perennial GOP bugbear that never works well. Don’t they have any sense of history? I’ve been hearing about “liberal judges” since I was born, and so far all we’ve managed to do is screw up the sentencing system.