Flush twice... it's a long way to Sally Quinn's place!

Pundit Pap
Promoting Religion -- At Very Least, "Moral Issues" and the Official Bush God®
by the Pundit Pap Team
Sherrie G | Jane Grice | Jodi Schmidt

Nov. 28, 2004 (apj.us) -- Baghdad is burning. The dollar is melting down. Bush managed to disrupt a summit meeting in Colombia. The Intelligence Reform Bill is stalled.

Well, one out of four isn't bad -- there was actual talk about the bill on a few of the political chatfests this Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, there was disproportionate bloviage about two other topics. So-called "moral" issues were showcased by at least two of the shows, with the invited guests all hailing from various guises of or excuses for Christianity -- and the small minority of Christian clerics who flog the Official Bush God(r) were disproportionately represented (3 out of the 6 clerics we observed).

Memo to the networks: why do you seem to have such a problem with inviting Jewish or Islamic clerics on to discuss these issues? Better yet, how about an agnostic or atheist -- say, Paul Kurtz or the otherwise insufferable Chris Hitchens (preferably liquored up and ready to deliver a good verbal smackdown to hypocrite moralists)?

The other big issue was the status of Iran's nuclear program. FOX News Sunday and CNN Late Edition promoted it to a top-level topic for discussion -- but FOX had to admit that the excuse to make it so prominent, namely a report that Iran was not going to comply with international demands to slow their nuclear program -- at least insofar as making weapons-grade materials goes -- collapsed overnight when the Iranian government issued a statement that they intend to cooperate.

Here's Act I of what we observed...



This Weak: License to Obfuscate
Playas: George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Gary Bauer (president of American [sic] Values), Tony Campolo (professor emeritus at Eastern University, St. Davids, PA), Rev. Floyd Flake (President of Wilberforce University, Ohio), George Weigel (hard-right "Christian" author)

Segment one was a staged "debate" over the stalled Intelligence Reform bill between Sensenbrenner and Lieberman. You remember Sensenbrenner -- he made his name as one of the moralist clowns trying to tear down Bill Clinton during the ginned-up Lewinsky flap that became a sham "impeachment" political lynching. Sensenbrenner's proven to be none too successful in parlaying his role in the impeachment circus into any sort of advancement to his career -- so now he's going through the motions of holding up intelligence reform, supposedly over some niggling language over driver's licenses for foreign nationals. While it must be said that the issue is not trivial, one would think that he'd come armed with more ideas that could improve intelligence and find approval from both parties. The fact is, these "protests" over the "homeland security" "flaws" in the Intelligence Reform bill are a sham -- and the main objections are coming from the PNAC Platoon ensconced at the Pentagon, who dread the possibility that the law can be interpreted to mandate greater civilian oversight of military intelligence.

And speaking of homeland security: where is that wily Osama bin Laden?

And you just have to love the way that the networks look for any reason to invite Democrat (in name only) Lieberman to peddle his pap; this time, it seemed a hair more justified than most occasions, in that Lieberman was in the middle of the scrum hammering out language for the Intelligence Reform Bill. But then, so was Joe Biden. Remember, the networks' bookers do have their preferences in Democrats, and the more Republican and less charismatic, it would seem, the better.

Rather than rehash all of the stupidity, here is our Concentrated Micro-transcript of the segment:

Stephanopoulos: You want no drivers licenses for illegals and tighter asylum control.

Sensenbrenner: We want to stop another attack! Homeland Security! Driver's licenses allow terrorists to travel, open bank accounts and get on planes!

Stephanopoulos: According to the 9/11 report, the US government should set standards for birth certificates -- why not driver's license?

Lieberman: The present legislation sets up driver's license standardization, Sensenbrenner contributed to the legislation, but the Republicans are not entitled to stop this tightening of national security in the middle of a war. (The war against terrorism, that is -- an undeclared and vague war that has been fought with breathtaking incompetence and that Lieberman has been oh-so-happy to defend at each juncture. Does anyone else out there feel that the nation would be better served by legislation that specifically and effectively declares a campaign on all fronts -- financial, diplomatic, military and covert -- against the infrastructure of Al Qaeda, Osama, Zawahiri, and the upper echelon of criminal terrorism operating under the cloak of subverted religion?) The hijackers got in either legally or using fraud, and got driver's licenses.

Sensenbrenner: Not true! Some of their licenses were expired! Lack of interior immigration enforcement! The legislation allows some states to opt out of driver's license standards!

Stephanopoulos: How hard is Bush really pushing for this legislation? One WaPo report says the White House is not crying real tears over this. (Gee, now why would that be? Could it be because the Neocons controlling the Pentagon don't like it? Why not mention of the why, Steph?)

Lieberman: I believe the President wants this bill, but with a majority of House members ready to vote, Hastert refused to call the roll -- this mess is in the President's lap, and he says he wants it. The Speaker has made a nonpartisan issue into a partisan matter. (Again, why no mention of the reason Hastert is stalling it, Joe?)

Sensenbrenner: Hey, I got the call from the president! We have a common sense compromise! You rejected it! Plug up immigration laws! The In-doe-neezians are sneaking in! Fear! Furriners!

Lieberman: We ran aground on Sensenbrenner's driver's license language -- conservative Republicans don't want to issue driver's licenses to foreigners.

Sensenbrenner: They claim asylum, but they are a danger! Horrors! Fear!

Lieberman: The law already covers them!

Stephanopoulos: Does the President and staff REALLY want this bill?

Sensenbrenner: Yes! But correctly! (Translation: No! Give the military more power!) With driver's license reform! What good is intelligence if we don't have homeland security? The Senate didn't want to talk about driver's licenses!

Lieberman: We put a lot of your law enforcement proposals in there (translation: we've made this intel bill PATRIOT 2 and a Half), but you can't say that this so-called immigration reform would have stopped the 9/11 attacks.

Oy. This is what passes for thorough, analytical discussion and debate? And some wonder why we worry for the future of the nation when television "news" divisions do such a lame job of questioning and analysis.

But wait. There's (gag) more. The segment that followed was a sop to religious wingnuts. The only "balance" was two pro-Bush "Christians," Gary Bauer and George Weigel, versus two more independently-minded religious spokespersons, Tony Campolo and Floyd Flake.

Bauer: There's a real division over cultural issues, the definition of marriage, "unborn children." (We heard a lot of that phrase from Bauer, who considers every fetus a child, in an attempt to undermine the accepted differential between a fetus and a child). Election returns in 11 states on gay marriage hurt John Kerry. (Not true, according to more than one election analysis we've seen.) "Cultural elites" are hostile to faith! (We heard Bauer use that term "cultural elites" repeatedly -- without identifying one "cultural elite" or quoting one example of hostility. This is a favorite false meme of hard-right Christians: pretending that they are persecuted rather than moneyed, organized and, on the political front, coddled by the GOP.)

Campolo: Liberal Democrats failed to couch their campaign in moral terms: poverty, the environment, AIDS, education. Democrats were afraid to use spiritual terms. Americans are spiritual, believe in God. (Speak for yourself on the latter -- as for the former, Democrats had better be taking notes.)

Flake: There is substance to this issue because polls show most Americans are connected to God, but in the polling booth people do not automatically vote their faith. Kerry said nothing about faith; Bush did. People of faith who might have been undecided jumped off the fence for Bush. (Flake may be right -- but keep in mind that many people in the Midwest have been fooled and/or cowed into voting against their interest. Most of the analysis shows that it was fear of terrorism, not moral issues, that swung fence-sitters.)

Weigel: Kerry said that he believes life begins at conception, then said it would have nothing to do with public policy. It was a huge disconnect for the public. (Huh? How is that a disconnect? Saying that you believe one thing but will fulfill your oath to respect the Constitution and represent your constituents is not a disconnect -- unless, of course, you are a Röve-ite trying to fool and/or scare voters.)

Campolo: The religious right has questions to answer -- four years ago the vote came out heavily for Bush; a GOP Congress and Senate did nothing to overturn Roe v Wade, and it seems to me that the evangelicals should've been on Bush's doorstep screaming in anger, but they didn't -- it seems to me that they are more committed to not embarrassing a GOP president than the unborn. (Again, I hope that the Democrats are taking notes. Röve has proven incredibly effective in dividing voters -- this is a make-or-break issue for many Catholics and Evangelicals.)

Bauer: The president can't overturn Roe v Wade.

Campolo: Then why aren't you screaming over Bush's promise that there will be no litmus test for judicial nominees based on Roe v Wade? (Bwahahahahahaaa...)

Bauer: We need "strict constructionists" (another favorite Röve buzzphrase meant to fool the public into thinking that judges who rule that some laws are unconstitutional are not interpreting the Constitution correctly and are "legislating from the bench").

Weigel: About the so-called incoherence of Kerry and reproductive rights: civil rights was driven by religious conviction, but in an inclusive manner. I see an inclusive community that is pro-life.

Stephanopoulos: One commentator in The New Republic said, "The belief in God does not mean that you know God's wishes."

Weigel: It's not an issue of knowing where God stands on tax rates, but when an entire class of living beings is excluded then it is an issue. But so is Iraq.

Flake: A God who is all-sufficient must have a position on hunger, poverty. We all benefit when we are trying to improve the life of all people.

Bauer: The phenomenon is "militant secularism" of America's "cultural elites" wanting to shove faith in the closet "when so many are coming out of the closet." (We roared with laughter -- you just have to love the sheer hypocrisy. But then, there may be a reason for this flip-flop by Bauer -- he knows full well that a number of top GOP players are about to be forced out of their faux-metrosexual closets.)

Campolo: Rove made certain (wedge) issues religious issues -- when you say abortion and homosexuality are the only religious issues, the GOP wins. But how about the poor? Two THOUSAND verses of Scripture call upon believers to help the poor. For every dollar Americans spend on the poor, Norwegians spend forty dollars.

Weigel: It wasn't Rove who made it religious, it was Judge Margaret Sullivan, who ruled for gay marriage. These are "people taking power back from the courts." (Ha! Another wrongwinger talking point. They don't get that the courts are a counterbalance to the legislature, and that it is usually the courts that are by design more responsive to cultural change than legislative or executive branches of state or federal government.)

Flake: Kerry needed religious leaders to get out and campaign for him. Carter had them. Clinton had them.

Campolo: There is a movement, but this is not democracy, and there is a minority who do see evangelicals as a threat to THEIR liberty.

Bauer: Kerry was one of only twelve senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. That was radical! Kerry favored "social engineering!" (Note to Democrats: it is time to use that term to describe what theocrats and moralists are trying to do to our free and pluralistic society.)

Campolo: I am afraid, because when the church becomes too political, it is like "mixing ice cream with horse manure" (tainting the ice cream), and the religion becomes one-sided.

Weigel: The church may be getting too close to Caesar. Church leaders need to understand that not all will agree with us, but we need a "language" with which to communicate our views. (But you already have it: "Strict constructionists," "cultural elites," and so on.)

Bauer: As a Christian, I know the difference between Christ and Bush. Christian first, Republican or Democrat second.

Flake: Without the connection between faith and politics, there would have been no civil rights movement. The Christian Coalition is running a cycle, and eventually it will run out.

Stephanopoulos: Thank you for a very provocative discussion.

Provocative? Let me tell you what would have been provocative, George -- you challenging Weigel and Bauer on the hypocrisy and dishonesty of their deceptive buzzphrases and talking points.



FAUX News Sunday: Iran reaches critical mass... um, hold it...
Starring former journalist Chris Wallace, with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

Chris Wallace, no doubt on the explicit instructions of Roger Ailes after consulting his contacts at the White House and PNAC, cast Iran as an immediate nuclear danger before welcoming Dick Lugar.

The first mess Chris and Lugar rehashed was the possibility of Iraq's elections being postponed. Naturally, Lugar (who by and large hews the Bush/GOP line on FOX News Channel, but shows far more independence elsewhere) said America must back Allawi -- and even took a moment to spin Ayatollah al-Sistani's having said that Jan. 30 is make-or-break. Lugar said that Sunni demands for a delay are somehow evidence that they are against democracy. (It's more likely that it's evidence that they fear the tyranny of the majority Shi'ites.) Chris said that the Shi'ite majority have been out of power for decades, and Lugar launched into wonk-pap about federalization and constitutional issues as applies to Iraq.

Then Chris said that this morning, FOX News had received word that Iran was breaking off talks -- then reversed the position, saying they will freeze their nuclear program. Lugar framed the issue so it sounded as if it all hinged on high-tech centrifuges that are used to extract uranium. Chris: "How can we EVER trust the Iranians?" Lugar, in effect, said we can't without rigorous monitoring. (And that's true -- but given the litany of lies about Iraq's phantom WMDs from Bush, Rice, Powell, Rummy and the rest -- not to mention the fact that good intelligence was scuppered by the Pentagon PNAC Patrol -- the more pressing question is, "How can we EVER trust what the Bush Regime might say about the Iranians?" Don't look for Chris to ask that question.)

To their credit, Chris and Lugar talked about the pressing and disturbing election fraud and abuse, and a nation one "the verge of catastrophe [and possible] civil war." To their discredit, they weren't talking about Ohio, Florida, or California -- God forbid anyone at FOX News suggest "wholesale fraud and abuse" took place here on Nov. 2 -- they were focusing on last week's elections in the Ukraine. Naturally, Chris and Lugar ginned up this crisis as a major story, which it is -- but it only served to remind us that that US does not have free and fair elections, and we need election reform just as much as the Ukraine does (not to mention international observers).

Lugar said that Condi Rice's confirmation hearings are not yet scheduled, and Chris insinuated that Democrats might throw up obstacles. (Here's a hint, Chris: we hear that her honesty under oath is going to become an issue -- and more than a niggling one, especially once the Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress down the line. Take this to the bank: Bush's decision to name Condi-lies-to-ya Rice as Secretary of State is an enormous blunder.)

We caught a little of the hot GOP-on-GOP between Collins and Hunter -- debating the Intelligence Reform bill. Collins said that a majority in both houses of Congress supports the bill, and if Hastert schedules it, it will pass. Hunter made a pitch for military intelligence and battlefield forces remaining "tight-knit" (i.e. keep the civilians out altogether). Chris, to his credit (for once) clarified the roles of National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, and other agencies that engage in military surveillance -- will Intelligence Reform break that link? No, said Collins, reminding viewers -- and Hunter -- that Mr. Bush supports the bill and nothing in the bill hurts military intelligence.

Well, we'll give FOX points for touching delicately on the fact that the whole Intelligence Bill fiasco is in fact a tussle between the PNACers and Congress. But given the fact that FOX is nothing but a propaganda mill for the White House and RNC, that's not a lot for them to be proud of.

-- Jane Grice



McLaugh-In Romper Room Report: The First Law of Holes

Y'all know the First Law of Holes, right? "When you realize that you're in one, stop digging"?

Well, it sure looks as if the Cons -- Neo- and Paleo- alike -- could use that knowledge.

And damned if Johnny Mac isn't trying to educate his former ideological kin.

Yes, folks, Nixon's rent-a-priest is by far the most honest and enlightened host of any of the Sunday-morning gabfests. (And yes, I know, that's not saying much. But dammit, I'd rather listen to a defrocked Jesuit than Pumpkinhead Tim Russert any day of the week. The defrocked guy has better morals, for one thing.)

Anyway, back to the Holes thing:

Pat Buchanan needs to be reacquainted with the First Law, as he really made an ass of him today. First, he said the brawl at the basketball game demonstrated the decadence of modern society. That was just the opening that Eleanor Clift -- who has really sharpened up her game recently -- was waiting for.

Ms. Clift said to Pat, ever-so-sweetly: "You've been in a few brawls yourself, Pat, I've read your books." Pitchfork Boy's flustered response: "Well, they shouldn't make a fistfight illegal!"

Nice one, Pat. Now everyone's reminded that you're just a hair-trigger thug who swallowed a dictionary and parlayed your near-total lack of compassion or ethics into a longtime career in the Republican party.

But that wasn't the only issue about which the Cons were wholly (or holey?) up to their ears in it.

It's a given that people who are resistant to understanding the First Law of Holes are in general rather resistant to reality in general. That's why Ahmad Chalabi was able -- on behalf of his Iranian friends -- to con the Cons into invading Iraq. (And now that this is done, he's apparently working on betraying his Iranian friends -- does anyone doubt that the "information" Colin Powell used to accuse Teheran of being close to having nuclear warheads has in fact come from the same guy who falsely told Powell that Saddam himself was yellowcaking Iraq into the nuclear club?)

And this is why the various discussions on today's show -- from the debt to the Ukraine to the basketball brawl -- were so bizarre. It was Johnny Mac and Eleanor Clift versus the hole-diggers. And whenever JM and Clift came up with a fact, it bounced off of the hole-diggers' heads like it was a Nerf ball.

Bush's disastrous budget debt and China's unwillingness to keep propping up the dollar? Bounce.

The deadly game of Whack-A-Mole in Iraq, as the not-so-pacified Falluja keeps demanding US attention? Bounce.

The fact that fifteen prominent Iraqi political groups want the January elections to be delayed? Bounce bounce bounce.

But then I realized: perhaps this is part of Johnny Mac's game.

He and Clift have apparently decided that they are going to force their fellow Romper Roomies to react to the facts, in the hope that the viewers at home will realize just how reality-challenged the Cons truly are. And in so doing, Johnny Mac has, in deed if not officially, declared himself a member of the reality-based community.

Nice to have you aboard, John. The wet bar is over in the corner, next to the hors d'oeuvres.