Conversion on the Bike Path
In India, many people consider cows to be sacred. In Vermont, they worship bicycles.
How else to explain this exchange between Dean and ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos last Sunday, after Dean was asked if he was raised Roman Catholic.
“No, raised Episcopalian, and I ended up as a Congregationalist,” Dean said.
Why did he become a Congregationalist?
“Because I had a big fight with a local Episcopal church about 25 years ago over the bike path. . . . We were trying to get the bike path built. They had control of a mile and a half of railroad bed, and they decided they would pursue a property right suit to refuse to allow the bike path to be developed.”
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I didn’t realize that the narrow door Jesus asked us to strive for was accessed via a bike path. Maybe that is why the door is narrow.
When was the last time you saw a Republican lead Senate make a gutsy stand? That they stood on principle and did everything they could not to back down? That they bombarded the press with conferences or stood together on the Capital steps complaining about undemocratic tactics being used against them?
A Republican lead House of Representatives under New Gingrich had come close when facing Clinton down on the budget by not signing an appropriations bill. But they also blinked and backed down to an onslaught of negative press and slander from the other side. The House of Representatives had impeached Clinton, but the Senate gave him a pass.
Maybe I slept in the day that they wore a spine to work and didn’t hear about it or it happened prior to when I was born.
Months ago I heard the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist talk about ways to get around the filibusters and the Senate rule about requiring a super majority. They used the words “Nuclear Option” to describe a tactic to vote with a simple majority to change the Senate rule. The Democrats have a nuclear deterrent, just ignore the Republicans until they eventually get their way. A Republican lead Senate is our version of the French Army. Run away so that you can come back and surrender another day.
If you played the word association game with Senate leaders it would go something like this. Spine – Jellyfish, Media attention – Compromise, Attack – Surrender, Integrity – Mediocrity, Hardball – Croquet.
Am I disappointed that we couldn’t get someone as qualified as Miguel Estrada on a Federal Court? Yes. Surprised? No.
Lieberman said it is a fair question to ask how his religious responsibilities would affect the execution of his presidential duties.
The senator is an Orthodox Jew who does not customarily work on the Jewish Sabbath. He observes strict religious rules that say what a Jew can and cannot do between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday.
“The fact is I observe the Sabbath Friday night to Saturday. It is important to me. I take it as a religious obligation to thank God for everything that I have all seven days of the week — thank God, the creator,” he said.
“But I have always been told when you have responsibilities that people depend upon you for their health and safety, that goes above the restrictions on what you can do on the Sabbath, so as an attorney general, as a United States senator, I have never hesitated to fulfill my public responsibility on a Friday night or a Saturday, whether it meant voting in the Senate or going to critical meetings at the White House or Congress.
“I always say, ‘When it comes to politics, I work 24/6. When it comes to fulfilling my government responsibility, I work 24/7.'”
In the 1960 campaign, John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, had to vow that he would keep church and state apart. He used a campaign speech before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association to make that point.
Lieberman, arguably the most prominent Jewish politician in the U.S. following his vice presidential candidacy, said that he might follow Kennedy’s example later during his campaign for the White House.
“At some point, I may. At some point, it may be fair to do that because I understand it is different to have somebody observing the Sabbath the way I do, but I would not run for president if I didn’t know that I would do everything to carry out the responsibilities of the office,” he said.
“When I put my left hand on the Bible and my right hand in the air and take the oath, that is an oath I take quite seriously.”
It is silly to assume that Sen. Lieberman’s faith would get in the way of politics. An Orthodox Jew that supports abortion on demand, obviously faith won’t interfere or impinge in any way. Now as for following Kennedy’s example, won’t his wife object?
ST. PAUL — Voters didn’t believe Mary Ellen Otremba could be both a Democrat and against abortion when she first ran for the Minnesota House in 1997.
When Sen. Dean Johnson was a Republican, no one had trouble accepting his anti-abortion stance. But when he switched to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party three years ago, many voters thought he also must have switched his abortion views.
The two legislators joined other Democrats Friday in launching the Minnesota chapter of Democrats for Life in hopes they can make other anti-abortion DFLers feel at home in their party.
…“The Democratic Party is known as the party who helps people who can’t help themselves,” Johnson said, adding that the concept should be applied to the unborn.
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But Ms. Feinstein reserved most of her ire for Mr. Schwarzenegger, who has made a career as an action-hero actor. Joining Mr. Davis to urge a permanent ban on military-style assault weapons, Ms. Feinstein criticized Mr. Schwarzenegger’s violent movie roles.
“Violence begets violence,” Ms. Feinstein said, “and you become a role model for someone of lesser maturity out on the street to try to imitate what you do in a movie.”
Ms. Feinstein the conscience of Hollywood along with Sen. Joe Lieberman. Always talking on this subject and encouraging her liberal Hollywood friends to stop making violent movies. She has publically attacked Martin Sheen and other liberal Hollywood stars for making these movies and not stopping the violence. She also refuses any campaign funds from people working in the industry making violent movies. Oh wait, sorry about that I was thinking about the Feinstein in the goateed Spock dimension. In this dimension her ire for violent movies has just materialized and been directed at Hollywood stars sailing under the Republican flag.
It’s official, Arnold Schwarzenegger has put his hat in to run for California Governor. While there is much fun and potential in this announcement, I have not been impressed with the interviews he had with Sean Hannity.
Arnold appears to be a cultural Catholic in the mode of a Rudolf Giuliani and does not seem to have the same conservative convictions of the last Hollywood star turned California Governor – Ronald Reagan. I would love to be wrong here, yet probably even a nominal conservative would be a vast improvement for the people of California.
Boston-AP — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says the Vatican has crossed the line in America when it says Catholic politicians have a “moral duty” to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples.
The Massachusetts senator, who is Catholic, says he believes in the church and cares about it enormously. But he says “it’s important to not have the church instructing politicians.”
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Who does the Vatican think it is giving him orders? It’s not like they are NOW, Planned Parenthood, or the DNC. What is with the Church instructing and teaching people? It is as if they take the Gospel seriously or something.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Matt 28:19-20
“If you heard any of the debate, you heard many people say that Mr. Pryor was being discriminated against because of his Catholicism,” Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) told reporters Thursday. “Well, nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Well I have to agree with Tom Daschle here. He is not being descriminated because he is a Catholic but because he is a Catholic who appears to follow what the Church actually teaches. If he was a “Tom Daschle” Catholic there would be no problem. They would have nothing against someone who went to a Catholic Church on Sundays but who didn’t follow the teachings of the Church in their political life.
Daschle blamed Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for introducing the topic of religion because of comments Hatch made during Pryor’s June 11 confirmation hearing.
“You’re a person of deep religious conviction. You believe very strongly in the Catholic faith, and you have said so publicly,” Hatch said of Pryor. “Some of these criticisms come from your expressions of your own personal faith, which you have never, to my knowledge, allowed to interfere with what the law is.”
Hatch also asked Pryor if he was Catholic. Pryor responded that he is.
Daschle cited complaints from “all over the country” about Hatch’s comments and questions.
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Well Orrin Hatch is not a real good example to cite since he is increasingly not pro-life in his voting record. And his viewpoint on embryonic stem cell research matches the majority of the Democratic party so you can see that he would have the same animus towards Pryor as they do. The argument that Orrin Hatch introduced the topic thus he started it sounds like a playground excuse and not a valid reason. Saying “Well he started it” does not provide a reason why you should continue doing something.
Since everyone seems to be running guessing games I will
for this one time offer my own. These are not trick questions in any way, simply match the Democrat to the correct question/statement.
____"The legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance
with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted,
I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which
must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to
grow old."
____Belonged to "Democrats for Life"
____"It takes three to make a baby: a man, a woman
and the Holy Spirit. What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric
of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang
of conscience? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have
20 years hence if life can be taken so casually?"
____"It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is
wrong. I hope that some day we will see the current outrageously large number
of abortions drop sharply. . . . Let me assure you that I share your belief
that innocent human life must be protected . . . In my opinion, it is wrong
to spend federal funds for what is arguably the taking of a human life. . .
.”
____Wrote a bible tract titled "I made my choice"
in which contained “I love Jesus Christ and I try to serve Him to the best of
my ability. How about you?”
- Jesse Jackson
- Bill Bradley
- Al Gore
- Teddy Kennedy
- Dick Gephardt