Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake, under investigation from the IRS for using church resources to help Mike Huckabee, has on at least two occasions urged his followers to pray for the death of staffers at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, because they appear to have prompted the IRS to investigate his church. Way to put the Christ in Christmas, Pastor. No doubt Pastor Drake feels his very raison d'être threatened by AU, and that such threats justify "imprecatory" retaliation. But an IRS investigation is only a "threat" if there's only one way to serve God. And this wouldn't be the first time fear of death/dishonor/humiliation/change made good people do bad things -- though "good people" may be a generous evaluation in Pastor Drake's case.
Rick Santorum is just as insufferable an op-ed writer as he was a Senator. I count three paragraphs of actual analysis relating to Mr. Santorum's titular theme, then seven paragraphs of largely unrelated and unsupported "history," and then five more paragraphs of disingenuous "analysis" in which Mr. Santorum cites exactly zero examples to prove that all Democrats are bad and all Republicans (except maybe John McCain) are good. I don't know about you, but when I look at Pat Leahy and Ben Nelson and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd and Harry Reid and all the rest, I don't see a bunch of high-taxing God-hating one-world-government-loving bead-wearing swingers. And, by the way, Mr. Santorum: try more short sentences. They really brighten up your prose. And they reassure people you're not a maniac.
Finally, would the good citizens of Missouri please un-elect Kit Bond in 2010? Mr. Bond begins his defense of Mr. Bush's warrantless wiretapping/amnesty for big telecoms bill thusly: "(i)nadequate intelligence prevented us from detecting and disrupting the worst terrorist attack on the United States in history." Well, Mr. Bond, not exactly. Off the top of my head: FBI agents burned the wires trying to warn their superiors about folks in flight school who weren't interested in learning how to land a plane; Mr. Bush received a direct warning in the 8.6.01 Presidential Daily Briefing -- you remember, the one titled "Bin Laden determined to strike inside U.S." -- and the warrantless wiretapping program began before 9.11, meaning that all these illegal tools did not prevent 9.11. Then in paragraph 2, he insultingly suggests that what we really oppose is monitoring terrorists. Then in paragraph 3, he touts bogus "changes in technology" when FISA has always been technology-neutral. And then he slings around the word "bipartisan" like that automatically means "good." Please, Missouri, no more Kit Bond after 2010. Raise Tom Eagleton from the dead if you have to.
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