For all of you out there who thought Tim Kaine was exaggerating when he accused the Kilgore campaign of attacking his faith, check this out. According to an article in The American Prospect Virginia native Rob Garver, "The fight over the Senate confirmation of President George W. Bush?s most conservative judicial nominees is about to take an ugly turn, as the administration?s supporters in the religious right prepare an organized campaign to accuse Democrats of being biased against Christians."In fact, the ultra-conservative Family Research Council is right now, as we sit here, gearing up for a large-scale, Democrat-baiting "Justice Sunday" (April 24), in which it will Republicans like Senate Majority leader Bill Frist will portray Democrats as "against people of faith" for their opposition to a handful of George Bush's most extreme, far-right judicial nominees.
In other words, the strategy used by people like Scott "Attack My Opponents' Faith, Family, and Values" Howell, chief media advisor for the Jerry Kilgore campaign, is inherently a divisive, disreputable, even dangerous one of attacking their opponents as anti-Christian. It follows, then, that the use of this strategy by the Kilgore campaign against Tim Kaine's deep Roman Catholic faith should not be surprising in the least bit. In fact, we should probably expect more of it before this Virginian gubernatorial election cycle is done.
What is going on here is nothing less than an assault on two major foundations of this nation -- an independent judiciary and church/state separation.
What the Familiy Research Council, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, and others on the far-right apparently want, based on their statements, is nothing less than a theocracy here in the United States of America. But first, in order to achieve that, they need to knock opposition from Democrats - and some moderate Republicans too - out of the way. Their strategy: attack their opponents in the most vicious fashion as anti-Christian.
Think about this for a moment: do you know ANY Democrats who are actually AGAINST Christianity? Not just against an extreme, right-wing political agenda by certain people who try to use Christianity as a weapon in their arsenal, but actually against the religion of Christianity itself? I know I don't know any like that.
And, while we're at it, can someone please explain to me what part of the Gospels the Democratic Party opposes exactly? Is it the part about helping the poor? Feeding the hungry? Turning the other cheek before rather than resorting to violence? Blessed are the peacemakers? Perhaps someone on the Kilgore campaign can explain it to us, but we're not holding our breath here.
In the meantime, we call on Jerry Kilgore -- and all Republicans of good conscience -- to denounce this "Democrats are anti-Christian" strategy as dangerous, divisive, and un-American. Urge your leadership to stop "The War on Judges" before it escalates even further, and tell them to stop the assault on their political opponents before it harms our great nation.