The Meat of the Matter

Jesus Frist!

Senate Majority Leader Bill "Jesus" Frist addresses a church event called "Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith."   We have an unusual showdown happening on Congress. Basically it's Fundamentalist Christians vs. People-Who-Believe-In-Democracy-As-Outlined-By-the-Constitution. Now I realize those are fighting words, but what we have on our hands is exactly that: a fight. Here's what's going on. Bush wants to appoint judges that the Democrats so strongly oppose that they will filibuster to prevent their appointment. This is a constitutional right exercised by the Democrats, and yet the Republicans state it's unconstitutional for them to do it. (I'd like to hear their rationale as to why.) Right now Republicans hold 55 of the 100 Senate seats. It would require 60 votes to stop a filibuster and force a vote. The Republicans would be hard-pressed to get 5 Democrats to swing their way, so they are attempting to legislate that you cannot filibuster the appointment of a judge. This would require only a majority of votes, which the Republicans could easily get. And who would have to step in to stop it? Why judges, of course. This whole notion seems a little ... ummm ... (snaps fingers) ... undemocratic. And the Family Research Council has the arrogance, audacity, and ass-holiness to twist the issue into an implication that a filibuster is an attack on their freedom of religion. A religious event hosted by them was called "Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith." [Sarcasm]Oh those poor persecuted Christians! The Romans once threw them to the lions, and the world has been trampling on those scattered few ever since.[/Sarcasm] What Christians don't see is that those of us without faith are starting to feel afraid of them. Very afraid. Our fear is succinctly stated in the article: "Putting more evangelicals on the court will mean rulings more in tune with the religious convictions of churchgoers," said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. "We are not asking for persons merely to be moral," Mohler said. "We want them to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ." Well, Rev. Mohler and Senator Frist, some of us really really really don't want our judges to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. For a reason why, look up the word "Taliban." Granted, the reasons many Dems are filibustering are political. Frankly, this is precisely the realm of reasoning that politicians should use--political ones. It was probably political reasons that caused Republican Senators to use filibusters to prevent Clinton's appointees from being appointed. I guess it wasn't undemocratic to do it back then. Frist is implying that it's undemocratic to filibuster this time because the Dems are filibustering because these nominees are Christian. With one side of his mouth, Senator Frist is enlisting the help of Christians to promote his cause, and with the other side of his mouth he's implying that it's undemocratic for us to filibuster a judge because he or she is a Fundamentalist Christian. Well Senator Frist, you are are politicizing your religion, so you get what you get.