Congressmen Against Religious Freedom

Or CARF, as its known in the halls of Congress.

It seems this controversy over Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first ever Muslim in Congress, and his desire to take the oath of office (not the actual oath, by the way, more on this in a minute) by placing his hand on the Koran won't die. This is one of those controversies where you just want to say, "Oh, people, please, grow up."

The latest to spin the Wheel of Nonsense is Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), who has a form letter going out to constituents who supposedly have been contacting him with "a flood of e-mails" about this issue. You can read the entire letter at Glenn Greenwald's blog, but here is a snip. Try to follow this winding trail, if you can:

The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.

We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.

Did you follow that? The Rep. went from the wishes of the people of Ellison's district to immigration to Muslims being elected to office back to illegal immigration to President Clinton to the Middle East.

And the best part is that Ellison is African-American, or so I gather by watching him on television.

Greenwald had this to say:

I was particularly moved by the way Rep. Goode stood up to the inquiring, treasonous "Muslim student." That was very brave, powerful and resolute of Rep. Goode to stand his ground. Maybe he is the Churchill we've all been hungrily craving.

Meanwhile, over at the Lede at the New York Times, it is pointed out that the ceremony in question is not official. It is merely a photo-op, and the actual oath is taken without holy books, which prompted a Lutheran pastor from New Jersey to ask this:

The reality is that pictures of Congressional representatives where they are placing their hand on the Bible while raising their other hands is just for publicity. It is a photo-op... The Bible is a prop in the pictures.

Why aren't people upset that God's Word is being used as a prop - how many of those taking those photo-op pictures with their hands on the Bible actually live their public lives according to it?

Love those Lutherans! Martin Luther said something that is appropriate here. As a Christian, Luther said, "I'd rather be ruled by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian."

The sudden re-emergence of this controversy is a reminder of last month's dust-up when Glenn Beck of CNN asked Ellison to convince him that he's not working with our enemies, which prompted a classic response from Jon Stewart (Warning: TV-M):


Andy in the HBG

Send in the clowns

Actually, the clowns are already here.

Where do I start with the week's recap of bigotry? Well, you may remember Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), the immigrant and Muslim hater. He's back. In the midst of the House debate on the Iraq war resolution (not an ACLU issue), Goode said

supporting the anti-escalation resolution would "aid and assist the Islamic jihadists who want the crescent and star to wave over the Capitol of the United States and over the White House of this country." Moreover, he said, "I fear that radical Muslims who want to control the Middle East and ultimately the world would love to see 'In God We Trust' stricken from our money and replaced with 'In Muhammad We Trust.'"

Then there's Senator Barack Obama, who took shots this week that MSNBC's Keith Olbermann described as "sleek racism" from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Fox News' hilarious new yuk-yuk show The 1/2 Hour News Hour.
Limbaugh:

So are we to conclude here that he didn't define himself as black, that the way he looks does? (Sigh.) Okay. We’ve got Obama's wife in here. We've got John Howard from Australia coming up, but, "I'm not sure I decided it"? Well, if you didn't decide it, then how did it happen?

Well, when you look like that, that's what you are.

Well, renounce it, then! If it's not something you want to be, if you didn't decide it, renounce it, become white!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, back to our Barack Obama Audio Sound Bite Marathon. What are we up to now? Let's see. Oh, yeah. Obama just said he wasn't sure that he decided he was black, that if you look African-American in this society, you're treated as an African-American, and when you're a child in particular that's how you begin to identify yourself. If you don't like it, you can switch. Well, that's the way I see it. He's got 50-50 in there. Say, "No, I'm white."

Beck:

I was driving in today, and I was seeing -- because I saw this piece with him on 60 Minutes -- and I thought to myself, he is -- he's very white in many ways.

GIORDANO: Uh-huh.

BECK: And I thought to myself: Gee, can I even say that? Can I even say that without somebody else starting a campaign saying, "What does he mean, 'He's very white?' " He is. He's very white.

And the comedians at Fox News:

But in a shocking (to use one of FNC's favorite terms) contrast to Joseph Biden's controversial remarks about Obama being clean, FOX joked about a new magazine called "BO, Barack Obama magazine." With video.

But bigotry isn't just for the racists. No, sirree, the homophobes had to have their turn.

Retired NBA star Tim Hardaway, in response to the coming out of former NBA player John Amaechi:

"First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team," the former Miami Heat star said. "And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room."

When show host Dan Le Batard told Hardaway those comments were "flatly homophobic" and "bigotry," the player continued.

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people," he said. "I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

The NBA removed Hardaway from its upcoming All-Star festivities this weekend.

And no lineup of hate would be complete without yet another visit by Fred Phelps to Pennsylvania, who visited us last weekend when York Suburban High School did a production of The Laramie Project. Thankfully, the community responded with a rousing reception for the play and more than 100 counter protesters.

Of course, as defenders of free speech, we support the right of these people to say these things. And we will use that same right to say loud and clear that no one deserves to be hated or intimidated on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation (among other things).

Now, I want to believe that this is the sound made by a dying animal. But today I was in a meeting that I regularly attend and learned that membership in "white supremacist" groups has gone up markedly in the last year. The reason, according to the person presenting the information, is the volatile debate over immigration.

We have come a long way, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

Andy in Harrisburg

WSJ takes note of downfall of anti-immigrant crowd

Updated below

You may recall my post-election reaction to the downfall of hardline, anti-immigrant politicians. Today the Wall Street Journal also took note of "More Immigration Losers".

Virginia Republican Congressman Virgil Goode's narrow loss to Democrat Tom Perriello became official last week, and it caps another bad showing for immigration restrictionists. For the second straight election, incumbent Republicans who attempted to turn illegal immigration into a wedge issue fared poorly.

(snip)

Immigration wasn't a dominant issue this fall, and other factors contributed more to the GOP defeat. But the political reality is that Republicans who thought that channeling Lou Dobbs would save their seats will soon be ex-Members.

America's Voice did an excellent post-election analysis, before the Goode loss, called "Fenced In" (pdf). (I love that title.) The report looks at 21 congressional races that included an extreme anti-immigrant candidate. In 19 of those races, the extremist lost.

AV also produced this inspiring video before the election.



It's time for elected officials and candidates in Harrisburg and in Washington to come to grips with this reality: Hating on immigrants is the best way to a quick retirement.

Updated, 3:58pm:And there's this from political observer Charlie Cook, who surveyed Republican strategists. One strategist had this to say:

"Fourth, stop being [misguided] on immigration. We are alienating huge parts of the electorate, we are turning our primaries into single issue 'hate' contests and ignoring the single fastest growing bloc of voters in the country."

Andy in Harrisburg

More on Ellison

Yesterday it was off to Philly for a few meetings, and the trip on the train always provides an opportunity to contemplate while staring out the window at the farmlands of Lancaster County and the industrial lands of Chester County. During yesterday's trip, I thought a little more about this controversy surrounding U.S. Rep.-elect Keith Ellison.

The opponents of religious liberty are really showing their true colors with this one. Often when we deal with Establishment Clause issues, opponents are able to cloak their hostility using the argument that their freedom is being encroached, and to the non-discriminating listener, this might sound sensible.

But Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) is quite clear: He hates Muslims and immigrants and doesn't think they should be a part of the political process. That's wrong and it's un-American. Clearly, the Rep is hostile to the basic principles of religious freedom and citizen participation in the government. There is a word for that. Tyranny.

Andy in H-burg