If Wright Were White
Leonce Gaiter believes that ,"If Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his former disciple, Barack Obama were white, this would not be a story." He contends that, "White pastors have been spewing hateful bile and filth for generations. But it's white bile, and that makes all the difference." Ezra Klein disagrees slightly, arguing, "Americans recoil from the Chomskyite critique, and any ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 1, 2008 12:01
Huckabee and the Decline of the Religious Right
Two pieces today give insights into the longshot presidential bid of Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and the role of evangelical leaders in the Republican Party. Michael Gerson notes Huckabee's irritation that demonstrably less conservative opponents are garnering endorsements that should rightly be his. When I asked former pastor and current presidential candidate Mike Huckabee his response to Pat Robertson's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 9, 2007 16:48
Christian Conservatives May Bolt GOP
Some influential leaders of the Religious Right are threatening to leave the Republican party and support a third party candidate if Rudy Giuliani gets the nomination, David Kirkpatrick reports. The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 1, 2007 07:38
Banned Opus Strip
Berkeley Breathed has up this Note to Opus readers: The Opus strips for August 26 and September 2 have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus' host paper The Washington Post. The strips may be viewed in a large format on their respective dates at Salon.com. That's the end of his ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 27, 2007 07:22
Did Karl Rove Lose a Generation of Republicans?
James Carville has an editorial in the Financial Times, of all places, explaining "How Karl Rove lost a generation of Republicans." He's generous in noting that, "If we concluded our analysis in 2007 and confined our judgment merely to Mr Rove’s immediate electoral record, we would have no choice but to judge him a spectacular success. There is no doubt that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 15, 2007 10:49
‘God is Not Great’ Flying Off Shelves
Jeffrey Trachtenberg chronicles the success of Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything in today's WSJ. [T]he biggest surprise is a blazing attack on God and religion that is flying off bookshelves, even in the Bible Belt. "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," by Christopher Hitchens, wasn't expected to be a blockbuster. Its publisher, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 22, 2007 11:36
Equal Opportunity Terrorists
In response to the news of Christian terrorists plotting to blow up protestors at Jerry Falwell's funeral, Steve Benen offers this food for thought: For my friends on the right, consider a question: if I told you that Virginia law enforcement had apprehended a young religious man who was caught with five bombs in his car — bombs which he intended ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 23, 2007 15:20
Bomb Plot Thwarted at Jerry Falwell’s Funeral
A bomb plot targeting Jerry Falwell's funeral was thwarted by police yesterday. And, no, it's not what you think. ABC News has the details: Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car. The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 23, 2007 09:04
How To Eulogize Your Enemy
Predictable though it was, the tidal wave of vitriol that has followed Jerry Falwell's death earlier this week has been truly disgusting. De mortuis, nihil nisi bonum? Forget about it. The death of a public figure now serves only to underscore the earlier death of civility in our public discourse. Which makes the brief mention of Falwell's passing from the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 20, 2007 15:16
Jerry Falwell Dead at 73
Jerry Falwell has died. Evangelist Jerry Falwell died Tuesday after he was found unresponsive in his office, an official at Liberty University told CNN. Falwell, 73, was rushed to a Lynchburg, Virginia, hospital, where he was given CPR. Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 and is a nationally known voice for conservative Christian views. (Watch Jerry Falwell's rise to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 15, 2007 14:30
