Real Kato Blog: Daily Roundup

The CIA leak scandal, Harriet Miers, and mixing religion into U.S. politics.

The CIA leak scandal (which needs a proper name, by the way... "leak scandal" sounds like something involving diapers) is growing in intrigue. Did Valerie Plame's identity come from Dick Cheney himself? Did Cheney lie about that? Did Scooter Libby contradict his own notes with his testimony, thus opening himself up to perjury charges? Just how many people are lying, and who might get indicted for it?

Some Republicans, like Senator Kay Hutchison of Texas, think perjury is a "technicality", a trumped-up charge that prosecutors use when they can't make any other charge stick. You know, Kay, I think a certain cigar-wielding former President might agree with you there.

Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination continues to find trouble. Conservative activitists are rallying against her, with web sites and advertising calling for Bush to withdraw her from consideration. And now there's a suspicious land deal in which Miers' family received over $100,000 for a half-acre piece of land worth only $6,000... perhaps thanks to a friend of Miers who was on the panel that determined the payout. She bungled a Judiciary Committee questionnaire to the point she was asked to re-do it. And at one point, her law licenses were temporarily suspended because of unpaid dues.

So the picture that's being painted for us is this: Miers is a Bush crony who's been the beneficiary of cronyism in the past; she's not knowledgeable about Constitutional law issues; and she's absent-minded about important things like paying her bar dues. Just who's painting this picture? The religious conservatives who make up Bush's base. Hmm.

A group called Christian Exodus wants to start converting the U.S. into a Christian nation one state at a time. They're starting in South Carolina. The idea is to have a flood of Christians move into the state, fill the legislature with Christians, and then change the state law to outlaw abortion, outlaw gay marriage, outlaw the teaching of evolution, and put Jesus and the Ten Commandments into public schools. And if the federal government tries to intervene, then Christian Exodus proposes that the state secede from the country.

In a year and a half, a total of five families and two individuals have moved. I don't believe that's quite enough to tip the balance of the legislative elections.

Recently, a delegation of Iraqi observers in the U.S. were so bewildered at the influence of religion in U.S. politics that they decided to leave, before the stain of that thought corrupted their fledgling democracy. (Thanks to Arse Poetica for finding this.) The key quote came from lead delegate Muhammad Mithaqi, a secular Sunni judge. "Now let me get this straight," Judge Mithaqi said. "You are lecturing us about keeping religion out of politics, and then your own president and conservative legal scholars go and tell your public to endorse Miers as a Supreme Court justice because she is an evangelical Christian. How would you feel if you picked up your newspapers next week and read that the president of Iraq justified the appointment of an Iraqi Supreme Court justice by telling Iraqis: 'Don't pay attention to his lack of legal expertise. Pay attention to the fact that he is a Muslim fundamentalist and prays at a Saudi-funded Wahhabi mosque.' Is that the Iraq you sent your sons to build and to die for? I don't think so. We can't have our people exposed to such talk."

Yet another reason why Bush is an embarrassment to our country.

Permalink 3 Comment

Posted by Ken in: politics

Comments

Comment #1 from olafandyjon (Guest)
2005 Oct 25 - 10:41 am : #

Uh...as much as I would love to do some more Bush bashing (can one ever get enough?) at the bottom of the essay is the statement that it's not a real news story.

Comment #2 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Oct 25 - 10:47 am : #

Mmm, you're right. I missed that. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that the story isn't true, though.

Comment #3 from Nicholas (Guest)
2005 Oct 25 - 12:33 pm : #

The Daily Show did a segment a while ago on the Christian Exodus. The leader/organizer, has not yet moved to SC.

Aren't Libertarians supposed to move to NH or Vermont. One of those little Yankee states.

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