Et tu, Leo?

This is the time of year when hope springs eternal. And believe it or not, there is something to be hopeful about.

It seems the juggernaut of rightwing theocracy is showing some cracks.

This is not to say they are defeated or even seriously set back, but for the first time since the election the fundamentalist fanatics have been suffering some serious public relations setbacks.

The Terri Schaivo case showed the face of political and religious opportunism on the part of the Republican Party. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s blood is in the water and the sharks are circling. His heavy-handed manipulation of the constitution and his threats against judges have come back to haunt him and the investigation into to his egregious ethical violations are making daily headlines.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist still cavorts with the far right in his cynical bid to be considered presidential material. His participation in Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council’s Two Minute Hate this past week called “Justice Sunday “ along with other religious fanatics such as James Dobson, the man who discovered that Square Bob Spongepants was homosexual, Frist purports that the idea that wanting to filibuster judicial nominees is an attack on people of faith.

This blatant pandering to the zealots is becoming worrisome some conservatives.
John Leo, conservative columnist for U.S. News and World Report, has never met a liberal he did not love to bash. Yet, the recent power plays of the far right fringe of theocratic thugs are a bit much for even him. In his most recent column entitled “Not a Religious Fight” calls the event a “woeful tactic based on a false premise.” He further elaborates on why the self-appointed ayatollahs of the right are dead wrong:

“Accusing the Democrats of running a jihad against believers clearly implies that people who vote Democratic are either terribly ignorant or simply not good Christians, Jews, or Muslims. This is a surefire recipe for increasing polarization within the churches.”

Et tu, Leo?

Even the daddy of right wing ideologues, the President himself, has tried to put a little distance between himself and the godbotherers. In his uninformative news conference Bush was asked whether he believed "that judicial filibusters are an attack against people of faith." He said no. "I think people are opposing my nominees because they don't like the judicial philosophy of the people I've nominated," Bush said. It was the first of four times that the president rejected the notion that religious discrimination was motivating opposition to his nominees. "No, I just don't agree with it," he said. "I don't ascribe a person's opposing my nominations to an issue of faith," he said. "No, I think people oppose my nominees because -- because of judicial philosophy," he said.

Perhaps the rightwingers are discovering that most of us believe in the idea of separation of church and state and do not want a bunch of bible thumpers calling the shots? As I mentioned before, hope springs eternal.