Day: October 18, 2006

Poll: GOP, President Bush Losing Evangelicals’ Support

Buck Banks

Burning Bush: It appears that Bible thumpers, tongue speakers, snake handlers and full-immersionists are joining Wal-Mart shoppers in turning away from the president and the Republican Party. After reading Jon’s post, I checked my e-mail and, lo and behold, therein found a Pew Research Center poll analysis on the same topic. Following are highlights of the analysis:

White evangelical Protestants make up over a third of those who identify with the GOP and vote for its candidates. But they, like other voters, are feeling voter disillusionment with President Bush and the Republican Party, and their level of support has significantly diminished from where it was in 2002 and 2004.

Evangelicals are no different from registered voters as a whole in their overall likelihood of voting.

From 1999 to 2004, the number of evangelicals identifying themselves as Republicans grew dramatically from 39 percent in 1999 to 47 percent in 2001, peaking at 49 percent in 2004 and 2005.

Signs of Evangelical Frustration
The number of evangelicals who have a favorable opinion of the GOP was 74 percent in the 2004 election. But it dropped to 54 percent last fall following Hurricane Katrina, before recovering to 63 percent earlier in 2006. By July of this year, however, it had declined to 54 percent.

There also has been a significant downturn in the number of evangelicals who believe the Republican Party “governs in an honest and ethical way.” In January 2006, a majority of evangelicals (55 percent) said that this phrase better described the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. In a poll conducted this month, however, just 42 percent of evangelicals still held this view, ­ a drop of 13 percentage points.

Evangelicals also became less likely over the past year to say that the Republican Party was “religion friendly.” In a July 2006 poll, 49 percent of white evangelicals described the GOP as friendly to religion, a decline of 14 percent from one year earlier.
[…]

McCain Threatens Suicide if Dems Prevail

Trish

Remember when we all shamed Bill O’Reilly into keeping his word and apologizing that he was wrong to support Bush’s invasion of Iraq? Well, stock up on letterhead because I’m sure you’ll want to hold John McCain to his word as well.

“I think I’d just commit suicide,” McCain told reporters

McCain, on a visit to Iowa to campaign for Republican congressional candidates, was asked his reaction to a potential Democratic takeover of the Senate in the November 7 elections.

“I think I’d just commit suicide,” McCain told reporters, to accompanying laughter from Republicans standing with him. “I don’t want to face that eventuality because I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Yuck it up now, bald guy, because your day is coming.

Democrats must pick up six seats in the Senate and 15 seats in the House of Representatives to win control of both chambers.

Polls show Democrats within striking distance of reclaiming the Senate, and in a strong position to claim a majority in the House.

Fundies Are Furious Because Condi and Laura Recognized Gay Official’s Partner and Family at Swearing In

Jon Ponder

“I think it’s a tragedy to have a sodomite living with another man and being the AIDS coordinator.”
— Southern Baptist Convention Official

In the wake of the Foley scandal, disaffection among members of the GOP’s powerful anti-gay faction has escalated again — this time over the swearing-in ceremony for the new U.S. global AIDS coordinator, Dr. Mark R. Dybul, who is gay.

The ceremony was held at the State Department on Oct 10, 2006. It was conducted by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, with First Lady Laura Bush standing in for the president. Fundamentalists are angry because Dybul’s partner, Jason Claire, was allowed to hold the Bible during the swearing-in — and because Secretary Rice described Claire’s mother as Dybul’s “mother-in-law.”

No decent person would find these niceties to be controversial in the least, but among the champions of bigotry and intolerance there has been a great gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

Southern Baptist Convention official Wiley Drake:

“I think it’s a tragedy to have a sodomite living with another man and being the AIDS coordinator …because we all know that if we do away with sodomy we’d almost eradicate AIDS… I certainly … believe most Baptists would be like me; they would be appalled at what Condoleezza Rice has done, and in general [with] what the Republican Party is doing with things like Log Cabin Republicans and other sodomites [in] trying to get their vote.”

Peter Sprigg, a vice president at the Family Research Council:

We have to face the fact that putting a homosexual in charge of AIDS policy is a bit like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,” says Sprigg. “But even beyond that, the deferential treatment that was given not only to him but his partner and his partner’s family by the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is very distressing.”

Sprigg says in light of the Foley scandal, “it’s inexplicable that a conservative administration would do such things.” He also notes that Rice’s comments defy an existing law on the books protecting traditional marriage. “So, for her to treat his partner like a spouse and treat the partner’s mother as a mother-in-law, which implies a marriage between the two partners, is a violation of the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act,” the FRC spokesman states.

With election day just 20 days off, fundamentalists’ anger over gays in the GOP is becoming a wild card in the midterms. The conventional wisdom is that they might stay home on Nov. 7 in sufficient numbers to cause Republicans to lose the House.

Rumsfeld Articulates Bush Administration’s Position on North Korea Issue

Buck Banks

Idiot savant: Yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demonstrated to reporters his grasp of the fine details and keen insight into the nuclear standoff with North Korea:

“We’ve seen them do things in multiples rather than singles. And of course, very recently they fired off some missiles — six or eight, as I recall, shorter range — and then the Taepo Dong II. There is speculation that they might want to do something additional. There’s also speculation they may not.”

Reading that, I can’t understand why folks are clamoring for Prez Bush to fire Rummy, can you?

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

XXXIX. No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.

— Magna Carta, written 1215

Republicans Tell Blacks, “Democrats Will Kill Your Babies”

Trish

Somebody stayed up late to come up with this one. A new ad campaign by the Rebooblican America’s PAC is being aired on urban radio stations. The campaign starts by telling African-American listeners that Democrats favor abortion as a means of wiping out blacks.

A female announcer says, “Black babies are terminated at triple the rate of white babies.” Democrats support “liberal abortion laws that are decimating our people”

In one particularly provocative spot, as a baby cries and thunder clasps in the background, a female announcer says, “Black babies are terminated at triple the rate of white babies.” Democrats support “liberal abortion laws that are decimating our people,” she says, while “the individual’s right to life is protected in the Republican platform.”

“Don’t buy the Democrats’ lie,” intones a male announcer as he reads the ad’s tagline. “Killing unborn babies is no way to help those in poverty.”

Another ad asks, “Why do our leaders in Congress support the pro-abortion agenda of the Democrats? Or more to the point: Why do we support them?”

I guess this has a certain appeal. More damaging, since it’s often true, might be the ads from the same group that say Democrats take black voters for granted.

The ads targeting African-American voters have been largely cleared on urban music stations owned by Lanham, MD-based Radio One, a minority-owned group which calls itself the “Urban Media Specialist.”

…”When someone you’ve called a friend betrays you, the truth can hurt,” a female announcer says. “For 50 years now, we’ve trusted the Democrats for education, health care and economic opportunity. And the truth is, today’s Democrats take us for granted.”

Least effective might be the ads targeting Latinos.

The group is also running ads on Hispanic stations in Denver, Albuquerque, Sacramento and Las Vegas, among other markets. The New York Sun reported one of those ads says, “Republicans respect the Latino soldier… Enough with these Democrats.”

Hear all the ads for yourself.