Redstate

Somewhere, Mark Pryor is crying.

Or perhaps, he isn't (from an event in 2001):

That's what one legislator was overheard saying to another, moments after we and our friends on the House Judiciary Committee had defeated SB 35, the "hate crimes" bill. Anyone who believes that the supporters of "hate crimes" legislation are opposed to hate should have been in the Legislature's House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, February 20. Labeling us liars, extremists, and later, homophobes and racists, some supporters of the bill resorted to personally attacking our motives and integrity.

Attorney General Mark Pryor led the attack on Family Council and on me personally. I sat on the front row of the committee room with Dr. Charles E. Williams, a brave African-American pastor from Greater Paradise Church in Little Rock. He and I, along with others opposed to the bill, sat quietly as General Pryor looked straight at me and accused me and Family Council of "deliberately misleading" and "deceiving" the legislature and the public on his "hate crimes" bill. He stated that 90% of the opposition to the bill had been generated by Family Council's network of constituents, who had also been deceived into opposing the bill. He named me personally in his attack. He went on for about ten minutes. In 12 years of lobbying at the Arkansas Legislature, I've never undergone such an attack.

attacking Christianity is going to help the DNC play better in the red states.

I realize that they see it as throwing red meat to the wolves, but somehow they are ignoring the fact that insulting Christians is probably going to fire them up to vote against the DNC.  The DNC has to realize they can't win elections by getting the base there, they have to appeal to those not quite decided which party they belong in, and I don't see how comments like these help in that cause.

But it's going to go over like a lead balloon in Arkansas. If there's any state in the Union more populated with Evangelical Christians, I haven't found it yet. In the town in which I live, about 700 folks regularly attend worship services at one of hte local denominations. We have a population of around 900.

not Arkansas, and would agree that this will have a certain appeal to the NE-but the DNC doesn't have to worry about the NE (other than NH and parts of Maine) these states are about as blue as blue can be.

But I agree with the evangelical church on every corner aspect of the South.  There were more Baptist churches in the town I grew up in than all church denominations put together in the town I currently live in (NH).  

They are shooting themselves, the DNC has been bleeding badly in the South for years, and these comments will mean the DNC will continue to hemorrage.

Prior to the Civil War and during Reconstruction, it was quite common for those who supported slavery and/or opposed equal rights for formers slaves to refer to Republicans as "Black Republicans."

Now that Republicans are the ones pushing for democracy in the Middle East and supported the liberation of Iraq, a mostly Shiite nation, history seems to be repeating itself.

that these comments are playing well in the deep, deep blue precincts in-and-around Boston/Cambridge and again out in the woods of Amherst (home of UMASS, of course), but elsewhere they are not playing all that well at all.

Lots of life-long, born-into-the-Democrat-Party Catholics in this area - and they were already not thrilled with the direction of the party of their birth.  Showing open hostility to Christians (of whom Catholics are, I believe, a branch thereof) is not a particularly ingenious strategy to get these folks to open their hearts and wallets.

Frankly, aside from the college kids and the trust-fund set, the comments are not playing well at all - not even up here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.

Cheers.

We have a fairly large Muslim population (mostly Somalis) and I know that MI has a large Muslim population as well.

Do you think that Muslims living in those two swing-States will take kindly to Democrats using a denomination of their faith as a smear-word?

where I grew up, there were eight churches within two blocks of my house.

. . . we have a 1:1 ratio of bars to churches.

I haven't looked it up but I'm almost sure it's a statute somewhere. ;)

Because the man making the statement was the Arkansas State chair for the DNC.

<sarcasm> You'd think a Democrat would be a little more, ahem, you know, "politically correct". </sarcasm&gt

You know since Dean has said he wants to make inroads to the South and seems to think that insulting people based on their religion is the way to go.  

We've got Howard Dean who doesn't seem to like "White Christians" and this fellow who uses "Shiite" as an insult.  Perhaps they can get an anti-Semite like Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson or Al "Diamond Merchants" Sharpton on board to cover the spread.

The really regrettable thing about this is not

over-the-top language but the fact that language

itself is becoming meaningless. "Gulag" is

applied to Gitmo; Bush is called a "Hitler"

during the campaign; Dean insults all white

Christians by implying they are shills for the

Republican party -- most of whose members don't

do an honest days work. And so it goes. The

answer is not for conservatives to reply in

kind - which may start happening - but to appeal

to the electorate not to heed such intemperate

and irrational outbursts. Because the real

danger is that if it isn't brought under control

civil political debate and discourse will

inevitably disappear -- and then this democratic

republic will be greatly diminished.

We've got a ratio of about 50 churches per tavern.

And I have to drive 40 miles each way to buy beer.

Go ahead, Howard.  Insult "Christians".  If Christians are Republicans, there'll never be another Democrat elected in Arkansas in a hundred years.

You go, Howie.  I said it before.  Every time I see one of my "yellow dog" Democrat buddies, all I have to do is say "Hey, did'ya hear what Howard Dean said now.....?"

They cover their ears, scream "I can't hear you", and run.

White Christians, you say?  OK, Howie.  Bring it on.

Sorry, that's always been something that the Historians invented a hundred years after the fact.

We've never been polite or civil to our political opponents, beyond a certain minimum level betweed the candidates directly.

Why start now.  I don't want civil political discourse.  I want huge filibuster proof Republican (And not RINO) majorities.

If I have to tell the truth about Hillary peeling wallpaper off of the Governors Manison in Little Rock, or the one about the lamps protruding from the paneling, so be it.

(The truth is that I don't know.  But I heard that kind of thing long before Billy went to Washington.  They did have to put the new Governor in a Trailer for a couple of months to rebuild the Mansion.)  

Civility is lies.  Tell the truth, and shame the Devil!

Just and FYI...you are all quite stupid if you don't realize that the comments made by Jason Willett were a REPEAT of the comments made by REPUBLICAN governor Mike Huckabee years ago when he was referring to the uber conservatives in his own party.  Willett isn't pulling up a chair next to Dean, but he isn't afraid to say what's needed to be said in NWA for a long time.