Earlier this week, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced legislation recognizing the “importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” The resolution passed 372-9.

Last Wednesday on Fox News, King said he introduced the bill because he believes “we’re a Christian nation founded on Christian principles.” In an interview on Alan Colmes’ radio show yesterday, King went even further, saying that “every child” should “be taught” the “tenets of Christianity”:

COLMES: Should they be taught Christianity, should every child learn Christianity?

KING: I think they should learn it. If you’re going to learn American history, you cannot teach it without teaching Christianity.

COLMES: It’s one thing to teach the history of how religion may have been part of our growth as a country. It’s another thing to actually teach the tenets of a religion. As if the people going to school should learn the tenets of a particular faith. You’re not saying they should learn the tenets of Christianity, are you?

KING: I think they need to understand the tenets of the Christian faith and other faiths that have affected the history of this country.

Listen to it:

King’s concedes that if “the tenets of Christianity” are to be taught in school, “other faiths” should be taught as well. But given his contention that “the foundation” of “our American culture is Christian” and his need to recognize “the Christian faith” in the Congressional Record, it is difficult to believe the sincerity of King’s attempt at tolerance.

King has shown animosity towards non-Christian religions in the past. As ThinkProgress has noted, he opposed resolutions recognizing the Muslim celebration of Ramadan and the Hindu Diwali. After nine Democrats voted against his “Christian faith” resolution, King attacked them, saying “how they could vote ‘yes’ on Islam, ‘yes’ on the Indian religions and ‘no’ on Christianity.”

Today, former governor Mike Huckabee (R-AK) announced Ed Rollins as his new campaign chairman. In 1993, Rollins chaired the successful campaign of Christinie Todd Whitman in the New Jersey gubernatorial race, where he paid black leaders to not speak out for opponent Jim Florio:

“We went into black churches and we basically said to ministers who had endorsed Florio, ‘Do you have a special project?’ And they said, “We’ve already endorsed Florio,” Mr. Rollins said. “We said, ‘That’s fine. Don’t get up on the pulpit Sunday and say it’s your moral obligation that you go on Tuesday to vote for Jim Florio.’”

Mr. Rollins said the campaign used a more direct approach to persuade some Democratic political workers to stay home on Election Day. “We said to some of their key workers, ‘How much have they paid you to do your normal duty?’ ” he said. “Well, we’ll match it. Go home, sit and watch television.”

(HT: Tim Grieve)

Digg It!

Earlier this week, former senator George Mitchell released a damning report on steroids in baseball, noting that “for more than a decade, there has been widespread anabolic steroid use.”

President Bush — an avid baseball fan who sometimes watches games in the Oval Office — addressed the report today, saying he is “troubled” by the steroid allegations. Bush “hopes that this report marks the beginning of the end of steroid abuse,” said Press Secretary Dana Perino. Bush added:

I think it’s best that all of us not jump to any conclusions on individual players named, but we can jump to this conclusion: that steroids have sullied the game. … And my hope is that this report is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us.

Watch it:

“[P]ayers and the owners must take the Mitchell report seriously,” Bush ordered today. But from 1988 to 1994, when Bush was managing general partner of the Texas Rangers, he turned a blind eye to steroid abuse.

Several former Rangers — Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmiero, and Jose Canseco — were all alleged to have used, or have admitted to using, steroids while playing for Bush. Gonzales, Palmiero, and Canseco were identified in Mitchell’s report.

Jose Canseco authored a book about steroids in baseball during the early 1990s and argued that Bush must have known about the drug use. In July, sports columnist Skip Bayless — previously a sports journalist in Dallas — said Bush “looked the other way” when working for the Rangers:

I knew the President when he was owner of the Rangers. And I heard all the whispers around the locker room and the clubhouse. … I think he looked the other way.

Ironically, Bush wants to put “behind us” a steroid culture that his negligent management helped foster.

Transcript: Read more

I have to say that I find the idea that Hillary Clinton has been “vetted” and thus we can expect “no surprises” in terms of damaging campaign information to be pretty unconvincing. For one thing, public opinion of HIllary Clinton has bounced around a fair amount over the past ten years and it could keep on bouncing.

But more to the point, this almost seems like a calculated effort to bait me in bringing up things I really don’t want to bring up. Are we, after all, sure that there are no more “surprises” lurking in Bill Clinton’s sex life? That everyone in America remembers the full details of Clinton’s midnight pardons? There’s tawdry BS to be dragged up on everyone — she’s no exception and shouldn’t be pretending that she is.

In a 93-1 vote, the Senate passed legislation today to aid “thousands of Americans facing foreclosure because of the ballooning interest rates on their subprime mortgages.” The AP reports:

The bill would allow the Federal Housing Administration to back refinanced loans for tens of thousands of borrowers who are delinquent on payments because their mortgages are resetting to sharply higher rates from low initial “teaser” levels. [...]

President Bush last week announced an agreement with mortgage companies to freeze interest rates for certain subprime mortgages for five years. Democrats in Congress, however, criticized the White House plans as being too limited.

The Senate bill raises the maximum mortgage the FHA can insure in high-cost areas from $362,790 to $417,000 – the same level as loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The House passed similar legislation in September.

Last night, the White House “threw back-to-back holiday receptions for the news media” with over 500 guests attending. At the “early one” for print and radio journalists, conservative talk radio hosts like Neal Boortz and Hugh Hewitt “dominated the place.”

On Fox and Friends this morning, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said it “was a great party” and that she loves “having everybody there.”

Host Steve Doocy asked if it was “weird” to have “people who appear on other channels, who bash the president all the time” at the party. Perino responded by criticizing the non-Fox News members of the press, saying “it’s a little awkward” and “audacious” for some of them to “ask to be invited”:

DOOCY: [H]ow weird is it to have, Dana, people who appear on other channels, who bash the president all the time, and then, one night a year, they come into the White House, they bring their kids, and they say, Hi, how are you, as if they haven’t been bashing the president all year long?

PERINO: It’s a little awkward. And it was amazing to me, being in charge of taking the requests for invitations this year, how audacious some people are to call and ask to be invited to the president’s Christmas party.

Watch it:

With President Bush’s approval rating at 28 percent, the White House is turning to friendly outlets. Last month, Bush recorded back-to-back interviews for Fox News and the Fox Business Channel, one of which was for “a documentary” that Fox’s Bret Baier is producing.

In 2006, after Vice President Dick Cheney shot a friend in the face while hunting, he agreed to “only” speak to Fox’s Brit Hume though “every news organization was hotly pursuing” interviews. When he travels, Cheney requires that all televisions in his hotel rooms be turned to Fox News.

Earlier this week, Fox’s Shepard Smith reminded us that Fox is Bush’s “network after all.”

The New York Times reports this morning that former CIA Clandestine Operations Director Jose Rodriguez, who ordered the destruction of interrogation videotapes in 2005, has hired one of Washington’s top criminal attorneys, Robert S. Bennett, to represent him in the tape inquiries:

Mr. Rodriguez has hired Robert S. Bennett, a well-known Washington lawyer, to represent him in Congressional and Justice Department inquiries into his handling of the tapes.

Mr. Bennett has represented a number of high-profile clients — among them former President Bill Clinton, Caspar W. Weinberger, the former defense secretary, and Paul D. Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary and World Bank president.

“Mr. Rodriguez has been a loyal public servant for 31 years and has always acted in the best interest of the country,” Mr. Bennett said. “He’s done nothing wrong.”

(HT: TPMmuckraker)