"While Sinclair Lewis wrote that Gantry, his hypocritical evangelical preacher, 'was born to be a senator,' we now have senators who are born to be Gantrys. One of them, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, hatched plans to be beamed into tonight's festivities by videotape, a stunt that in itself imbues 'Justice Sunday' with a touch of all-American spectacle worthy of 'The Wizard of Oz.'"
Today's "Justice Sunday" the big religous conservative Lollapalooza declaration of war on the judiciary, with Bill Frist as headliner.
Frank Rich's 1920s references in the New York Times and the "lynching" in the headline reminded me of the rise in political power of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s - in the South to be sure but also in the rural North. It climaxed at the 1924 Drmocratic convention. Before the infamous 103 presidential ballots, there was a move by the urban, Al Smith wing of the party to condemn the Klan by name. It lost by 3.3 votes. Meanwhile:
On July 4, 20,000 Klan supporters held a picnic in New Jersey, wearing white hoods and robes. One speaker denounced the "clownvention in Jew York." They threw baseballs at an effigy of Al Smith. The event culminated with a cross-burning.
Am I over the top with the Klan analogy? We're seeing the same behavior from the politicians - the kowtowing, the pandering, the worry about offending an extremist group. Even Democrats are fretting about "values voters," but the always dead-on Bill Maher nailed it with this: "'Activist judges' is a code word for gay." And for today's Klansmen, faggots are playing the role of niggers.
And statements like Tom DeLay's "judges need to be intimidated" smolder like a burning cross.
This is war, folks, why do you think they call it "the nuclear option"?
Thanks also to TalkLeft.
Politics
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