Posted on 06/28/2004 9:24:17 AM PDT by SlickWillard
Before Congress left town Friday for its Fourth of July recess, Rep. Bill Thomas of California pulled off one of his patented legislative assassinations. Washington's most cunning parliamentarian, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Thomas eradicated the Freedom of Speech in Churches Act without openly opposing it. In the process, he fired an early shot in a destructive civil war looming for Republicans.
The bill would stop the Internal Revenue Service from using existing statutes to muzzle clergymen who talk politics in their churches. That stoppage is pressed by Christian conservatives, who say they have been discriminated against by federal enforcers. While the free speech initiative is supported by Republican leaders, Thomas made short work of it. He transformed the proposal into a hybrid that neither friend nor foe could support.
Thomas has brought into the open internecine warfare posing grave dangers for the Republican Party. A 13-term congressman who is the party boss of Bakersfield, Calif., he represents old-line Republicans who resent Christian conservatives entering their party in 1980 (and giving the GOP parity with Democrats). Efforts to expel these intruders will reach fever pitch next year if George W. Bush is defeated for re-election.
This specific fight's origins date back to 1954 when Senate Democratic leader Lyndon B. Johnson, unduly concerned about the threat to his re-election from right-wing political groups, passed a bill barring political activity by tax-exempt organizations. In time, this was broadened to keep churches out of politics.
That aspiration sounds comical to me after years of following Democratic candidates into inner-city churches on Sunday mornings to hear them endorsed by black clergymen. This activity never incurs the wrath of Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Instead, Lynn pesters the IRS about conservatives in church as he did in a May 27 letter to the IRS. It claimed Bishop Michael J. Sheridan's pastoral letter of May 1 ''jeopardized the tax-exempt status'' of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo., by praising politicians opposed to abortion.
Such censorship alarmed Walter Jones, a Republican businessman and devout Catholic from Farmville, N.C., when he was elected to Congress in 1994. Correcting unintended consequences of LBJ's 1954 legislation became Jones' top priority. He introduced his bill in 2001.
Thomas as chairman blocked an easy path to the floor for Jones' bill. It reached the floor Oct. 1, 2002, under the procedure requiring two-thirds approval. Despite support for it from their party's leadership, 46 Republicans -- Thomas included -- voted no and prevented even a simple majority. They represent a bloc of Republicans, from the corporate boardroom to the country club, who despise the religious right.
This year, the indefatigable Jones managed to get his religious free speech proposal imbedded in tax legislation that has to be passed to stop trade retaliation by the European Union. Everybody was on board: Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie -- everybody, that is, except Thomas.
Thomas practiced his sorcery. The straightforward Jones language was transmuted into a maze of words that lawyers for conservative organizations say would keep the muzzle on preachers. Jones, with the backing of Hastert, added 28 words to the Thomas language to restore his original meaning. Thomas pulled the 28 words out of the final version. That killed the whole issue. Thomas did not seem unhappy about it, but the speaker was furious.
Thomas is a secularist who in the past jousted with senior Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, a prominent Catholic layman, over federal aid to Catholic hospitals. A former college professor, Thomas is entitled to his own views, but today's GOP relies on support not from secular Americans but from churchgoers. Jones, not intimidated by Thomas, told me: ''Discretionary enforcement, primarily against conservative churches, of an unenforceable law is wrong and should not stand.'' That is a battle cry for the coming Republican civil war.
Not War of Northern Aggression?
I only say that when I want to tweak obnoxious Yankees.
I say as John Adams did in the movie "Amistad" about a possible civil war:
"Let it come. And let it be the last great battle in the American Revolution."
Besides, I'm tired of these dull conventions...
From the article: "That aspiration sounds comical to me after years of following Democratic candidates into inner-city churches on Sunday mornings to hear them endorsed by black clergymen. This activity never incurs the wrath of Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Instead, Lynn pesters the IRS about conservatives in church as he did in a May 27 letter to the IRS. It claimed Bishop Michael J. Sheridan's pastoral letter of May 1 ''jeopardized the tax-exempt status'' of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo., by praising politicians opposed to abortion."
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Hey Novak, SHUT UP. Just Shut up! You boring puke!
There ya go. Well reasoned responses, at your service. :-)~
Uh, didn't Sandy sorta kill himself?
Yeah, rumor had it that the Clintonites threatened to out him & Mr. Molinari, so ol' Sandy took one for the team - fell on his sword, so to speak.
You get some pretty good hits if you google on it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=sandy+hume+bill+paxon&safe=off[Apparently other versions of the story have Dick Armey playing the role of the Clintonites - nothing like a little historical revisionism, I guess.]
Nobody...and I mean NOBODY...needs to be, nor should be in Washington that long.
I'd vote for a houseplant...if they would make term limits their only misson. (vbg)..
I can dream......can't I?
FWIW-
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
I'd edit your sentence above to read....for most liberals...And for some conservatives....
If we are speaking about just our everyday rank and file...libs or conservatives then....it generally appears to me that 70% of the 100% of conservatives that I know...are more informed than 85% of the 100% of liberals that I know.....
FRegards,
I remember it from the eighties and the Wilson Goode/MOVE butchery:
http://www.google.com/search?q=osage+avenue+move
FRegards,
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!
By limiting political speech in churches? That is NOT a Republican. Sounds like a socialist to me.
Word to Republicans: LEAVE THE CONSTITUTION ALONE.
Well in Pennsylvania, church sermons that say homosexuality is wrong are being considered a hate crime- if lawmakers and liberals have their way.
Well if they are going to take away rights guaranteed by the Constitution, you can damn well bet there will be a civil war. The sad thing is, Republicans like Thomas support this. I, as a Republican, do not.
And God help any of us who are conservative, and have issues which are important to air. I believe the Republican Party is looking forward to the day when they think they can get enough illegal voters to commit to the party, then they won't need conservative Christians anymore. We are a shameful part of the party to these people, and always have been.
That's a perfect example of how the left has an agenda to make speaking the truth a crime and outlaw any truth that inteferes with it's scheme.
Well, I wonder if Filthydelphia's Osage Avenue is named for Oklahoma's Osage Indians?
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