Posted on 02/08/2005 9:11:20 AM PST by siunevada
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has convened a group of Democratic lawmakers to develop a "faith agenda" for the party, a Capitol Hill newspaper reported Monday (Jan. 31).
The "working group" of 15 to 25 members would help Democrats cast issues through a faith lens in a way that would help them speak to "faith-minded" voters, Roll Call reported.
"Our problem is not our programs," said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. "It's been our expressions and interpretations of those programs. We are people of faith."
Pelosi, a Catholic from San Francisco, has been soliciting ideas on the proposal for two years from faith and political leaders, including former Clinton White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry. Pelosi said religious voters have been co-opted by Republicans.
"House Democrats are people of deep faith and share the values of faith communities," Pelosi told the newspaper.
Pelosi's group will have an uphill climb after exit polls from November's presidential election showed the so-called "values voter" flocking to the GOP in record numbers. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has made similar overtures in recent weeks, attempting to moderate her party's position on abortion in an effort to broaden support with swing voters.
"I knew that we had a problem two or three days after the election when I started looking at the exit polling," Clyburn said. "I saw that our Catholic nominee for president lost the Catholic vote."
There are 154 Catholics in the 109th Congress -- an all-time high -- including 87 Democrats and 67 Republicans. While Democrats hold their traditional lead among Catholics, Republicans are gaining, with two-thirds of new Catholic members coming from the GOP.
Clyburn told Roll Call that most Democrats "may not wear their religion on their sleeves" but said the party must "go on the offense on these issues" in an attempt to attract swing and moderate voters.
I couldn't help it, it's still a funny story.
Fishing for the 'faith' vote. Just gotta find the right language. Them believers are sorta stoopid, right?
OK you guys, I want a detailed report on this 'Jesus' thing on my desk within a week. Also find out about 'NASCAR' and hunting. And barbecue. Also pickup trucks and dogs. Get out there!
Burn the witches first.
They already had a "faith agenda". That's why so many religious people vote Republican.
"do you have 100K votes?"
"NO, go fish"
If I were a democrat pretending to love God, I would watch for lighting bolts.
Gal-ch.6 v.7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
The Dems have trotted out their most spiritual members -- not to instruct their unbelieving fellow congressmen or Senators but . . .
To help them create an ad campaign -- to be consumed by their recent unfaithful -- to call them back to the mother church.
If the Dems want consensus on this, they should cherry-pick the best bits of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Paganism, package the whole thing up and announce: "This is our faith. We are ever bit as much a moral Christian as you Republicans."
This is pathetic. They aren't doing this out of any religious conviction. This is a political strategy to these evil people.
Putting wheels on a frog and calling it a wagon...does not make it a wagon
The unwritten story is, if they have to convene a "working group" to figure out how to talk the talk, then they will never walk the walk. And they will never con anyone into believing otherwise, no matter how many snippets of scripture their speechwriters squeeze into their statements.
And they continue to fail to grasp that if you have faith (in God, not in Government and the Courts), you don't have to "wear your religion on your shirtsleeve." In fact, if you have faith, you won't wear it you will live it.
These people really are beyond redemption.
""We polled the Democratic caucus and by a nearly 1 1/2 to 1 margin, WE APPROVE OF GOD."
God needs there approval??
Give me a break.
They wouldn't know what religious 'Faith' was, unless God smacked them in the head.
Hypocrits.
The irony of the dems pursuit of a faith agenda is that it basically comes down to their stand on abortion ... a litmus test that they themselves have so vigorously promoted over the years.
Those quotes were made up. They came from me. I thought that was pretty obvious.
"Our problem is not our programs," said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. "It's been our expressions and interpretations of those programs."
Sorry, Congressman, it's impossible to polish pigsh*t...care to try another answer?
...instead, we gotta sorta hide our religion, you know, with its faith in Gaia through the sacrament of abortion.
Plus, the disconnect between being Catholic and demonrat. I share my Catholic conservative brother & sister's frustration at such a state of affairs.
It's like Rush always says about greatness: if you have to explain how great you are, you ain't. If you have to have "develop" a "faith agenda," it means you don't have one, and, more important, you don't have a clue as to what faith is.
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