Posted on 09/03/2006 10:26:05 PM PDT by goldstategop
Whenever the media establishment's long knives come out for a politician, I figure the person is doing something right – that he or she is a legitimate threat, that he or she is effective and getting to the enemy.
That's the conclusion I came to after reading an L.A. Times hit piece on Rep. Katherine Harris, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Florida.
It was an amazing piece of "journalism." Here are some key excerpts:
"She's called for a Christian theocracy so Congress won't 'legislate sin.' She's lost a dozen key campaign staffers in the home stretch, advertised endorsements she didn't get and failed to pick up a single recommendation from Florida's leading newspapers."
"Rep. Katherine Harris – the former darling of the Republican Party for her pivotal role in the 2000 presidential recount – has stumbled so badly in her bid for the U.S. Senate that pollsters and pundits no longer focus on her longshot chances against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson in November, but instead on the outlook for Tuesday's primary race against virtual unknowns."
"Three polls released this week all put Harris, 49, at least 16 percentage points ahead of her three Republican rivals. But with two of the challengers closing in on her, and the share of undecided voters larger than her advantage, analysts say the contest for the party's nomination is far from over."
The report characterized "the latest controversy stirred up by Harris – an interview she gave to the Florida Baptist State Convention for its weekly journal in which she deemed the separation of church and state 'a lie we have been told' and 'so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.' She also told the Florida Baptist Witness that only Christians should serve in Congress because otherwise it will 'legislate sin.'" What actually happened? To find out, you'd have to read actual news accounts of the events, not the L.A. Times editorials posing as news stories.
In an interview with the Florida Baptist Witness, Harris said she did not believe God intended for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws."
It was not Harris who called for a theocracy, but one of her political opponents, state Rep. Irv Slosberg, a Democrat, who demanded an apology for the comments, saying: "What is going through this woman's mind? We do not live in a theocracy."
In fact, Harris wasn't calling for a theocracy, just simply representing mainstream evangelical thought. She added that her Christian beliefs animate everything she does, including her votes in Congress. She then warned voters that if they do not send Christians to office, they risk creating a government that is doomed to fail."
As a Christian, I agree with everything Harris said – and we must stop being afraid to tell people the truth.
"If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," she said. "Whenever we legislate sin and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they don't know better, we are leading them astray and it's wrong."
Do you find that shocking? I don't. I find it commendable that a politician of Harris' stature is saying what she is saying. Notice the L.A. Times calls her chances against incumbent Bill Nelson a "longshot." Do you really think so? Why do you think a paper on the other side of the country is so threatened by Harris. It isn't because she is going to lose the race to Nelson, it's because she alone has the best chance to win. Notice how the L.A. Times manages to portray a candidate with a 16-point advantage over her nearest competitor as some kind of loser. The race is tomorrow – but it's far from over, according to the L.A. Times.
Notice how it's shocking to the L.A. Times reporter that a Senate candidate would say that separation of church and state is a lie. It most assuredly is. It is found nowhere in the founding documents of this country – however it was found in the Constitution of the Soviet Union.
Notice how the L.A. Times calls her "the former darling of the Republican Party. The truth is that Harris has never been embraced by the Republican establishment – not George W. Bush, not Jeb Bush, not any of the other country club Republicans. And that's another reason I find her so attractive despite the occasional and inevitable political missteps.
It so happens I got to know Katherine Harris when her "Center of the Storm" was the very first book ever published by WND Books way back in the fall of 2002. (It's now a valuable collector's item – especially when you buy an autographed copy.)
I was surprised by the person I met back then – because she wasn't anything like the media depictions of her. She was diminutive. She was attractive. She was extremely bright and warm – not the cold, harsh character I saw on the news throughout the 2000 election dispute.
So don't be fooled, Floridians. Do the right thing tomorrow. Vote for Harris. And vote for Gallagher.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Sure hope she pulls it out!
Let me get this right. You are saying that we should be against the conservative the GOP Country Club establishment.
I hate to clue you in but, the conservative the GOP Country Club establishment was the only thing the elected GW over McCain in 2000.
I think you are saying that the conservative the GOP Country Club establishment is our enemy.
My reaction is that you need to check into a sanitarium because you have lost it.
Very interesting fact about the Soviet Constitution; I already knew that it was nonexistent in our Constitution.
"I think you are saying that the conservative the GOP Country Club establishment is our enemy.
My reaction is that you need to check into a sanitarium because you have lost it."
You are sooo right. Without the Country Club, we'd have Specter and Chaffee in office!
Oh, wait, never mind!
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
And thank the Bushes & Roves for their non support. Just what we need again in office is another Bush or Klintoon. Again not much difference so you all continue your voting habits in this corrupt "Two-Party Cartel" & get these same results while never thinking of voting for the KH's who want to represent our views. You all might have thought all of these yrs under these 2 names has been great. Go on & keep those rose colred glasses on.
Rep. Katherine Harris already answered questions about her statements about voting for Christians for office - she encourages everyone of faith to run !
She made that statement on HARDBALl with Nora O'Donnel a couple of days ago .
Why the hell would anyone in Florida care about the Los Angeles Times ?
Leftwing, and on the Leftcoast ! ! ! !
If I read your post 10 correctly, you think Karl Rove and Liddy Dole are RINOS.
If this is true, you are a nut.
I'm in. What a great lady. Pony up Freeper's.
I hear you are no fan of schwarzenneger. He is no blue blood.
Bob Dole is no blue blood, but George Allen is by way of being daddy's boy.
Dan Quayle is another blue blood.
Condi Rice is no blue blood, neither is Guiliani.
Bill Clinton was the ultimate NOT A BLUE BLOOD.
I just don't see the connection.
If not RINO's they certainly are not Conservative .
I am curious as to why they hate her. They certainly used her enough.
Conservatives need a new party. We are served about as well by the Republican party as the blacks are by the Dems.
I like Katherine Harris. She sounds like a pretty solid lady, if you ask me, but I think she ignored some warnings about getting involved in this campaign. Maybe they thought she wasn't ready yet.
In any case, she's over 40 points down with just 2 months to go. Maybe there were no other candidates and she felt compelled to run. I'm thinking, though, that it just wasn't her year, and that she would have done better to listen to the president.
"Bush or Klintoon. Again not much difference "
I have to agree with you, except in terrorism and foreign policy. Klintune diddled Lewinsky instead of bin Laden. Bush drove into Iraq with high ideals.
Or so it seems to me.
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