Kansas Senator, Looking at Presidential Bid, Makes Faith Bedrock of Campaign (Tips Hand on Miers?)

The New York Times ^ | 10/14/05 | David Kirkpatrick

[gopwinsin04]

Manchester, NH: After testing his (2008 Presidential) stump speech Tuesday night, Senator Sam Brownback rose early on Wednesday for a tour of the cavernous chapel and regimental dining hall used by the 30 remaining monks of St. Anselm's abbey.

Mr. Brownback, an evangelical Protestant turned Roman Catholic from Kansas who attends two services in the two faiths each Sunday is contemplating a big bet in resurgence of traditonalist faith.

He came here to asses the potential for a Republican presidential primary campaign centered on opposition to abortion and support for God in public life, while back in Washington his current role as the Republican most publicly questioning the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers is becoming the first big test of his long shot campaign.

That is not stopping Mr. Brownback from bringing up Ms. Miers nomination in his first steps to the campaign trail.

When he was a guest lecturer at a St. Anslem class on Wednesday, a student asked the 'one thing' he would have done differently if he had been in the White House the past five years.

Other primary contenders have staked out critiques of the Iraq War or the budget deficit, but Mr. Brownback's answer was President Bush's second nomination for the court.

With Ms. Miers, Brownback said 'we just don't know her background on judicial restraint and the constitution.'

The premise of his ambition is that the country has 're-engaged' in faith in a historic revival. He hopes that a combination of a humble earnest style and broader focus on humanitarian issues with enable him to capitalize on the revival more effictively than predecessors Pat Robertson or John Ashcroft.

[Stellar Dendrite]

"I have no idea what Andy Card thinks so that is a red herring but have no doubt that he is much closer to the President's thinking than the fringe of FR"

looks like you're gonna have to eat those words regarding the "fringe of FR":



Polling Data

Should Harriet Miers be confirmed?

Yes


32%

No


28%

Not sure


40%

Source: Rasmussen Reports

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/9395

[justshutupandtakeit]

You care more about having a big fight with the RATS than the actual appointment to the Court. That is true of many of the Antis.

While I would love a big fight too I must put it behind actual results.

[justshutupandtakeit]

That poll does not contradict anything I have said. Of the 28% opposed the vast majority are RATS probably not 1 in 10 voting no in Rasmussen are the far Right. Most of those opposed would have opposed ANY Bush nominee. And if it were one of the Anointed so beloved by FR the opposed percentage would be even higher.

If you are trying to claim that since the Opposed at FR is almost the same as the Opposed in Rasmussin that they are thinking the same way then I reject that idea altogether.