(AP) A Republican accuses Democrats of demonizing Christians. A Democrat talks of Nazis in connection with the treatment of terror suspects. Both sides cry foul, and apologies are hard to come by.

It's just another day of vitriolic gotchas at the Capitol.

House Republicans on Tuesday were all over Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, because of recent comments in which he referred to Nazis, Soviets and Cambodia's Pol Pot in describing the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

On Monday, House Democrats stopped debate on a defense spending bill to protest a comment by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., that, "like moths to a flame, Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians."

Hostettler later agreed to strike those words from the record, but Republicans were not backing down. "Hostettler may have said it unartfully," Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday. But "Democrats are constantly attacking people of faith."

DeLay, R-Texas, also decided to get in a couple of licks at Durbin, calling his remarks about Guantanamo Bay a "premeditated and monstrous attack against America's military."

Durbin on Tuesday apologized to those who "believe my remarks crossed the line." He spoke after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said previous expressions of regret weren't enough. '"Shameful' does not begin to describe this heinous slander against our country," Frist said.

These were two of the latest instances in which one party swooped down on the comments, ill-spoken or not, of a member of the other party.

When House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi last week called the war in Iraq a "grotesque mistake," the top three GOP leaders quickly condemned her and, by association, her party. "Leader Pelosi and the Democratic leadership should support our troops instead of spreading inflammatory statements," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said.

House Democrats last week demanded a vote — which they lost — to condemn Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. They complained that Sensenbrenner abruptly ended a hearing where Democratic witnesses were criticizing the Patriot Act, and added insult to injury by then having the microphones turned off.

"The chairman is entitled to his opinions," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. "He is not entitled to break the rules, abuse his power and impose his will."

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the sole Jewish Republican in the House, escalated the cross-party bashing Tuesday when he criticized what he said was the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic rhetoric of prominent Democrats.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, himself a constant target of GOP attack for his broad swipes at Republicans, last week disavowed literature distributed at a recent Democratic gathering that implied that Israel was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"While I appreciate Howard Dean's apology, I wonder if his apology applies to all of his fellow Democrats' anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric?" Cantor said in a statement, listing nine examples over the past few years of what he said were Democrats making inappropriate remarks about Jews or Israel.

"More than anything else, these statements are a reflection of this polarized and poisonous political time in which we live," said Robert Schmuhl, a professor of politics and communications at the University of Notre Dame. "It seems as though every outrageous statement is matched by a similarly outrageous reaction, which only amplifies the rhetoric and creates more of a problem for people trying to understand politics today."

Age and leadership have proven to be no defense against overblown statements. Both 87-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and the Senate's third-ranked Republican, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, took hits when they referred to Hitler and the Nazis during the recent debate over judicial filibusters.

DeLay, who relishes opportunities to attack Democrats, is constantly hammered by Democrats for his remarks. Democrats asked whether DeLay was advocating violence against judges when he stated that the time will come for judges involved in the Terry Schiavo case to "answer for their behavior."

And Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., responding Tuesday to DeLay's latest attacks on Pelosi, said it was "a form of McCarthyism where you attack anybody who criticizes ... anybody who suggests that maybe Tom DeLay is not the only person in the Congress of the United States who has all the truth."

" He started it....., No, He started it first........"
"He's over on my side"......"I'm gonna' tell"

A recent study compares monozygotic to dyzogotic twins and indicates politics can be inherited.

"For years, political scientists tried in vain to learn how family dynamics like closeness between parents and children or the importance of politics in a household influenced political ideology. But the study suggests that an inherited social orientation may overwhelm the more subtle effects of family dynamics.

Although the two broad genetic types, more conservative and more progressive, may find some common ground on specific issues, they represent fundamental differences that go deeper than many people assume, the new research suggests.

"When people talk about the political debate becoming increasingly ugly, they often blame talk radio or the people doing the debating, but they've got it backward," Dr. Alford said. "These genetically predisposed ideologies are polarized, and that's what makes the debate so nasty.

The researchers are not optimistic about the future of bipartisan cooperation or national unity. Because men and women tend to seek mates with a similar ideology, they say, the two gene pools are becoming, if anything, more concentrated, not less. "






http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/science/21gene.html

(AP)
On Monday, House Democrats stopped debate on a defense spending bill to protest a comment by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., that, "like moths to a flame, Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians."

Hostettler later agreed to strike those words from the record, but Republicans were not backing down. "Hostettler may have said it unartfully," Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday. But "Democrats are constantly attacking people of faith."



" He started it....., No, He started it first........"
"He's over on my side"......"I'm gonna' tell"

I just want to point out that a House Democrat had attached an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would fight religious proselytizing. I don't know what that has to do with defense spending, but it seems to be a weasel-like thing to do since most members would vote for the defense bill otherwise. I know ammendments are attached to bills all of the time, just pork barrel politics. The ammendment was withdrawn. Just wanted to make sure both sides were presented here.

I don't know what that has to do with defense spending...


The amendment had to do with endemic prosyletizing at the United States Air Force Academy.

The chaplain there reported "systemic and pervasive" prosyletizing for Christian fundamentalism by Academy leaders.

By the way, she was demoted/transferred yesterday.

"Chaplain Morton has been an outspoken critic of the academy's willingness to tolerate a pervasive evangelical climate that is threatening to members of other faith groups and disregards the constitutional separation of church and state," her lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, said in a statement.

Air Force Academy. It is by the evangelicals and they dominate Colorado Springs and have now infiltrated a military officer school. they have harassed Jewish, Agnostic, Catholic and non Fundi Christian cadets. They need to be stopped. See the problem is cadets aren't allowed much time off campus. There's a loophole and it's for attending church or church related gatherings. well Cadets go ( A: to get off campus B: because there's girls there) and get indoctrinated and come back spreading this bile.
it must be stopped.
regarding using appropriations riders, it's how it's done by both sides. this should have been a rider on the military bill as it relates directly to them. There's been far more unrelated riders placed on bills

Praise the lord.

The amendment had to do with endemic prosyletizing at the United States Air Force Academy.

It's just another attack by the Democratic Party of hate against beleagured Christians. There's no end to how low Dems will stoop to denigrate the Right and Natural spread of Faith in our Lord across our Christian land.

Ahhhh-Men Brutha!

It's just another attack by the Democratic Party of hate against beleagured Christians. There's no end to how low Dems will stoop to denigrate the Right and Natural spread of Faith in our Lord across our Christian land.

The amendment had to do with endemic prosyletizing at the United States Air Force Academy.

The chaplain there reported "systemic and pervasive" prosyletizing for Christian fundamentalism by Academy leaders.

By the way, she was demoted/transferred yesterday.

"Chaplain Morton has been an outspoken critic of the academy's willingness to tolerate a pervasive evangelical climate that is threatening to members of other faith groups and disregards the constitutional separation of church and state," her lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, said in a statement.

Which was not needed since the air force had already completed it's own investigation and had set programs in place to solve this issue. The brigadeer general who supported the non-tolerance has apologized and admitted that he was out of line. You can't fix the past, you can only address the root causes and correct them. I am sure his career has peaked. An amendment to a bill was a jab and guaranteed some time on Cspan. The chaplain resigned her comission, she was not demoted. I can imagine how the fundimentalist reacted to a female chaplain in first place. She has since been offered a position on a committee to evaluate and make recommendations for religious tolerance at the academy.

(I bet ya never expected me to say that, but I call them as I see them) in most military chaplainships they are under-represented in relation to #'s of fundi soldiers. The Military Chaplainship and it's upper levels are dominated by Catholics and Lutherens so IMHO there needs to be better rep for Baptists and such. But behaving as they do (intolerant of other faiths, calling Jews Heebs etc...) they've basically killed any opportunity to change this.

(I bet ya never expected me to say that, but I call them as I see them) in most military chaplainships they are under-represented in relation to #'s of fundi soldiers. The Military Chaplainship and it's upper levels are dominated by Catholics and Lutherens so IMHO there needs to be better rep for Baptists and such. But behaving as they do (intolerant of other faiths, calling Jews Heebs etc...) they've basically killed any opportunity to change this.
Sorry, there ain't no defending religious fundementalists. They hate everything America stands for and are actively working to destroy our great nation. They should be, at the least, shown the gate and given a swift kick in the ass on the way out as they and their ilk have no place in this country. If it were up to me, I'd round them all up and put them in a labor camp.

Sorry, there ain't no defending religious fundementalists. They hate everything America stands for and are actively working to destroy our great nation. They should be, at the least, shown the gate and given a swift kick in the ass on the way out as they and their ilk have no place in this country. If it were up to me, I'd round them all up and put them in a labor camp.
Air conditioned or not?

Well, actually, if it were up to me, I'd just shoot them and dump the bodies in a mass grave. So, I guess that's a no on the A/C.

Just the fundies though. You know, guys like OBL, Pat Robertson and their ilk and followers.
You're next, right after we finish knocking off those libbie judges.

Air conditioned or not?
Well, actually, if it were up to me, I'd just shoot them and dump the bodies in a mass grave. So, I guess that's a no on the A/C.

Just the fundies though. You know, guys like OBL, Pat Robertson and their ilk and followers.

You're next, right after we finish knocking off those libbie judges.
Not if I get to you first.

You're next, right after we finish knocking off those libbie judges.
LOL! Actually, that's pretty frickin' funny. $200,000,000,000+ in the hole and you guys still can't find OBL, oil prices are still through the roof and our borders are still wide open. With such a track record the only thing I have to worry about is the country going bankrupt. That and, maybe, intercontinental ballistic suitcases.

Ken, you're forgetting that "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." :rolleyes:

LOL! Actually, that's pretty frickin' funny. $200,000,000,000+ in the hole and you guys still can't find OBL, oil prices are still through the roof and our borders are still wide open. With such a track record the only thing I have to worry about is the country going bankrupt. That and, maybe, intercontinental ballistic suitcases.

Ken, you're forgetting that "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." :rolleyes:
I'm still waiting to see that Cold War exit strategy of his. Other than Mt. Rushmore, have the Republicans ever finished anything they've started? It always seems like there's a big mess left for everyone else to clean up when they're done screwing around with America.