A diary in which I propose to unite Donohue/Catholic League, the Civil Rights Movement, and celebrating Ronald Reagan....

THERE IS AN EXCELLENT op-ed in this week's Forward discussing why the Jewish vote has proven so resistant to the GOP.  The article was written by Eric Uslaner and Mark Lichbach, who are professors of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park.

"American Jews should not be surprised by the political divorce between televangelist Pat Robertson [for more on Robertson, please click here] and his supporters in Israel. Even as President Bush courted the Jewish vote in 2004, Jews remained loyal to the Democratic Party, to a large degree out of fear of the religious right."

FROM THIS SUMMER: "During a debate today surrounding an amendment by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) to fully examine allegations of proselytizing and religious intolerance at the United States Air Force Academy, six-term Republican Rep. John Hostettler (IN) rose to assert that "Democrats can't help denigrating and demonizing Christians." [Rush transcript.] Rep. Obey, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, interrupted Hostettler's deeply disturbing remarks and demanded that they be formally retracted; Hostettler ultimately agreed to retract one sentence from his diatribe."

One of America's top Jewish leaders recently noted that the far-right is trying to "'Christianize' all aspects of American life."

How did one of these ultra-conservative leaders respond? By threatening to withdraw support for Israel.

The New York Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/politics/19cnd-frist.html  ] reported on Friday that Senate GOP leader Bill Frist has voiced his faith-based opposition to the scientific consensus in favor of evolution. Frist's solution? "Intelligent design" should be taught as science alongside evolution in public schools.

But Frist is just one lone GOP leader, right?

NJDC'S best effort (see  http://ga4.org/njdc/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=3461853 ) at a cute political ad on a serious issue, taking key members of Congress to task for voting against real legislative action dealing with the Air Force Academy allegations.

The ad can be found here: http://www.njdc.org/afad.pdf

Jewish media has picked up on this important story -- why hasn't the secular press picked up on GOP intransigence?

Republicans Block Air Force Report
By E.J. KESSLER, June 3, 2005

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans have killed two measures aimed at requiring the Air Force to submit a plan for ensuring religious tolerance at its academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. The measures come in the wake of allegations of religious intolerance and coercion directed by evangelical Christians at the academy against Jews, Catholics and others.

The measures, proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, were submitted to the House Rules Committee and the House Armed Services Committee last month by Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat.

Calls for the Air Force to take immediate action also have been issued by other Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Several Republican lawmakers are using the controversy as an opportunity to air the view that it is Christians whose constitutional free-speech rights are being suppressed in the military. At a recent Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. John Hostetler, an Indiana Republican, derided the "mythical wall of church-state separation" as he argued that Israel's amendment "would bring the ACLU" and "the very silliness that's been present on... several courts of justice over the last 50 years" into the United States military. Israel's measure, he added, would "quash the religious expression of millions of service personnel."

The following, a message from Alan Dershowitz, is cross-posted from the NJDC website, www.njdc.org .

Professor Dershowitz addresses the struggle to follow the "nuclear option" battle -- or perhaps preciptate its return.

Greetings,

Jews have been defined as a people by their veneration of laws -- and the process of grappling with those laws to reach a better and deeper understanding. We therefore take laws very seriously.

Additionally, as American Jews, we have benefited from a system of law that has protected us as a religious minority.  Nowhere else in the world has religion flourished so much or so diversely.

It is with that background in mind that American Jews approach the strong likelihood that President Bush will have an opportunity to nominate multiple Justices to the Supreme Court in the next months and years.  These will be the first such lifetime appointment, or appointments, since President Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the Court in 1993 and 1994, respectively.