Did Bush admit he nominated Harriet BECAUSE of her religious viewpoint??!!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I think we have crossed a big threshold here and it may be an illegal threshold.

Whenever religion has been part of the public discourse about a nominee, it has been to make the affirmation that the person was able to distinguish between their religious self and their secular, government or political self. JFK had to satisfy people that his Catholicism would not temper his governance ( no, he would not be accountable to the Papacy, etc.) How things have changed!! I guess it is an open acknowledgment that Harriet Miers IS accountable to the likes of Dobson and the Christian evangelicals that (secretly)run our government.

I think this is a violation of the civil rights act. Harriet Miers is being given preference for an appointment to the Supreme Court BECAUSE her religious beliefs mirror that of our President. This is wrong. It is Unconstitutional. It is illegal.

[marmar]

1. It was one of his key reasons...

Welcome to the United Theocratic States of America.

[liveoaktx]

14. VIDEO of White House Press Corps asking about this-repeatedly

Miers and Bush

[grannylib]

2. As mentioned in previous posts also, the fact that the imbecile keeps

trying to paint progressives as having a pro-choice litmus test, and stating that there is no such thing on the reThug side, and here they all are trying to assure CHINOS that she will be a pro-birth justice??
Sounds like a litmus test to me...

[FreedomAngel82]

33. It isn't pro-birth

It's pro-fetus. They don't give a damn about the living.

[Dem Agog]

3. Sounds to me like he did... but what is 'illegal' has been...

as I tried to finish in the subject line, what is 'illegal' has been turned upon its head by this administration.

admitting you nominated a woman because she believes in a fairy tale and the "babeee jeeeezus" qualifies her better for half of our retarded country.

bush admitted it, and he thinks it's a good thing, because at least half of the people in this country are too goddamned stupid to drool without help and they believe in stupid moronic fairy tales.


so what's illegal? pish tosh. jefferson or our founding fathers ideals? those are no good! this is a country built on fairy tales, the primary one is the fictitious bible that these fools continue to believe because they're too goddamned stupid and cowardly to face mortality.

bush nominated a fairy tale believer, and it's 'legal' now because he governs retards.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

4. Article VI, Clause III

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. Yes, so why are they having these private meetings with particular

respresentatives of particular faiths to ASSURE them that this particular nominee reflects their RELIGIOUS viewpoint??!!

Let's keep this very simple. If it was a Catholic President making sure he only nominated Catholics, and meeting only with Catholic leaders it would be clear; If this were a Jewish President meeting with Jewish groups and only nominating Jewish candidates it would be clear; if it were a Moslem President meeting with Moslem groups and only nominating Moslems, it would be clear. We have going on in this country what we are purportedly fighting in Iraq. We have an American theocracy trying to establish itself and topple the Republic. I cry foul!!

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

8. And I totally agree with your point...

Could you imagine the bloody screams if a Jewish prez picked Jewish SC justices and PROUDLY announced that that WAS the intention?

But somehow efundygelical criteria gets a pass..F'ed Up!!!!

[DanCa]

12. They dont want to incite secularist and religious liberals like myself

Bush likes to play his cards close to his chest. The others of his ilk loves to shout it from the mountain top. Why do you think that there is no paper trail? Bush didn't want to tip his hand.
I think this was reid's reasoning of saying he liked meirs so that conservatives would do a knee jerk background check of her "core principles."

[napi21]

7. Food quote, but it doesn't say religion is excluded.

Before you jump all over me, let me tell you, I think Shrub is just pimping for the RW support with all this evangelical talk.

Having said that, I read the Article, and as I understand it, it says you cannot insist on a particular religious alliance, nor disqualify a candidate because of one, but it doesn't state that you cannot chose a candidate because of their religion or lack thereof.

Am I missing something?

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

10. W holds it up as her PRIMARY qualification for the job

It certainly isn't her past experience on the bench or her well-respected writings on Constitutional law.

No...it's her efundygelical background (and, oh yeah, cronyism).

[triguy46]

11. Absolutely right.

But when was the last time some politician did not use his or her church affiliation in his/her campaign? Dems do it just like the fascistas. There is, IMHO, a de facto relgious test, whether we like it or not, and the pols are every bit to blame as anyone.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. But the funny thing is - HALF the people in this country do NOT belong to

or practice any form of organized religion. The religious population is split among many different groups and beliefs. I keep waiting for the candidate who says - "My religious beliefs are private. And that's the way I'm going to keep them." The funny thing is, that candidate would immediately pick up the half of the population that is sick and tired of being proselytized to through what is constitutionally supposed to be sacrosanct from religious pressure or preference.

[triguy46]

19. For a laugh read Dickens 'Sketches by Boz'....

specifically, "The election of the Beadle." In the 1830s Dickens captured the essence of the shallowness of today's political campaign. Without giving away all the humor, it focuses on an election campaign for a local office in which the qualification seemed to center on who had the most children, and how cute they were. Everytime I see a sappy family photo of a candidate, I start quoting Dickens, "11 at home and one more on the way!!!"

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. Thanks! That sounds like something I might actually enjoy. n/t

[DanCa]

5. We "meanning everyone" have got to start picketing these people

That's the only way they'll leave us alone. Personally I dont care what religion they are but once they start regulating their religion on us then we have no choice but to fight back. I have a theory that the sheep are like balloon's any way. If you pop them hard they'll go away.

[Zenlitened]

9. Don't worry. Maybe she's not a "real" christian.

That makes everything okay, right? :sarcasm:

[Fescue4u]

15. Its not illegal

I don't know the answer to your question (why he nominated her).

But the president can use any reason it suites him to nominate someone. It can be their political views, consitutional views, sex, religion hair color or even just pull a name out of the whitepages.

The consitution gives the president the perogative to nominate. The reasons are not defined.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. As far as I know, the Federal government is constrained by civil rights

and employment laws that forbid discrimination or preference being given to anyone based on race, religion, sex, marital status,age or gender, so I completely disagree with your premise. A Supreme Court Justice is an Employee of the Federal Government and their paycheck is signed by all the citizens of this country.

[triguy46]

23. A decision in California just today

And prosecuted by a Federal attorney against the city of LA, to allow a Jew to not be required to work from sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday. The argument being that government should not be unfriendly to people of regligious faith.

Let me repeat that, it wasn't the bus driver and a private attorney suing to get his job back, it was a Federal attorney, part of a new fascista task force to identify and take action when a person of faith has been treated unfairly in the workplace. I see much to be concerned about here.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

26. Well, here you get into the real life intersection of theory and practice

Because what this means now, is that other people MUST work those shifts in order to accomodate the religious beliefs of another person. What about their rights? A kind of domino theory comes into play.

[Fescue4u]

25. You are correct of course

But I suspect thats its not nearly as cut and dry as it sounds.

Theres only a handful of jobs in the country that are spelled out in the constitution. Even fewer that are spelled out in the constitution Along with the "hiring process".

In the case of supreme court justices, the hiring process is defined. THe president picks and the Senate confirms. If I were a lawyer defending against discrimination in supreme court nominating, I would argue that the constitution is what rules determines the picks, and the constitution says the president does (along with all the baggage he has)

In practice of course, this is just legal nits. The president has the privlege of picking who he wants. The Senate has the privlege has confirming/rejecting. IF discimination is suspected in the presidents picks, due process is built into the confirmation process.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. One more point

If you know anything about human resources, there is one cardinal rule:

You can hire or fire anyone for ANY reason, as long as it's NOT an illegal reason.

[shance]

16. Her religion being she worships money and the power that comes

with it.

[triguy46]

24. More specifically she worships Bush. And...

she knows the names of his daughters, you know, Jenna and the other one.

[Rex]

20. Oh you didn't know? Boosh is crazy.

The dictator comment kinda did it in my mind. The dudes nuts.

[AlCzervik]

22. i'm sure second to her asskissing that was one of the main reasons

[pisle]

27. Dubya is just a dork

he's flailing away without Rove to coach him (while he's been busy with other concerns) ... it's actually quite pathetic to watch.

[newyawker99]

29. Hi pisle!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[KerryOn]

28. Just because she goes to a church that...

... is pro-life, does not mean that she would overturn RovVWaid.

How could any church for that matter not be pro-life? The question is if she can seperate church and state. You can still go to a church that is pro-life and still be pro-choice when it comes to the government.

I for one believe in a womans right to chose. (But I feel it is wrong.) It is between the woman, her doctor and God, and it is none of my business.

[neebob]

30. If he did, it's just pandering

and if it's true, as you say, that evangelicals secretly run the government, they can't make too many changes because they need to keep their followers all whipped into a persecutional frenzy to stay in power. I can't be the first person to have had that thought.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. I don't think so with Bush

I think he just said that for his little religious base since they're freaking out and everything.

[spanone]

32. Desperate people do desperate shit. He's a desperate man.