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Last week, President Obama nominated Goodwin Liu to a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and immediately Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center started attacked Liu through a series of Bench Memos posts, accusing him of engaging in "demagogic testimony against Justice Alito’s confirmation" and adhering "the living-constitutionalist gimmick that judges can redefine the Constitution to mean whatever they want it to mean."

That was followed by a post claiming that the American Bar Association's rating of Liu as "well qualified" was "a joke" before Whelan got around to critiquing things like Liu's law-review articles and his views on issues like marriage equality and the death penalty.

Given the Liu was just nominated last week, the "Stop Liu" effort hasn't really had a chance to get underway, but you can rest assured that once it does, it will be relying heavily on Whelan's work in laying out the case for opposing his nomination, as you can see by this post by Bruce Hausknecht on Focus on the Family's blog which consists almost entirely of links to Whelan's Bench Memos posts:

Prof. Liu would be a perfect fit for the 9th Circuit

That is, if you’d like to continue the 9th Circuit’s reputation as the most bizarro, most liberal, most reversed appeals court in the federal system.

Liu, a Berkeley law professor, was nominated by President Obama for a vacant seat on the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals headquartered in San Francisco. An under-qualified but outspoken liberal, he has managed in his short few years out of law school to burnish and publicize his liberal credentials.

He’s a former board member for an exclusive list of far Left organizations: the ACLU of California, the American Constitution Society of Northern California, and the National Women’s Law Center. He managed to get himself invited to Justice Alito’s confirmation hearings to mischaracterize and then demagogue to the Judiciary committee about Alito’s record.

Liu wrote an op-ed criticizing California’s Prop 8 marriage amendment and the seven million citizens who voted for it by labeling it as “the will of a narrow and ultimately temporary majority.”

And last but certainly not least, Liu firmly has stated his belief in the desirability of courts making law from the bench: “What we mean by [constitutional] fidelity is that the Constitution should be interpreted in ways that adapt its principles and its text to the challenges and conditions of our society in every succeeding generation.”

This guy’s confirmation hearings should be interesting.

h/t to Ed Whelan at Bench Memos 

Last week we noted that some Religious Right groups were up in arms over news that representatives from the Secular Coalition for America were meeting with officials from the Obama administration.

Today, the Christian Broadcasting Network brought on Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice to discuss the meeting, who claimed that the group is "not just an anti-Christian, they are an anti-religious organization" that looks down upon and attacks anyone who has a deep personal faith.

Sekulow also warned CBN's viewers not to underestimate the Secular Coalition for America, saying people are some times tempted to down play their influence since "99.9% of the American people, and that's about accurate, acknowledge that there is some higher power ... [very few] consider themselves 'atheists,' that's a very small percent of the American people." 

I don't know where Sekulow is getting his data, because the most recent American Religious Identification Survey reports that "1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic" and further reports [PDF] that:

Based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification in 2008 ... roughly 12% of Americans are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unknowable or unsure), and another 12% are deistic (a higher power but no personal God).

So almost 2% of the population self-identifies as atheist or agnostic and 12% are classified as atheist or agnostic based upon their stated beliefs ... that seems to be significantly more than the .1% that Sekulow claims the Secular Coalition of America represents.

When I saw reports last week that Rep. John Linder had announced his retirement that listed Ralph Reed as among those who might be potentially considering running to fill his seat, I dismissed them as fundamentally absurd.  

And, of course, every time I do that, I turn out to be wrong, as David Brody reports:

Sources close to Ralph Reed tell The Brody File that the former Executive Director of the Christian Coalition is “seriously” considering running for Congress in Georgia. According to one well-placed source, Reed has talked to key grassroots leaders and local elected officials in Gwinnett county and other parts of the district, but has not made a decision yet.

18 year veteran Congressman Rep. John Linder announced over the weekend that he's retiring. This seat is in a big time Republican district in the Atlanta suburbs. Reed would be positioned well.

It'll be interesting to see what Reed does. His grassroots Faith and Freedom Coalition is taking off but it's kind of hard to pass up this opportunity considering openings like this don't happen often.

Back in 2006, Reed lost his bid to win the GOP primary for Lieutenant Governor thanks to his deep ties to Jack Abramoff's corruption [PDF]. But apparently, he's convinced himself that voters have either forgotten about that or forgiven him for it ... at least enough "seriously" consider making another run for public office.

Last week we noted that an episode involving the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins having his invitation to speak at a prayer luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base rescinded was big news on right-wing outlets, with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association even going so far as to declare it proof that the Constitution is on the verge of collapse and likening it to Dred Scott and McCarthyism.

The issue continues to outrage the Right and appears as if it is becoming one of those stories that right-wing media outlets will work covering diligently until they can blow it up into an all out "scandal ."

For instance, CNS News has a long article noting that conservative activists are livid about it which quotes no less than six separate leaders voicing their outrate, including Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center (which just so happens to be the parent organization of CNSNews,) Ron Robinson of Young Americans for Freedom, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, Alfred Regnery of Regnery Publishing, Elaine Donnell of the Center for Military Readiness, and Gary Bauer of American Values.

But it also quotes several Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Mike Pence who vows that Republicans will "be making appropriate inquiries" about the decision

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNSNews.com that he’s “disappointed” the Air Force would “un-invite” Perkins because of his positions.

“These actions are out of line with the caution that the heads of the military branches have expressed with regards to this policy,” Inhofe said.

“Each one of them has indicated that it would be best for the Pentagon to finish its review before addressing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a manner that disrupts readiness and recruitment. I wonder if Tony Perkins would have received the same treatment if his views on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell had matched those of President Obama.”

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, was outraged.

“I think many members (of Congress) are outraged,” Kingston told CNSNews.com. “The mainstream media hasn’t given this as much coverage as they would if they agreed with Perkins. This is something that I think that people will be asking a lot of questions--a harbinger of what may be out there to come, you know, if on a high-profile captain like Tony Perkins, they reject him. They may (start) doing it to everybody else."

Kingston said he thought the Air Force was "using" the incident to send a message to its own chaplains about what they could and could not say from the pulpit.

“(W)hat they were doing is using him to drive a message--that your brand of sermon is no longer welcome in the U.S. military,” he said.

He added: “I think it probably does go beyond the Air Force. They knew there would be a backlash to this, and I think they had a design about that: ‘OK, you know, we want other (chaplains) to understand and pipe down on your personal views on this biblical view, and you believe it, just keep it mellow; we want watered-down messages.’”

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Conference, said he would be looking into the incident more deeply.

“I hold Tony Perkins in the highest regard, as do pro-family Americans across this country,” Pence said. “And I would hope that the change in the speaking roster had nothing to do with his stated positions on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. But we’ll be making appropriate inquiries,” Pence said.

• Media Matters: Rep. Trent Franks: Blacks Better Off Under Slavery.
• Andy Birkey: Rosa Parks didn’t ‘move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.’
• Amanda Little: James Inhofe, Senate’s top skeptic, explains his climate-hoax theory.
• Stephanie Mencimer: Roy Moore: Next Alabama Governor?
• Alvin McEwen: Why won't One News Now tell us what 'Miss Beverly Hills' said about gays?
• Alan Colmes: Gun Paranoids Believe ObamaCare Is Step Toward Refusing You A Gun.
• Finally, as Steve Benen says, there is a key difference between the quality of our health care system and our health insurance system and if would be nice if Republicans could recognize that simple fact.

• Today was James Dobson's final broadcast for Focus on the Family, and to show there are no hard feelings, Focus donated $1 million toward his new venture with his son.
• Tony Perkins' being uninvited to the prayer luncheon was big news on right-wing outlets today.
• A collection of Religious Right leaders have sent a letter to Congress asking it to stop DC's march toward marriage equality.
• "Atheism and Secular Humanism" were to blame for The Holocaust, not Christianity. Good to know.
• The CADC's Gary Cass,  who continues to insist that the murder of two street preachers in Florida was an act of anti-Christian violence despite an utter lack of evidence, declares that "we need to send a message that this kind of violence against Christians cannot be tolerated in our culture."
• Finally, quote of the day from WorldNetDaily columnist Robert Ringer attacking Mike Huckabee for interviewing First Lady Michelle Obama: "Mike Huckabee's Slick Willie cleverness makes him hard to pin down, but his interview with Michelle Obama connected a lot of the dots for me. I once speculated that Mike Huckabee could possibly get the Republican nomination without the support of the Republican Party's conservative base if he could put together a coalition of evangelicals and disenfranchised independents and liberal Democrats. Today, I'm here to tell you to forget about that theory. It won't happen. By interviewing Michelle Obama on his show – apparently without concern for Rush Limbaugh's recent chest pains – he lost any chance he may have had for gaining the Republican nomination."

Let's say you have several minutes to fill before your featured guests, Mike Huckabee and Iowa gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats, arrive at your event and take to the podium to speak.

What do you do?

Well you give that time to local radio host Jan Mickelson to spend several minutes railing against gay marriage, of course, just like the Iowa Family Policy Council did earlier this week:

Christians can’t “tolerate” same-sex marriage because to do so would be to give up beliefs and accept the homosexual lifestyle as “healthy and normal,” radio host Jan Mickelson said while introducing GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob Vander Plaats and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at a public event Wednesday.

Mickelson was addressing a fundraiser for the Iowa Family Policy Center. The influential social conservative organization has formally endorsed Vander Plaats’ campaign and vowed to sit out the November election if he’s not the candidate.

“Personally, I think two guys pretending to be sexual mates are making a mistake,” he said. “More than that, they are violating the design of their bodies. More than that, they are sinning against their maker. More than that, they are likely to shorten their lives in this world and impair their destinies in the next.”

...

Mickelson quickly turned his attention to the current situation in Iowa, saying that because a “a liberal court, a liberal legislature and a liberal governor” are standing up for same-sex marriage, groups like the Iowa Family Policy Center, and candidates like Vander Plaats, must resist.

“I’m really up for it,” Mickelson said. “I’m really up for this ruckus.”

Then Mickelson turned the podium over to Huckabee and Vander Plaats.

Earlier this week it was reported that, back in January, a teacher at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown, Maryland had publicly reprimanded a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and even called the school's security officer to escort the student to the counselor's office when she continued to refuse.  This, despite that fact that the "Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that students cannot be forced to salute the flag [and] Maryland law explicitly allows any student or teacher to be excused from participating in the pledge."

The ACLU got involved and now the teacher has agreed to apologize, but Robert Morrison of the Family Research Council is outraged about the whole thing, holding it up as evidence that the ACLU is creating "future American Talibans":

Is the Montgomery County school case too trivial to merit national attention? No. It illustrates how classroom discipline and American patriotism are under constant assault by the ACLU. Our tax dollars are funding this radical outfit. Thomas Jefferson said “to require a man to provide contributions of money for the propagation of opinions he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.” Surely, the fact that the ACLU uses our tax money against us is a gross violation of our rights.

Does it matter? John Walker Lindh is currently sitting in federal prison. He is the so-called American Taliban who was convicted of fighting against Americans in Afghanistan. Young Lindh was educated in Montgomery County Public Schools. Was he taught anything about why he should be loyal to his country? Why jihadism is a threat to all our rights? I seriously doubt it. By punishing a teacher who simply tried to give students the opportunity to express their patriotism and support for our country during a time of war, the Montgomery County public schools are doing nothing to avoid future American Talibans.

When I saw this article this morning reporting that Obama Administration aides were scheduled to meet with representatives of the Secular Coalition for America today, I wondered how long it would take for some Religious Right group to throw a fit that the Administration was meeting with atheists.

Turns out, it took about an hour:

The advocacy group In God We Trust today ripped the Obama administration for meeting to plot political strategy with 60 atheist activists representing organizations comprising the Secular Coalition of America.

"It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation," says In God We Trust's Chairman Bishop Council Nedd.

...

"President Obama seems to believe that it is a good idea to have a key senior aide plan political strategy with people who believe faith in God is a disease," Nedd says. "Some of the people in this coalition believe the world would be better off with no Christians and no Jews and they aren't shy about it. The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths who believe in God."

...

"The President should tell the American people whether he believes these groups' hate-filled views to be 'mainstream' and worthy of his supposedly inclusive administration," Nedd says.

Outrageous! 

President Bush would never have met with anyone who esposed "hate-filled views" ... would he? 

• For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush.

• Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on February 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush.

• Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, made 43 visits to the White House between May 2001 and August 2006. Four of those visits were to President Bush.

• Gary Bauer, President of American Values, made 10 visits to the White House, starting with a January 6, 2003 visit to Vice President Cheney and ending with a July 20, 2006 visit to President Bush.

• The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush.

• Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, visited the White House 14 times between February 2001 and June 2006, including two visits to President Bush.

• Louis Sheldon, Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, made 19 visits to the White House between March 2001 and September 2006, including two visits to President Bush.

• The late Paul Weyrich, the Founder of Free Congress foundation, made 17 visits to the White House between May 2001 and July 2005, including six visits to President Bush and one to Karl Rove.

• Donald Wildmon, Founder of the American Family Association, made three visits to the White House between July 2001 and March 2003, including one visit to President Bush. 

Of course, this is different because it is Obama Administration officials who are meeting with the Secular Coalition of America today at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building while these Religious Right leaders only got to meet with President Bush at the White House.

I have to say that the American Family Association's decision to promote Bryan Fischer from the head of the Idaho Values Alliance to the AFA's Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy last year has been a real boon for this blog as be has since become a constant source of good posts.

Today he weighs in on the news that the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins had his invitation to speak at a Andrews Air Force Base prayer luncheon rescinded with a complete and utter meltdown, declaring it proof that the Constitution is on the verge of collapse and likening it to Dred Scott and McCarthyism:

The homosexual agenda represents a clear and present danger to virtually every fundamental right given to us by our Creator and enshrined for us in our Constitution.

Start with freedom of religion and freedom of speech, the first two of our inalienable rights secured for us in the Bill of Rights.

As a culture, we must choose between the homosexual agenda or the Constitution because we can't have both.

Further proof comes from the abjectly pathetic decision of the chaplains' office at Andrews Air Force Base to rescind a long-standing invitation to Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins had been invited to give a non-political talk at a prayer luncheon on the base yesterday, but was abruptly dis-invited for one simple reason: he supports the current law which makes homosexuals ineligible for service in the United States military.

...

The days of Dred Scott have returned. Christians now are the ones are being confined on the plantation, and warned about being too uppity ... McCarthyism has now struck the U.S. military with a vengeance. The question now that the military is asking is this: "Are you now, or have you ever been, a supporter of traditional morality?" If the answer is yes, you go on our blacklist, and we deprive you of your freedom of religion, speech and military service.

Realize the ominous portents here for the future of our military. Perkins' view represents the view of the vast majority of Americans, especially those considering military service. The new standard appears to be that, even if you are heterosexual, you must embrace the homosexual agenda or you will be banned from the military. That's where this is going, and at Andrews Air Force Base, we're already there.

• Michelle Goldberg: A Pro-Life Death Sentence
• Just when you start to think the Right can't get any more ridiculous, they prove you wrong.
• The city of Beverly Hills wants to make it abundantly clear that anti-gay beauty queen Lauren Ashley has no ties to the city and "does not represent Beverly Hills in any capacity."
• Now Orly Taitz is going after John McCain.
• Finally, look at the people Bishop Harry Jackson associates with. Cindy Jacobs and Kimberly Daniels?  Really?

• Ryan Dobson says the only real difference between him and his dad, James Dobson, is a matter of style: "My dad and I believe virtually identically across the board, I think. Stylistically we have some differences, but as far as political, theological and sociological belief systems, we're fairly identical."
• Rifqa Bary insists there is no chance of any sort of reconciliation between her and her parents.
• Marco Rubio seems to have a history of charging personal expenses to the Florida GOP.
• You know, I don't think Newt Gingrich has ever had a "real job," for that matter.
• FRC's Tony Perkins says he was uninvited to a prayer luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base because of his opposition to repealing DADT, and Bill Donohue is demanding an investigation.
• Finally, a related quote of the day from Tony Perkins opposing repeal of DADT:  "People who are HIV-positive are not permitted to enlist in the military. But if someone on active duty becomes infected, they cannot be deployed in combat -- yet current policy also forbids them from being discharged. Since scientists have said that homosexuals and bisexuals are fifty times more likely to contract HIV, it is inevitable that welcoming them into the military will increase both medical costs and the number of personnel who are essentially dead weight within the force."

By now, we are all used to out-of-state Religious Right groups descending on places like Maine, Washington, DC, and elsewhere in order to set up shop in their nonstop effort to fight marriage equality ... but I have to admit that I never expected them to start exporting their efforts abroad.

But here they are, setting their sights on now fighting marriage equality in Mexico:

In response to a move to institute same-sex marriage in the Federal District which includes Mexico City (on March 4), more than 120 pro-family/pro-life leaders from 35 countries have signed the "World Congress of Families Leadership Petition To Save Marriage In Mexico City."

The Petition notes that "Mexico's Constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman." Further, that all social ills begin with the decline of the family. Also "marriage substitutes ... undermine marriage and the family." The Petition observes that "children need both a mother and a father" and that those raised by two men or two women are "psychologically and socially disadvantaged."

The Petition calls on the government of Mexico City to refrain from implementing same-sex marriage and demands that the issue be decided at the national level, "with due regard to the nation's religious traditions, the wishes of the Mexican people and the needs of children and families, and consistent with Mexico's Constitution." Click here (www.worldcongress.org/special/wcf.mexpetsig.1002.pdf) to access the full Petition along with a list of signers.

U.S. signers (signing as individuals) include: Gary Bauer (American Values), Allan Carlson (World Congress of Families), Tom DeLay (former Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives), Joseph Meaney (Human Life International), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Michele Velasco (Priests for Life), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America), Maggie Gallagher (National Organization for Marriage), Dr. Paige Patterson (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary),Yuri Mantilla (Focus on the Family) and Dr. Jerry Newcombe (Coral Ridge Ministries).

I can't decide if this is evidence that Janet Porter is becoming more "mainstream" within the Religious Right movement or evidence that James Dobson is moving further out toward the fringe, but Dobson has recorded an audio message on behalf of Porter's upcoming "May Day" prayer rally at the Lincoln Memorial:

Hello everyone, I'm James Dobson and today I hope you'll give some serious though to participating in a very important event this spring; it's called "May Day 2010: A Cry to God For a Nation in Distress." Our nation faces what is perhaps the most serious moral crisis since the Civil War as we've turned our backs on God and have clearly displeased him.

May Day 2010 is a time to come together and proclaim what God has done in the past, to pray for forgiveness, and to plead for God's mercy on all of us. It will be held Saturday, May the first at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

We're looking for thousands of pastors and churches to get involved. Call (405) 796-PRAY or log-on to Mayday2010.org to find out how you can participate or volunteer.

A few weeks ago I noted how Lisa Miller's lawyers at Liberty Counsel and her supporters at the Protect Isabella Coalition were quietly trying to wash their hands of her after she kidnapped her daughter and disappeared.

Well, it looks like these right-wing activists are still active in supporting her, as they gathered for a prayer rally in Virginia last week during the court hearing at an event which featured a briefing from Mat Staver and the participation of Wiley Drake:

Concerned Women for America (CWA) of Virginia joined the Protect Isabella Coalition and other conservatives, who traveled from as far away as Suffolk, Harrisonburg, and Roanoke, and as near as Bedford and Lynchburg, at the Bedford County Courthouse on February 17, to support Lisa Miller and her daughter, Isabella, in prayer.

While we were disappointed not to be allowed in the courtroom — the judge had honored an ACLU request to deny access to the public— it was a privilege to join Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park, California, and others across the country on the Telephonic Prayer Line to pray during the court proceedings.

Mat Staver, chief attorney for Liberty Counsel, briefed our group before and after the hearing. The opposition wanted the Virginia court to find Lisa in contempt of court for failing to follow a Vermont court’s order to relinquish custody of her daughter, Isabella, to Janet Jenkins, who was Lisa’s homosexual companion before Lisa’s conversion to Christianity. It should be noted that Miss Jenkins is a Vermont resident who has no biological ties to Isabella and has never sought to adopt her, but has been awarded full custody by a Vermont court merely on the basis of Lisa and Miss Jenkins’ brief “civil union.”

Judge Harrison did not issue an order for Lisa's arrest, because she cannot be found for papers to be served. The judge also denied Janet Jenkins the opportunity to testify by phone, because there was no one present in Vermont to swear her in as a witness.

The next hearing on this case is tentatively scheduled for May 19, 2010. Please continue to pray for the three judges of the Appellate Court of Virginia; pray that their decision will put up a firewall between the laws of Vermont and Virginia to protect Isabella and allow Lisa to return to her home state.

This post contains a relatively important revelation: everybody who has been involved in this case insists that they have no idea where Lisa Miller has gone and that they have had no contact with her since she disappeared ... so why is CWA and the Protect Isabella Coalition praying that she will be allowed to "return to her home state"?  

That suggests that she is not in Virginia at the moment ... and how would these supporters know that unless they know where Miller actually is? 

So here is a simple question: Does CWA or the Protect Isabella Coalition know Miller's whereabouts?  If so, why aren't they informing the authorities?  Are these groups protecting and hiding Miller as she run from the law and violates her court orders?