Frist's Nuclear Option: What Tennessee Newspapers Are Saying - "Pimping Out Jesus"

Note that these are all mainstream newspapers and none are too pleased with Homeboy Frist. If you can read only one in its entirety, read the Nashville Scene's editorial, Pimping Out Jesus. Unlike many Tennessee newspapers, this one actually informs its readers. A truly novel idea in a red state; here's hoping it catches on.

Snippets:

Pimping Out Jesus
The Nashville Scene

In our view, the blood-curdling facet of this whole political exercise is that religion has been hijacked to advance partisan interests. The most egregious culprit, of course, is the Senate's resident M.D. (master of dogma?), whose only guiding principles, it's becoming increasingly clear, are self-promotion and advancement at any cost.

His participation in the "Justice Sunday" freak show organized by right-wing nut jobs like Albert Mohler Jr.—a Shiite Baptist type who calls the Catholic Church "a false church" that "teaches a false gospel" and who says the "Pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office"—represents the worst kind of religious exploitation. What's more, Frist's servility has done nothing to help reach compromise or resolution on the judicial nominations issue and served only to let evangelicals know that Frist is willing to pimp out Jesus to get conservative activist judges approved.

Mohler, Frist & Co. believe that it's their Christian duty to stack courts with those who consult God before the law. "We have to exercise our Christian citizenship not just at the ballot box but all the way to the nomination and confirmation of judges," Mohler was quoted as saying. Lest you, dear reader, regard this editorial as somehow left of center, consider that even the leader of Frist's own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), was among a group of religious luminaries last week urging Frist to reconsider his participation in the event, which was to religious culture what raw foodists are to gastronomic culture—that it to say, really, really out there.

Separate from the religious politicking going on, Frist and the other proponents of procedural nuclear warfare seem to be sudden converts to the idea that all nominees deserve an up-or-down vote by the Senate. The numbers are not in their favor. When Bill Clinton was president, the GOP-controlled Senate from 1994-2000 blocked about 60 of his judicial nominees. Very few of these ever got a full Senate vote, and most didn't even get a vote within the Judiciary Committee. Their confirmation hearings often couldn't even get scheduled. Meanwhile, the Dems are blocking only 10 of more than 200 Bush nominees for the federal bench.

And you don't have to be a partisan to conclude that Clinton's blocked nominees were much closer to the political center than those who have been blocked by the Dems. . .

It's this blatant and shameless mixing of church and state to accomplish political and procedural victory that would make James Madison roll over in his grave. To compromise one conviction (not that Frist has demonstrated any) for another is like killing your mistress to honor your wife. We imagine that God himself is up there on a fluffy cloud cringing at this whole episode, probably using the U.S. Constitution as a biblical bookmark parked somewhere around Psalm 25, which allows that "integrity and uprightness" protect us.

In which case, God help Bill Frist.


Sen. Frist's Explosive Option
Chattanooga Times Free Press

...If he [Frist] does move to change the Senate's filibuster rules -- a monumental change with unprecedented ramifications -- he will surely transform the Senate for the worse, and the nation will suffer the lasting damage... Sen. Frist should, of course, retreat from the notion of changing the Senate's time-honored filibuster rules.


Invoking faith against judges
Memphis Commerical Appeal

In the context of what rally organizers and Frist are trying to accomplish, however, the senator's appearance at "Justice Sunday -- Stopping The Filibuster Against People of Faith" added fuel to a divisive debate that leaves no room for a moderate voice.

That freedom did not go unnoticed at many other religious gatherings Sunday in Louisville and elsewhere. Polls, including one commissioned by Republicans, show most Americans don't like the nuclear option. Moderate voices in the church suggest that it's inappropriate to bring God into this debate, and Frist would be well advised to hear them out.


Dangerous mix of faith into filibuster debate
The Tennessean

Sen. Bill Frist, the majority leader from Tennessee, is not the first politician to turn to religion for help with an agenda.

Sen. Bill Frist, the majority leader from Tennessee, is not the first politician to turn to religion for help with an agenda."

The filibuster issue, on its own, could pose a vitriolic political battle, but it has not been about religion and shouldn't be painted that way now.

. . .when the politically conservative side of the debate couches the debate in religious terms, the message becomes clear: God is on our side. That should be insulting to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Personal faith should not be defined by political affiliation.

While people may hope to have a higher power on their side, it seems appropriate to wonder what that higher power thinks of the way this political issue is being used.