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Monday, December 8, 2008
Newsweek and ‘the religious case for gay marriage’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Newsweek has stirred up a cloud of dust with a provocative cover story that argues in favor of gay marriage: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage.”
The opening lines:
Let’s try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does.
Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)?
Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better.
Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family.
The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. “It is better to marry than to burn with passion,” says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered.
Politico just posted a reaction piece with these quotes:
“It doesn’t surprise me. Newsweek has been so far in the tank on the homosexual issue, for so long, they need scuba gear and breathing apparatus,” said Richard Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “I don’t think it’s going to change the minds of anyone who takes biblical teachings seriously.”
Says Ralph Reed:
“I see it as an attempt to caricature and reduce to a cartoon the social conservative belief in the efficacy of traditional marriage, and try to reduce it to some formulaic, scriptural literalism,” said Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition. “There’s more of a practical, sociological foundation for why we seek to affirm marriage as an institution than I think is generally understood by those who want to legalize same-sex marriage.”
Though Reed said he had respect for Newsweek, he said this week’s cover story was based on a “false assumption”: “We’re not trying to take the Bible and put a bill number on it and legislate it.”
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State lawmakers decide to skip pay raise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House and Senate leaders decided Monday it wouldn’t look good to take a pay raise when 100,000 state employees are going without one this year.
According to my AJC colleague James Salzer, the Legislative Services Committee, which is made up of top House and Senate leaders, voted to defer a 3 percent raise due lawmakers.
Lawmakers said they wanted to lead by example. Gov. Sonny Perdue has already stalled the raises state employees were supposed to get because of the economic downturn. Perdue has been warning state agencies they may need to cut 8 percent in spending this year because tax collections have declined.
However, the General Assembly is a separate branch of government, so lawmakers would have gotten the pay raise without action Monday.
Educators are the only group of employees paid with state funding who will still get a cost-of-living raise this year.
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Newt Gingrich and Freddie Mac
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press has an item just out documenting the way Freddie Mac fended off meaningful regulation with bucketloads of cash — and free tickets to the Nationals:
Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:
— Sen. Alfonse D’Amato of New York, at Park Strategies, $240,000.
— Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, at Clark & Weinstock, $360,297.
— Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, at Washington Group, $300,062.
— Susan Hirschmann at Williams & Jensen, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $240,790.
Here’s how the AP explained Gingrich’s role:
The Bush administration and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were sounding the alarm about the potential threat to the nation’s financial health if the fortunes of the two mammoth companies turned sour.
They did eventually, when they took on $1 trillion worth of subprime mortgages and when their traditional guarantee business deteriorated. Commercial banks regarded Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as competitors and were anxious to pick up business that would result from scaling back the two companies.
Pushing back, Freddie Mac enlisted prominent conservatives, including Gingrich and former Justice Department official Viet Dinh, paying each $300,000 in 2006, according to internal records.
Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model.
Dinh wrote a legal analysis of private property rights that viewed a hypothetical government-enforced sale of Freddie Mac assets as constitutionally suspect.
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An emerging Obama pattern
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, Politico notes that Democrat Jim Martin wasn’t alone:
In the three Congressional races decided since Barack Obama defeated John McCain on November 4, the president-elect has kept his distance from the Democratic candidates.
While Obama did lend Georgia senate candidate Jim Martin some of his campaign staff, and cut radio ads for both Martin and Louisiana congressional hopeful Paul Carmouche, he has made no personal appearances in any of the races, even as his party stood a chance of gaining a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the Senate, and expanding what’s currently a 20-seat advantage in the House.
While there was little recent polling, Carmouche had led Republican John Flemming through much of the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Jim McCrey in Louisiana’s 4th congressional district.
On Saturday, though, the Democrat fell just 356 votes short.
Even more surprising was the defeat of Democratic Congressman William Jefferson, who was widely believed to the frontrunner in his bid for a tenth term in the House, despite a 16-count corruption indictment.
Jefferson was defeated by Republican Ahn Cao, a 41-year-old moderate Republican and Vietnam refugee.
