Well, at least we know that James Dobson's Focus on the Family (FOF) occasionally showers Republicans with a little hateful smearing along with their usual Democratic targets.

While researching some anti-gay assertions made by Kansas Republican Sam Brownback on the Senate floor yesterday, I stumbled across this charming little ad about same-sex marriage being run by FOF against Chuck Hagel (R-NE):

Isn't that sweet?

"It is a painful but very real truth. Homosexual marriages intentionally create motherless families or fatherless families," reads the newspaper ad. "But a compassionate society would not deliberately deny a child a mother or father."

And here's the money line:

"Yet Sen. Hagel has stated his intentions to vote against the Marriage Protection Amendment if it survives a filibuster and comes up for a vote."

It continues…

"Every child understands how important a mom and a dad are. But apparently Sen. Hagel needs a reminder. Please call or fax his office today, and urge him to support the Marriage Protection Amendment."

It then gives every way of contacting each of Hagel's offices. And lest you think they're just picking on Hagel, they've also targeted a number of Senators they believe may be winnable votes on the bigoted legislation including Democratic Senators Pryor and Lincoln of Arkansas, Landrieu of Louisiana and Republicans Collins and Snowe of Maine.

"If the future of marriage and the family is important to you, please commit to contacting your elected officials right away," says FOF on their web site.

I guess the Religious Right figured they weren't being successful enough at just getting their minions to hate the gay community on general principles of bigotry -- now they need to fool people into thinking gay folks hate children.

Heck of a God these people worship.

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com