The religious right is taking credit for Bush's "victory" and demanding its spoils - in the form of a religious crusade here in the USA. James Dobson is the leader of this crusade, even more than Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. So let's mark his words carefully...

Pundit Pap for Nov. 7, 2004
Arlen Specter: The Chimperor's Non-mandate
by the Pundit Pap Team
Jane Grice | JJ Balzer | Jodi Schmidt

If you really want to rub salt into the wound, you invite the most disgusting example of Xtian extremism who has managed to glom onto the "mainstream" media, say, someone like that sanctimonious champion of beating children, "Dr." James Dobson.

And Dobson, a man who has been described by at least one Christian writer as an outright fascist, was precisely whom ABC offered up as its contribution to the political discourse this Sunday.

Naturally, Dobson praised Dear Leader, saying "He makes the right choices." (Translation: he's going to cut and run with the extreme Taliban-Xtian agenda -- abolishing the right to choose, fetishizing embryos that will never be implanted in mothers, criminalizing gays and lesbians for being gays and lesbians, taking science out of schools and replacing it with superstition.)

Dobson then dived headfirst into "[t]he values thing -- I don't like the word," saying he prefers "morality." (Say what you want, but Dobson understands the principles put forth by Joseph Goebbels and Newt Gingrich: control and redefine the language. Dobson is saying that he and his followers, a remarkably small number considering the manner in which they have insinuated themselves upon politics, have "morality" and the rest of America doesn't -- the classic technique of fomenting and fostering hatred and divisiveness.) Bush, claimed Dobson, will pay a price if he does not implement "moral" laws including statutes that are "pro-life... wants to protect life, not only unborn life" (translation: save the embryos which will never be used, screw stem cell research, to hell with people who suffer from Alzheimer's like Ronald Reagan and his family), laws protecting the "institute of marriage" (translation: deprive gays who are eager to embrace traditional values and family the right to do so) and, in his most ambiguous demand, "putting CONSERVATIVE judges on the judiciary."

(Ha! Well, what do you know -- it's the wrongwingers who have a judicial "litmus test.")

Dobson wasn't over by a long shot about judges. Dobson said he believes Alberto Gonzalez is NOT acceptable to Dobson and his ilk based on "comments that he's made... [to the effect that] the Constitution could be set aside for a time."

(That's a lie -- Dobson knows that Gonzalez is a lot more liberal than the Borks, Estradas and Scalias of this world. Dobson is just grabbing onto an issue that will scare his dimwit followers.)

Your top pick? "Miguel Estrada." Dobson wouldn't name anymore, pretending that his naming them could "sabotage" the effort to politicize the courts. (Translation: Dobson's pretending he's being demonized by all those tens of millions of people who supposedly oppose Christianity. Like David Limbaugh said, Christians are under unrelenting attack in the United States. And if you believe that, we've got a crateful of concentrated purple Kool-Aid we're giving away for free.) Dobson continued his hysterical rant: Estrada "was hung out to dry by Senator Daschle... [Estrada's] a good man, an Hispanic." (Translation: Look at me, minorities? I'm INCLUSIVE! Never mind that my core suckers... er, constituency are White and easily duped.)

Steph played a video clip of Sen. Arlen Specter's comment about judges who are trying to reverse the right of woman to reproductive choice: "I think that is unlikely. I've said that bluntly during the campaign and before." Dobson's angry admission: "Senator Specter is a big-time problem for us." (You could almost sense Dobson doing everything in his power to prevent the words "atheistic troublemaking Jewy Jew" from slipping his lips.) With a flash of anger on his face, Dobson talked about how he had campaigned for Specter's rival in the Pennsylvania GOP primary earlier this year, a wingnut named Toomey. He then condemned Specter's words as "one of the most ill-considered and foolish statements that a politician has made."

Dobson continued with a rambling rant about "this mandate, this enormous victory." (Cue the laugh track: Hey, Jim-Bob, it was a Girly Mandate.) He then went back to attacking Specter: "He has been the champion of embryonic, of stem cell research... sabotaged Robert Bork."

(Note again that Dobson's pushing the notion of "sabotage" of the religious wronging agenda -- a desperate stretch to support the ridiculous argument that Christians are "victims.")

He ended his rant by repeating his anger at Specter "in opposition to this president [and] his enormous mandate."

Then, Dobson decided to bear a little false witness against a senator from Vermont. "Patrick Leahy is a God-people hater." Steph said that Dobson, who would not support his claim with anything approaching evidence, should apologize to Leahy. Dobson: "You think he ought to lecture me on what a Christian is?" "How do you back that up?" "There's been a lot of hate expressed in this election [against] Christian views."

(But not against Christians, Dobson. Dobson just isn't slick enough to confuse viewers -- save, perhaps, his own numbskull devotees.)

Dobson, showing not only ignorance of but contempt for science, claimed that people are not "born homosexual."

At the end of the interview, Steph suggested that Bush will fail Dobson. Dobson's reply: "I'm sure there are times when we'll be frustrated with the President."

Here's hoping that means 99.75% of the time...

Steph, for his part, went way too easy on this religious extremist who should never have been given any airtime by a broadcast network in the first place. He should have confronted Dobson about whether or not he thinks abortion should be criminalized. He should have asked Dobson about the overwhelming number of reports of Christian preachers endorsing candidates -- and whether he supports the loss of IRS exemptions for these churches that have no respect for civil or criminal law. At one point, Dobson claimed that tax cuts are a Christian value -- Steph should have asked him how this squares with Christ's comment about rendering to Caesar (or, in this case, the Simian Emperor).