The Moron Test

Hugh Hewitt writes in the Weekly Standard that the senate democrats are guilty of anti-catholic bigortry for not confirming Alabam Attornery General William Pryor who President Bush submitted as a nominee for a federal judgeship. Hewitt goes so far as to compare the Democrat's opposistion to Pyror to the Religious Tests used to prevent Catholics from holding public office in the 18th century.

Here is a quote that provides the full flavor and foolishness of Hewitt's article:

It is both laughable and pathetic for Senators like Leahy, Tom Daschle, and Richard Durbin to protest their innocence on the charge of anti-Catholicism with the argument that they are Catholics and thus cannot be anti-Catholic. This is a variation on the "some of my best friends are Jewish" refrain, and would not for a moment be admitted as a serious response in any other civil rights debate involving any other minority. The fact of discrimination is not in the motive of the offender but the effect upon the offended. Labels have nothing at all to do with the reality of bigotry.

In the past Republicans have shuddered at the prospect of engaging in hardball with their opponents across the aisle. The introduction of religious bigotry through tests on office is worth "going nuclear" over, and Archbishop Chaput has demonstrated that the Catholic Church agrees.

There is so much nonsense, I don't know where to begin. The Democrats aren't trying to prevent Pryor from being confirmed because he's catholic, but because he's conservative. You could say that the Democrats shouldn't reject justices on ideological grounds, but then again, Bush shouldn't be selecting almost exclusively conservative justices. It is completely absurd to dismiss the fact that Leahy, Tom Daschle, and Richard Durbin are catholic when discussing whether or not they are anti-catholic bigots, their faith makes all the difference in the world. Hewitt's statemant that "in the past Republicans have shuddered at the prospect of engaging in hardball with their opponents across the aisle", shows that he is clearly in a world of his own. It was the Republicans, after all that tried to impeach our last President, among many other instances of "hard ball politics". In short, Hewitt's could only be right (about anything) in a bizzare conservative parallel universe.