I’ll admit to getting rather indignant when I read the news that Rick Warren will be giving the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration. After all, this is the guy who, just this week, equated gay marriage with incest and adults marrying children.
I still don’t like the idea, but having thought about it some more, I think John Cole has a pretty good take on this subject:
But I also understand that I would much rather have Warren given a few minutes to speak about religion at a time and manner appropriate for religious discussion than I would having Obama give a nod to the religious right by appointing the God squad to Justice, to the FDA, to NASA, and so on. When Rick Warren and folks like him are driving policy in an Obama administration, I will then muster the necessary outrage.
So while not my first choice, not a big deal. Let him speak for a few minutes and be done with them. I will spend the time pouring a drink or going to the bathroom.
There is, I suppose, the slippery slope argument—that if we get to the point where Obama is appointing people like Warren to influential policy positions, it will be too late.
However, it seems rather unlikely it’s going to come to that. For now, I’ll save my outrage.
In response to a question about shutting down the Guantanamo prison camp, Vice President Dick Cheney had the following to say to ABC News:
One suggestion is, well, we bring them to the United States. Well, I don’t know very many congressmen, for example, who are eager to have 200 al Qaeda terrorists deposited in their district. It’s a complex and difficult problem. If you bring them onshore into the United States, they automatically acquire a certain legal rights and responsibilities that the government would then have, that they don’t as long as they’re at Guantanamo. And that’s an important consideration.
Yes, but see, the trick is that you’ve already made the assumption that these guys are terrorists. Sure, we’re all supposed to just trust you on that one, but that’s not really a bet I feel like taking at this point.
From yesterday’s Washington Post:
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, will seek appointment to the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), according a spokesman for her campaign.
Kennedy is actively campaigning for the appointment and made telephone calls to influential Democrats in the state yesterday to seek their support — among them Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, who endorsed her candidacy last night, and New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn.
I’m sure that Caroline Kennedy is a very nice person, and probably very smart and able as well.
Nonetheless, what is it that qualifies her to take over a farily influential position in the Senate? All evidence to the contrary, having “Kennedy” as a last name doesn’t guarantee you a seat in the government.
Or, at least, it shouldn’t.