Thursday, November 30, 2006

Dennis Prager proves himself a moron.

Trying to claim that Keith Ellison will swear into Congress on a Koran, Prager ignores the fact Congresspersons do not swear on any type of religious book.

Think Progress:
"Bloggers on the left and right — including Taylor Marsh, Steven Bennen, Eugene Volokh, Stephen Bainbridge — have torn apart Prager’s argument on constitutional grounds.

But Prager’s column is based on one other glaring error: the swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives never includes a religious book. The Office of the House Clerk confirmed to ThinkProgress that the swearing-in ceremony consists only of the Members raising their right hands and swearing to uphold the Constitution. The Clerk spokesperson said neither the Christian Bible, nor any other religious text, had ever been used in an official capacity during the ceremony. (Occassionally, Members pose for symbolic photo-ops with their hand on a Bible.)"

But maybe Prager is worried that as more Muslims become involved in politics, we will lose yet another boogeyman to rally against.

Glenn Greenwald:
"James Joyner and Stephen Bainbridge both provide excellent rebuttals, including Joyner's pointing out the rather obvious fact that requiring elected officials to take their oaths on the Bible would constitute a textbook case of a "religious test" prohibited by Article VI, and would almost certainly violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as well.

As always, it is the most basic constitutional principles -- which were previously beyond challenge -- that are placed in doubt by the most rabid Bush followers. And these attacks on our constitutional values are, with no sense of irony, waged in the name of defending "America.""

Update 12/1: Rook at Rook's Rant (I do like that name!) has an idea:
Swear in on the Constitution.

No comments: