Joe Knollenberg (MI-09) doesn't like being asked to atone for war votes

Funny how Republicans are perfectly invoking religion into debates on embryonic stem cell research, abortion and the Terry Schiavo debate, but when religion is brought into the debate on the war they get their panties in a bunch and cry foul and start whining.

Congressman Joe Knollenberg is calling for the Governor of the state of Michigan to reprimand a private citizen for bringing religion into the debate on the war.  What have we come to when a U.S. Congressman has the audacity to get this upset that he asks a governor to enter into the debate between a citizen and his congressman.

Knollenberg staff seeks reprimand of activist for religion comments

July 18, 2007

BY TODD SPANGLER

FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg is taking exception to a comment made by an Oakland County activist about his religion – and his staff is calling on Gov. Jennifer Granholm to do something about it.

In an article in the Oakland Press this week, Rochester Hills resident Bruce Fealk made a reference to a planned protest outside Knollenberg’s office, saying it was aimed at getting the Republican congressman to come out in favor of legislation to end the war in Iraq.

In his comments, Fealk, 53, said Knollenberg should atone for his sins – meaning his refusal to back Democratic-sponsored legislation to set timetables for removing the troops – like a good Catholic.

Both Knollenberg’s staff and the National Republican Congressional Committee slammed Fealk and MoveOn.org, a nationwide advocacy group to which Fealk belongs. In a statement today, the NRCC said, "MoveOn.org has once again made a name for themselves by attacking Joe Knollenberg’s personal beliefs and turning the Iraq war into a political, partisan game. ... Religious smears have no place in political discourse."

Meanwhile, Knollenberg’s chief of staff, Trent Wisecup, sent a letter to Granholm’s Washington office, noting that the governor had once appeared on Fealk’s cable access show in Oakland County and asking that she not do so again. It also said the governor should "inform him that injecting an elected official from Michigan’s religion into a debate on a public policy issue crosses the line."

"His private beliefs are his private beliefs," Wisecup said today.

Read the rest of the story at the link.

http://www.freep.com/...

•  Greenwald on Catholicism

  Check out this recent post by Greenwald on the overwhelmingly anti-Catholic politics of the Republican Party:

  It is striking to see one of the nation's most influential evangelical Christians explicitly acknowledge that the defining Republican policies -- the death penalty, unrestrained "terrorism" approaches, waterboarding, and (though Gerson doesn't mention it) "preventive" wars -- are not only un-Catholic, but also hostile to the "ethic of life." Gerson is right that such policies are decisively anti-life and contrary to Catholic teaching. Beyond that, they are squarely at odds with more general Christian moral teaching as well. Indisputably, there is a "life" and "morality" aspect to the Republican Party's conduct of the "war on terrorism" and that conduct could not be more at odds with the values they claim to embrace.

  Yet our political discourse is sufficiently broken that this is rarely pointed out. The media has decreed that these same Republicans embody the "faith" agenda. Thus the political party that, on one issue after the next, advocates anti-"ethic-of-life" and un-Catholic positions is endlessly presented as the "pro-life" party for "people of faith."
  [Emphasis added.]

  by Demi Moaned on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 02:59:54 AM PDT

•  Love to watch him whine...

  Knollenberg is suppose to be mine, but I won't claim him.  He is one of the worst.  Maybe I'll right him a letter and tell him Jesus wears combat boots.  

  by dkmich on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 03:50:54 AM PDT

  •  perhaps a background investigation into this

    guy might get some interesting results. The downside is getting to find out what Knollenberg really does for fun when he thinks the voters aren't looking.

    by alizard on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 03:55:26 AM PDT

•  Does the word

  hypocritical even cover this anymore?  The r's claiming someone is using their religion against them as politics is pure cognative dissonance. It is beyond belief.  My jaw is slackened, my mind is numb.

  by tobendaro on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 03:55:24 AM PDT

•  Oakland County elects Bobbleheads

  by slowheels on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 04:51:21 AM PDT

  •  And yet

    Oakland County went for Kerry over Bush in 2004.

    Knollenberg is way too wingnutty for the changing demographics of his district, and it's past time for him to go.

    by Steve M on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 05:30:15 AM PDT

    •  Kerry in 2004, yes ... but locally ??? Weird

      Of course having grown up on a FARM in Oakland Cty,
      and living in Wayne Cty,
      I'm surely jaundiced.

      Rumours are folks are trying to move Knollenberg more toward the center,
      but he is both ignorant and ideaologically driven
      which, of course, make him STUPID.

      Hence, WINGNUTTY

      which is what you said !

      by slowheels on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 08:19:46 AM PDT

      •  Kinda sorta

        Knollenberg's district is still majority Republican, since he doesn't have most of the southern Oakland County communities that have been turning blue (largely due to migration from Detroit).

        But the other factor that is turning Oakland County more blue is that these people are FISCAL conservatives who are a very poor match for today's GOP.  These are not social conservatives at all; back in the day, even as Oakland County gave Reagan huge majorities, I recall that Dr. Kevorkian enjoyed the support of the public by more than a 2-1 margin.  In fact, they even threw out the Republican county prosecutor for persecuting him so extensively.

        Oakland County would still vote for a moderate, low-spending-low-taxes Republican every time.  But Knollenberg has signed onto the full wingnut agenda, and these are not people who support things like the Terri Schiavo debacle.  The real problem is the lack of Democratic infrastructure in what's long been a one-party area, but I maintain that Knollenberg is extremely vulnerable.

        by Steve M on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 01:34:47 PM PDT

        •  Knollenberg is extremely vulnerable

          from your mouth....

          It would be a HUGE pickup.  Where can we find a moderate Democrat in Oakland County ?

          A Fighting Dem ?

          by slowheels on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 07:38:40 PM PDT

  •  not so fast...

    Our Republican County Commission is now only 13-12!

    by Jordan LFW on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:28:15 AM PDT

•  Let me see if I have this right...

  For six years the GOP has been actively paying for the incursion of Christianity into our government in every department including Defense. We have a Department of Faith Based Initiatives!

  And all we ask for is a little non-hypocrisy, but yeah, that is way too much.

  by brainiacamor on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 05:55:26 AM PDT

•  Republican victims. Aren't they adorable?

  After 12 years of riding roughshod over their opposition and throwing common decency into the toilet, House Republicans are now playing the victim card.

  Cue up the world's smallest violin.

  by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 06:45:52 AM PDT

•  How pathetic of him

  That's what kills me, none of our right wingers in MI have any guts.  They all seem to love this duck and hide game.

  Enough already.

  I'm heading back to that part of the world next week, before and after YK.

  by lizah on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 07:24:31 AM PDT