Lots has already been said about
Ken Salazar's latest counterattack on Focus on the Family, which ran a full page ad in the Rocky attacking him for failing to support the Alito nomination. (See
Soapblox Colorado,
5280 and
DemNotes, for example.) But nothing I've seen has really focused in on the subtle brilliance of the Protestant vs. Catholic spin Salazar put on the situation with his remarks:
Sen. Ken Salazar attacked Focus on the Family at a luncheon in Denver on Tuesday after the nonprofit group took out newspaper ads labeling him a flip-flopper in regard to the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Salazar, in turn, suggested the group go back to the Bible and look at the Eighth Commandment.
"Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," he told a crowd of about 200 at the Brown Palace Hotel. In some religions that's the Ninth Commandment, but the Catholic Church, of which Salazar is a member, counts it as the eighth.
The last time Salazar went toe to toe with James Dobson and FoF, he pointed out anti-Catholic remarks that had been made by a member of the FoF board, and I observed at the time that Salazar was driving a wedge between Protestant fundies and the Catholics they are trying to unite under a right wing Christian banner. Today's "Eighth Commandment" reference -- which had to be explained by the Rocky's reporter for Protestant readers -- is a return to that theme. Salazar is sending a message to his fellow Catholics that his attackers are a bunch of Protestant fundies. This won't help Focus one bit, and it probably will help give Salazar a little political cover the next time the archbishop goes after him.