If you know who Fred Phelps is, this may be of interest to you. (If you don't, do your blood pressure a favor and skip this diary.)
Phelps is the....zealous pastor in KS who started godhatesfags.com. Apparently now he also has godhatesamerica.com. There's not really a whole lot intelligent you can say about this guy, he's pretty much scraping the bottom of humanity's barrel. Anyway, so I ran across this letter to Howard Dean (pdf). WARNING: this is a very sick site, I'm posting this not to give this guy traffic but to show where I got it from. I will reproduce it in full below the fold....
February 14 2005
Mr. Howard Dean
National Chairman
Democratic National Committee
Washington, D.C.
Dear Chairman Dean:
Congratulations on becoming DNC Chair. I heard your acceptance speech. I heard you say that yours will now be the party of inclusion for all Americans--as the only path to political victory. In particular, I heard you say at a press conference following your aceeptance speech that you will be reaching out to Bible-believing evangelicals and include some of them on your Executive Committee.
In fact, I heard you say you will now for a while be practically living in the red states in the South and West, working on a grass roots, door-to-door campaign, knocking on doors in West Virginia and Texas and telling people plainly and honestly exactly what Democrats stand for and asking for their support.
As an old time Democrat friend of Al Gore and his campaign workers, and as an old time Bible-believing Christian--(one who naturally therefore believes that abortion and sodomy are monstrous sins against God that will take the practitioners to Hell)--I am glad to hear of your new doctrine of inclusion.
Please accept this letter as a formal request that you appoint me to your new Executive Committee. Many millions of American voters fervently believe that homosexuality and abortion are grevious sins that will never be forgiven unless and until the practitioners thereof repent and abandon such conduct. I will be their voice--their representative--in your inner councils. Appointing me will be a powerful signal to the nation that you are in truth now a party of inclusion!
With kindest personal regards and best wishes, I remain,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fred W. Phelps
Pastor
[Any typos are mine.]
Before anybody freaks out, I think Mr. Phelps is being facetious. This is possibly the most moderate thing I've ever seen the guy write. Obviously it'd be silly for Dean to even give the guy the courtesy of responding, but I thought it'd be a fun conversation piece.
(I don't know exactly what to make of Phelps claiming to be a friend of Al Gore's, he has to be making that up. Triangulation would never carry you that far to the right....)