Last week I expressed my disappointment in (un)Sound Politics contributor Matt Rosenberg for stooping to the level of his fellow travelers, by attempting to spin a single, anonymous, whacked-out post on an open blog into evidence of a vast, criminal lefty conspiracy. In doing so, I gave Matt the following backhanded compliment (or maybe it’s a forehanded insult):
Of all the contributors to (un)Sound Politics, Matt Rosenberg is perhaps the one who I kinda, sorta, maybe, almost respect the most. His politics are less predictable, his vitriol less vitriolic, and his writing more writerly than his fellow Drudge wannabes.
Well today, Matt has shown me once again why he’s the righty blogger I least love to hate the most. In a post that he surely knew would raise the ire of many of (u)SP’s regular readers, Matt lays into former Montana Gov. Judy Martz for telling a Tacoma Dome crowd of 2,800 at Friday’s 27th annual Pierce County Prayer Breakfast, that the removal of prayer from public schools in 1963 has lead to increased teen pregancy, divorce and lower student test scores, claiming “We have to get back to being a praying nation.”
As Matt points out, teen birth rates have actually been declining since 1963, and teen pregnancy and abortion rates have fallen steadily since 1986 (22% and 43% respectively.) He calls Gov. Martz on her misleading rhetoric:
Former Gov. Martz may tell evangelicals what they want to hear, but does herself and her party no favors making erroneous factual claims on teen XXbirthXX PREGNANCY rates, and ludicrously calling for the re-institution of mandatory prayer in public schools. Worse than that is the imputed causality: as if we could simply peg divorce and academic performance to lack of forced prayer in public schools. What planet is this woman from? This is not MY “big tent” GOP. But rather than run, I say flush out the zealots. We’ve been through the Ellen Craswell thing here in Washington State already, Gov. Martz, give us a break, OK?
If we are to “get back to being a praying nation,” Gov. Martz, it should not, and will not be, because the government compels prayer in public schools, as in the instances leading to the ’63 Supreme Court ruling. Such Nanny-Statism and religious authoritarianism, is antithetical to supposed GOP values of small government.
I think “supposed” is the key word there, Matt. Replay some of the extreme statements from Tom DeLay, Bill Frist and their Justice Sunday patrons, and today’s GOP leadership makes Ellen Craswell look like Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Anyway, that’s what I like about Matt… he’s not afraid to disagree with the party line, if in fact he really um, disagrees with the party line. So I wish him the best of luck in defending his party from the evangelical extremists… and I sincerely apologize if my compliment further discredits him in the eyes of his (u)SP readers.