WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Nov. 5, George W. Bush claimed, "I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." Just how much capital one earns with just over a 1 percent edge in the popular vote is debatable - but the concept is worth keeping in the back of your mind as you read the rest of this opinion piece, since as of this writing, Bush has yet to draw on any of it - and there's already trouble on the horizon.
For one thing, there's the Nov. 18 hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on "The Science Behind Pornography Addiction," which you can read all about in Legal News & Views. It's chaired by Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who gets good write-ups from the Christian, sorry, Cybercast News Service every few days, and has as members Trent Lott and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who also frequently get good CNS reviews, plus four other Republicans, most of whom will send you a free American flag if you just ask.
There are also six Democrats, but they don't count - literally. Y'see, for the last year or so, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Tom DeLay have made it clear that at least in the House of Representatives, Democrats needn't bother coming to committee meetings since their views won't be taken into consideration. There's no reason to think that Senate Republicans feel any differently. Moreover, in debating the Intelligence Reform bill, a Hastert spokesman reported that Hastert had upped the ante by declaring that only those bills that were supported by "the majority of the majority" would be brought to a floor vote. In other words, even liberal Republicans need not apply - and none of that has cost Bush a gram of his "capital"!
The point is, expect more stacked hearings of this sort - and plenty of anti-adult industry legislation soon after, using the "findings" of those hearings as the "scientific" basis.
We reported last issue on the resignation of John Ashcroft - and if anyone's dumb enough to think that Ashcroft made that move all on his lonesome, I've got a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, cheap! - and the nomination, within hours, of Alberto "Torture Memo" Gonzales as his replacement. Since then, most of the rest of Bush's first term Cabinet have also "resigned," including loyalists like HHS's Tommy Thompson and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, to be replaced by relative unknowns, who'll likely sail through the confirmation process since nobody knows who the hell they are. But (and here's where that constructive paranoia comes in handy) you can be sure that those replacements won't even have the word "No" in their vocabulary when Bush comes to them with a request. Can you say "consolidation of power"?
On the judicial side of things, Chief Justice William Rehnquist is dying - there's no other reason why the Court's public information officer would say she had "no information" on when the 80-year-old chemo patient might return to the Court - and his most likely replacement, Antonin Scalia, was going around giving speeches to religious groups in late November, saying inspiring words like, "We are fools for Christ's sake. We must pray for the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world." ("Sophisticated world" - that's us!)
"The Founding Fathers never used the phrase 'separation of church and state,'" he said, having apparently never read Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. The anti-establishment clause of the First Amendment, according to Scalia, "is not neutrality between religiousness and nonreligiousness; it is between denominations of religion."
And yet, somehow it's doubtful that Scalia will give the same weight to the beliefs of the Pagans in the porn community that sex, even on camera, is a form of worship, as he will to the fundamentalists who believe sex is for baby-making only. Bush might have to expend a little of that "capital" to get Scalia approved for Rehnquist's job - although maybe not, since now, even new Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is saying he could support Scalia's elevation.
Religious right groups like Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are already champing at the bit to move Bush's next slate of anti-abortion, anti-gay (and inevitably anti-porn) judicial nominees through the Senate - so much so that when Sen. Arlen Specter announced that such bigots wouldn't survive questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Specter is in line to chair, every conservative who could grab a microphone was calling for Specter's head on a platter, until he made some very public mea culpas.
And there'll be plenty of candidates to nominate pretty soon: Rev. Jerry Falwell's opened a law school, which will serve as "a sort of counterweight to the views that dominate" non-religious law schools.
"The prevailing orthodoxy at the elite law schools is an extreme rationalism that draws a strong distinction between faith and reason," said Bruce W. Green, Dean of Falwell's Liberty School of Law.
The last time the law didn't "draw a strong distinction between faith and reason," people got burned at the stake - but at least Bush won't have to expend any "capital" to get the fires lit!
But not everybody goes to law school; some only go to college - so thank "God" for Bob Jones 3rd, president of Bob Jones University, who drew the battle lines in an open letter to Bush on the university's Website on Nov. 3.
"In your reelection, God has graciously granted America - though she doesn't deserve it - a reprieve from the agenda of paganism," he wrote. "Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."
Christ-despising liberals - that's you! Might be time to invest in that asbestos suit you were thinking about buying, assuming you can spare some of your "capital."
Or you might start thinking about how you can counter this flood of holy-rollerism. Listen to the Free Speech Coalition; they've got some ideas - and they're anxious to hear yours as well. But it's going to cost you a little "capital" - and Bush has hardly spent any of his yet!
The above article was printed in the January, 2005 issue of AVN.
