"Religious McCarthyism," A Term I've Heard Before (On DU)

[Dinger]

As soon as I read that in a post a while back, I thought it was a powerful term, one that will be used quite often, one that would stick. I was right. Thank you Senator Leahy!

[calimary]

1. It's a good one. I'd add "Domestic Terrorism." Because that's what

they're doing.

[Lights_Out]

2. McCrappy

The title couldn't be more true to the action. Not only is the religious right sickening and appalling, but they are trying to disown ME. How can I be persecuted for not being religious, when my agnosticism is also outlined by my First Amendment rights?

[rwork]

3. "Patriotic McCarthyism"

To do with all the lapel flag pins in your face.Saying "You had better think like us."

[quaoar]

4. Leahy was on fire!

He was smokin'.

Maybe the vice president will make a guest appearance today and tell Leahy to go Cheney himself again.

[beaconess]

5. Leahy and other Dems have been saying this for more than a year and half:

"The slander in the ads recently run by a group headed by the President's father's former White House counsel and a group whose funding includes money raised by Republican Senators and the President's family is personally offensive. They have no place in this debate or anywhere else.

I challenged Republican Senators, who are so fond of castigating special interest groups and condemning every statement critical of a Republican nominee as a partisan smear, to condemn this ad campaign and the injection of religion into these matters. Only one of the newest Members of the Senate on the Republican side responded to the challenge.

Other Republican members of the Judiciary Committee and of the Senate have either stood mute in the case of these obnoxious charges or, worse, have fed the flames. Last night, at least three Republican Senators came to the floor, not to condemn this campaign of calling Democrats anti-Catholic--including this lifelong Catholic--but they have come here to fan the flames, to stoke this divisive, harmful, and destructive campaign. I have rarely been more disappointed in the Senate.

Where are the fair-minded Republican Senators? What has silenced them? Are they so afraid of the White House that they would allow this religious McCarthyism to take place? Why are they allowing this to go on? The demagoguery, divisive and partisan politics being so cynically used by supporters of the President's most extreme judicial nominees needs to stop.

I remember when one of the greatest Senators of Vermont, Ralph Flanders, stood up on this floor, even though he was a Republican, sort of the quintessential Republican--he stood up and condemned what Joseph McCarthy was doing. And it stopped. I hope some will stand up and condemn this charge of anti-Catholicism leveled against the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
---Patrick Leahy, July 31, 2003

"So why do Republican partisans insist that the Senate now devote its time to rehashing the debate on some of this President's most controversial nominees to the independent federal judiciary? Is it merely coincidence that the Republican leadership has chosen to schedule these proceedings for the week of the Federalist Society's National Convention in Washington? Perhaps this is to give Republicans the opportunity to preen and posture while such an important segment of their base activists are in town. Perhaps it is to give the Republican leadership another chance to make false arguments about judicial nominations. Perhaps it is to give some a platform for baseless and McCarthyite accusations against Democratic Senators. Or perhaps it is to distract from the real concerns that affect Americans every day."
----Patrick Leahy, November 12, 2003

"I'm puzzled and troubled by the Republican attacks on us, the accusations that we are anti-women, anti-black, anti-Hispanic, anti-Southern, anti-Catholic. They're running attack ads against us that represent the worst forms of religious and racial McCarthyism."
---John Edwards, November 12, 2003

"I stand against the religious McCarthyism being used by some Republicans to smear Senators who dare to vote against this President's most extreme nominees for lifetime positions on the federal courts. We should come together to condemn their injection of religious smears into the judicial nomination process. Partisan political groups have used religious intolerance and bigotry to raise money and to punish and broadcast dishonest ads that falsely accuse Democratic Senators of being anti-Catholic. I cannot think of anything in my 29 years in the Senate that has angered me or upset me so much as this. Earlier this session I recall emerging from mass to learn that one of these advocates had been on C-SPAN at the same time that morning to brand me an anti-Christian bigot."
--- Patrick Leahy, July 6, 2004