FAMILY VALUES PART II; ULTRA-RIGHT RANTINGS VOLUME II

The Coe Brothers, David and Tim, have been more than a little busy the past few weeks.

You may recall they operate the C Street Christian Fellowship, the Washington, D.C. evangelical facility primarily designed for counseling men, if not aiding and abetting them in times of trouble. At the end of June, it was revealed they had been trying to help pull South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's bacon out of the fire when it became public that he had been cavorting with his Argentinean mistress. Their latest project has been another "family values" Republican, U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada.

Back in 2007-2008 Ensign had been banging Cynthia Hampton, wife of Ensign's best friend, Doug Hampton. Ensign got caught, but before he did, he took "family values" to a new level: he got his parents (primarily his father, Mike) to pony up roughly $100,000 to pay off Hampton so she would shut up and go away. The old man owns, among other things, the Mandalay Group which operates casinos in Nevada. The Ensign hush money payment proves that there are real "values" in having a rich "family."

The C Street boys then got Ensign to write a letter to Cindy Hampton expressing remorse and calling off their fling. A copy of the letter was obtained by Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston. In true born-again fashion, Ensign, a long time mouthier of bible verses, references to god, the sanctity of marriage and all things holy and pure, made sure (or the C Street guys made sure) that there were a few references to the guy in the sky in the letter. In fact, most of the letter is about god.

"God never intended for us to do this."
"I walked away from him and my relationship with him has suffered terribly."
"I know he loves me and he loves you."
"He wants to restore Darlene to me and he wants to restore Doug to you."
"More than that, he wants to restore our relationship to him."

Then to be certain he could be trusted, the C-Street boys along with Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (a Republican, natch) drove him to a local FedEx site to guarantee the envelope with the letter was sent off to the lovely Ms. Hampton. I suspect the money from daddy got to her via some other method.

Coburn is another in a long line of crackpots from Oklahoma, the same state that sent Jim Inhofe to the Senate. Coburn denied any involvement in the Ensign matter but that was refuted by his own staff, which said he was. Coburn then would not comment or respond to questions on the situation claiming that as "a physician and ordained deacon" in his church, it was privileged information. I'm trying to imagine what medical procedure Coburn would have been administering during all this. Checking to see if Ensign had the clap?

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Speaking of Oklahoma, State Senator Sally Kern is a notorious right wing numbskull, married to a fundamentalist Baptist minister and who never is lacking for something profoundly stupid to say or do. Her latest is to blame the nation's economic woes on our lack of morality. To wit:

She recently introduced in the Oklahoma legislature a document, which blames “abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse and many other forms of debauchery” for the country’s economic woes.

To rectify the problem, it suggests the following solution: “BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call upon Holy God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal as we repent of our great sin.”

Then there is Rush Limbaugh who must have at least a dozen writers he keeps on staff to produce commentary that I have to admit is very creative. Two recent examples are that President Obama is planning to ignore the 22^nd Amendment to the Constitution and will simply continue in office with at least a third term. A week or so ago, he said that Michael Jackson's career hit its zenith when Reagan was in the White House, continued through Bush I and then begin to go into a free fall when Clinton took office and culminated with death while Obama was in the White House. He skipped over the Bush II eight-year nightmare.

Finally, we venture to Arizona where on June 25, the Arizona Senate’s Retirement and Rural Development Committee discussed the prospects for uranium mining in the state. During the hearing, State Senator Sylvia Allen (R), the vice chairman of the committee, argued in favor of mining by saying that the earth “has been here 6,000 years" and almost all of that time there were never any environmental protection laws and things seem to be fine."

Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Rockefeller, Jacob Javits & Co. have to be spinning in their graves.