NYT: Frist to appear in telecast with Dobson, Colson

It appears Bill Frist will be joining Tom DeLay in the Arrogant Overreachers' Club:

Frist Set to Join Religious Effort on Judicial Issue
(article by David Kirkpatrick in the NYT)

More after the flip.

Key grafs:

As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

Fliers for the telecast, organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky megachurch the evening of April 24, call the day "Justice Sunday" and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the other. The flier does not name participants, but under the heading "the filibuster against people of faith," it reads: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

...

Some of the nation's most influential evangelical Protestants are participating in the teleconference in Louisville, including Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Chuck Colson, the born-again Watergate figure and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; and Dr. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

...

"As the liberal, anti-Christian dogma of the left has been repudiated in almost every recent election, the courts have become the last great bastion for liberalism," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and organizer of the telecast, wrote in a message on the group's Web site. "For years activist courts, aided by liberal interest groups like the A.C.L.U., have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms."

What was it that so repulsed the vast majority of Americans about Republican meddling in the Schiavo family's affairs?  Hmmm, wasn't it the specter of a party determined to impose its moral agenda on our most private decisions?

"Against people of faith?" I've heard worse, and I ain't skeered.  I cringe every time I hear someone talk about "elites" or "latte liberals", because it resonates.  This is so far over the top that I don't think it will gain much traction.

In fact, I think this could be a colossal blunder by Frist, along the lines of DeLay talking cavalierly about impeaching judges.  The Right had enormous success in 2004 tying Democratic candidates to lightning rods -- think Moore, Streisand, etc.  Guilt by association's a nasty tactic, but it works.  It's time to return fire.  If DeLay and Frist are going to cast their lot with the likes of Dobson, Colson, Perkins and the rest of the theocrats, we should hang that around the neck of every Republican running for office from Bangor to Bakersfield.  

The Repubs are trying their damndest to commit suicide.  Let them.

Update [2005-4-14 23:20:26 by Buck Fush]: Title changed to reflect the fact that as far as I can tell, this is a single telecast and not an ad campaign. It still stinks.