Katherine Harris is busily trying to clear up the absolutely disgraceful mess she left on the floor last week (CNN, my emphasis):
Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told,” Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is “wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.”
If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” Harris said.
[snip]
Harris’ campaign released a statement Saturday saying she had been “speaking to a Christian audience, addressing a common misperception that people of faith should not be actively involved in government.”
Is it just me, or does it feel like we’ve been stepping around an embarassing number of these odiferous puddles recently?
Gaffe after flub have been hitting the headlines, and invariably the statements have been defended because the individual was “speaking to ‘x’ audience”. You’d think folks would have learned by now that the world — all of it — is always listening.
I can’t figure out whether these people are pandering, condescening, or suffering from momentary fugues, but it all smells bad under the glaring public eye.
Polimom, a lot of it comes from being human. Most humans, excluding myself of course (wry smile), make mistakes. This is compounded if you’re a politician as they, or their handlers, believe an attempt must be made to spin the comments in the direction of their audience. In other words, too many fibs (PC for lies) make it easy to get tripped up.
I agree with her first statement Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told,” Harris said. There is no place in official documents (Constitution, laws passed by congress, case law), which declares there is a wall of separation between church and state. The Constitution says ”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” and that’s it.
Speaking of politicians opening mouth inserting foot, did anybody catch the satellite interviews with Louisiana Governess Kathleen Blanco today? She was giving the “oh yea, New Orleans is doing great” rah-rah and spoke with great delight how the Big Easy was experiencing the “lowest crime rate and the lowest unemployment rate in the city’s history.” To which a Houston reporter reminded her of all the homeless, unemployed and violent criminals that were sent to, and continue to stay, in Houston and what it’s done our city’s population and budget in these areas. Her reply was to thank the kindness of Houstonians for taking all those (unemployed criminals) in to your city.
Reminded me of Castro thanking President Jimmy Carter for taking in those boatloads of criminals and mentally insane when he emptied Cuba’s prisons and asylums and shipped the inmates to Florida back a few years.
Just re-read my comment and I don’t want people to think I believe ALL or even most of the evacuees were non-workers, criminals, or society’s problem people. Most were thankful for what help they got from state, the federal assistance and us locally. And most of those same people loved their hometown and went back as soon as they could or got jobs here forced to wait out the decisions concerning their homes in New Orleans. But out of the near 130,000 who came to this part of Texas, hundreds, maybe thousands were the lower and criminal class there and are now the same thing here. And Blanco boasting about the city’s low crime rate was not the smartest political spin-move in the world.