Rod Paige still not quite out of the woods

The flap over Roderick Paige’s apparent intolerance for religious diversity in public schools just refuses to go away.

Friday, 12 members of Congress wrote a joint letter to the suddenly controversial Secretary of Education, saying they found it “profoundly troubling” that Paige would suggest that the nation’s public schools “offer an inferior education to those infused with ‘the values of the Christian community.”

“We believe that you owe a sincere and unambiguous apology to the many American families whose faiths and educational choices your remarks have denigrated,” the letter said. “If you are unprepared to make clear that this sort of religious bigotry has no place in the Department of Education, then we would urge you to resign.”

In case you’re curious, the 12 House members were Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), John Conyers, (D-Mich.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Joseph Hoeffel (D-Pa.), Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Sander Levin (D-Mich.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), Ted Strickland (D-Ohio), and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

In addition, as the AP reported, “nearly three dozen” national civil rights and educational organizations, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, have issued formal statements of criticism against Paige, urging the Education Secretary to apologize and/or retract his remarks.

Among the groups is the Anti-Defamation League, whose director, Abe Foxman, said Paige’s remarks “have caused considerable concern, especially for those in the religious minority.”

Paige, for what it’s worth, refuses to apologize and insists he’s done nothing wrong. On Friday, after an appearance in Los Angeles, reporters asked if an apology would be forthcoming.

“I don’t think I would ask you to apologize or any other person to apologize for their beliefs,” Paige said.

Paige even has a new cheerleader, former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, best-selling “compiler” and easily the biggest blow hard Carpetbagger has ever seen. Bennett, in an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, defends Paige and assails his critics. Bennett, ironically, also calls on Barry Lynn, the director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to resign from his job at AU for suggesting that Paige should resign from his job at the Dept. of Education. (Bennett appears to hold Barry to a slightly higher standard then federal lawmakers. He did not, for example, ask the 12 House members to leave Congress after suggesting Paige may need to consider resigning over this controversy.)

My friends at Americans United, who were responsible for releasing this story to the Washington Post in the first place, are undoubtedly thrilled with these events. And for those of you keeping track, this one-day story is now up to five days of press coverage. Any way to stretch this out into next week?