I enjoy clever political shtick as much as the next guy, but like my friend Eugene Oregon, I found this pro-nuclear option tactic painfully dumb.
The idea, apparently, is to rally support for ending judicial filibusters by — I’m not kidding — sending senators foam hands with finger tips dipped in blue ink. Naturally, it’s called the “Blue Finger Campaign.” As Focus on the Family explained:
The newest tactic in the battle to end Democratic filibusters of qualified judicial nominees is taking a page from the local sports arena.
The pro-family group Faith 2 Action is asking constituents to send foam hands with blue fingers — the kind fans wave when cheering on their favorite teams — to the offices of senators who have not committed to support the “constitutional option”. […]
The woman behind the idea is Janet Folger, president and founder of Faith 2 Action, who said the idea was also inspired by the recent Iraqi elections in which voters were required to dip their fingers in ink as a sign that they had voted.
“Iraqis were getting blue ink on their hand, courageously putting their lives on the line to vote,” Folger told CitizenLink. “We aren’t asking the senators to put their life on the line. We’re just asking them to be as courageous as those citizens. If we are going to send soldiers to fight and die for Iraqi citizens, then our judges deserve the right to a vote.”
It’s a non sequitur for the ages.
It’s also a sign that the far right’s desperation for the nuclear option is clouding their judgment about effective political strategies. Who in their right mind would find this clever?
By the way, Janet Folger is described as the founder of some religious right group called “Faith 2 Action,” but she’s actually a pretty major player in these radical circles. In the late-90s, Folger became the principal spokesperson for D. James Kennedy’s “Center for Reclaiming America” and his associated “Reclaiming America for Christ” conference.
Kennedy’s primary front person these days is Janet Folger, a 36-year-old anti-abortion strategist whom Kennedy lured from Ohio to run his “Center for Reclaiming America,” a fledgling Religious Right political group that has taken on gay bashing as its primary objective. Once ensconced in Ft. Lauderdale, Folger quickly made a name for herself by spearheading a national ad campaign featuring “ex-homosexuals,” people who claim to have been gay before converting to fundamentalist Christianity.
Folger is especially incensed by efforts to pass federal legislation increasing the penalties for “hate crimes,” such as assaults on gays and lesbians. The drive took on heightened urgency last year after Matthew Shepard, a young gay man in Wyoming, was severely beaten and tied to a fence in freezing weather. Shepard later died of his injuries.
“The goal of this legislation is to try to silence us,” Folger said. She asserted that if the law passed, it would be illegal to read the first chapter of the biblical book of Romans over the radio, an act she said is already illegal in Canada.
Folger also blasted the Supreme Court for striking down the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. “We live in a country that does everything it can to keep its focus away from God,” she asserted. And, not surprisingly given her background, she blasted the legalization of abortion and physician-assisted suicide.
Of the latter issue, Folger said, “That is something Satan really wants to be involved in.”
Republicans sure have interesting friends, don’t they?