-Caveat Lector- {{More on the intolerance of left-wingers--believe as I believe or get out. I pretty much endorse most of this article as most of the religious people I know are very honest and trustworthy and do not try to force their beliefs on others as fundamentalist liberals do.AKE} 01/23/2001 - Tuesday - Page A 34 Liberals Use Unfair Tactics With Ashcroft Matthew Carolan and Raymond J. Keating. Matthew Carolan is online editor for Inter@ctive Week. Raymond J. Keating is co-author of "U.S. by the Numbers: Figuring What's Left, Right, and Wrong with America State by State." SOME LIBERALS like to say that America's diversity is its strength. We agree. Unfortunately, the left's definition of diversity too often is as narrow as its view of bipartisanship. That is, if you agree with them, then you embrace bipartisanship and diversity. If not, you are probably a narrow-minded bigot. We tend to like people with strong and reasonable beliefs and principles. So we're thankful, especially after watching recent Senate confirmation hearings and the presidential inauguration this past weekend, that there are decent, religious people in the public square, including apparently President George W. Bush and his Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft. Neither of us is an evangelical Christian. But we were appalled at the recent insinuations emanating from inside the Washington Beltway and from some in the establishment media about the fitness of devoutly religious people, like Ashcroft, to serve in government. And we know some local evangelical Christians were upset, too. After their recent disastrous calls of the election results in Florida (relying on Voter News Service projections), you'd think the major news organizations would not simply parrot something they had heard second-hand from liberal activists about the so-called "racism" of John Ashcroft. This charge was so baseless that even Ashcroft's nemesis -and alleged victim of that "racism" -Missouri Judge Ronnie White, would disagree with it in Senate hearings. You'd also think that if some in the media were going to cynically describe George W. Bush's nomination of Ashcroft as an attempt to appease the "religious right" or the "far right," they would balance such cynicism by noting that groups opposing Ashcroft were on the far, secular left. Instead, they mildly identified these protesters as "environmental," "women's" or "civil rights" groups. As a result, the media helped fan a stereotypical attack on devout, evangelical Christians as being nothing more than racist, would-be theocrats. Bill Banuchi, executive director of New York's Christian Coalition, found the affair offensive. "They are still trying to spread the lie that we are poor, uneducated, and easy to lead," he said. Banuchi suggested that those opposing Ashcroft may be more concerned about his ability to challenge liberal views on abortion, for example. "What they are really afraid of is Ashcroft's influence," he added. Indeed, some liberals are remarkably fundamentalist about their interpretations of the Bill of Rights. Ridiculously reasoned Supreme Court decisions like Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey have become left-wing sacred scriptures, against which any disagreement is considered heresy. In fact, the Senate confirmation hearings had more than a whiff of a heresy trial. Sen. Ted Ken- nedy (D-Mass.) did not so much discuss as bombastically denunciate. And Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), lobbing hypothetical cases at Ashcroft about abortion, became visibly impatient because Ashcroft replied only about what the law allowed, appropriately so for the would-be attorney general, and refused to say anything using the word "should" which might suggest moral endorsement. "I think many are feeling the guilt of their own positions ...You hear the hostility in Kennedy's voice," said Roger Bogsted, a deacon at the Bethpage Assembly of God and vice chairman of the New York Conservative Party. "It cries out to me of a guy who has walked away from his own faith, so to speak, in the actions and the positions that he has taken," he continued. We say, Amen. We're sure that the hysterical liberal fund-raising letters already have been composed, citing George W. Bush's inauguration speech, with its numerous religious references, and Ashcroft's nomination as the signs of an impending theocracy. Yet, in reality, all of the devoutly religious people we've met are first-rate citizens, who revere the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, even while, as with the sacred books, sometimes disagreeing about their proper interpretation. Copyright © Newsday, Inc. 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