04.05.07

I Guess Texas Rush Wasn’t Getting Enough Attention

Posted in 80th Legislature, Commentary, Election 2008 at 9:10 am by wcnews

The hypocrisy of what Texas Rush did and said yesterday would be stunning if, well, it wasn’t Texas Rush that did it. Being a freshman in the Senate and craving attention must be what makes him do things like this.

Republican Sen. Dan Patrick on Wednesday boycotted the first prayer delivered in the Texas Senate by a Muslim cleric, and then praised religious tolerance and freedom of speech in an address at the end of the day’s session.

“I think that it’s important that we are tolerant as a people of all faiths, but that doesn’t mean we have to endorse all faiths, and that was my decision,” he said later.

“I surely believe that everyone should have the right to speak, but I didn’t want my attendance on the floor to appear that I was endorsing that.”

I saw this yesterday, in relation to the Pelosi head scarf kerfuffle, and believe it applies here too:

…adding, to make the obvious point, I’ve bowed my head to “pray” in church, I’ve worn yarmulkes in Synagogue, etc. It’s called respect.

While this is well within his rights to do this it’s nothing more than political theater. He just trying to reinforce the “knuckle-draggers” on the right fringe that he’s one of them to keep them firmly in his corner for his run at governor in 2010.

Sen. Shapiro does a very good job of setting him strainght though:

Patrick’s political ally, Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill, had sharply criticized the fact that the Muslim prayer was scheduled during the week before Easter.

The timing was coincidental, said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who sponsored the cleric’s appearance at the Capitol on the Texas Muslims Legislative Day.

Shapiro is Jewish, and this also is Passover, a major Jewish holiday.

Shapiro praised Kavakci’s “extensive interfaith experience” and said he represents a “substantial constituency of Texans who deserve to be represented.”

She said she checked out his reputation with the Anti-Defamation League and other groups to “make sure he was not somebody I would be embarrassed by.”

Shapiro said she never leaves the floor when Christian ministers deliver an invocation “in Jesus’ name” and doesn’t consider her presence an endorsement of Christianity.

“I have a great respect for Christianity. I have a great respect for anyone who comes and prays. That’s what this country was based on, its freedom of religion,” she said.

[…]

In a personal privilege speech at the end of the Senate session, Patrick called the Muslim invocation an “extraordinary moment,” coming during Passover and before Easter.

“In many parts of the world, I know that Jews or Christians would not be given that same right, that same freedom,” he said.

“The imam that was here today, he was fortunate to be in this great country.”

I doubt that’s what Jesus would have done. Tolerance and respect would have served him much better but Jesus never ran for office.

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