As previously noted, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said those who oppose killing embryos are “theocrats.” The next day, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin accused President Bush of being a “moral ayatollah” for vetoing a bill expanding embryonic stem cell research. On the same day, Democratic Representative Diana DeGette tried to convince her colleagues to override the president’s veto by screaming, “we are not a theocracy in this country.” But when Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi invoked God’s name on July 19 to support her position on embryonic stem cell research, no one objected. She declared, “I believe God guided our researchers to discover the stem cell’s power to heal.” No one opposed her reading of a letter supporting her position that was submitted by the Episcopal Church.
The Catholic League wondered what accounted for the silence of those who are normally jittery over God-talk. If someone read a letter from the Catholic bishops opposing embryonic stem cell research, and then had the audacity to imply that God is on his side, wouldn’t there be a media explosion?
Maybe the silence is due to the fact that some Democrats really think that God is on Nancy Pelosi’s side. On February 25, 1999, President Bill Clinton praised Pelosi in a speech he gave in San Francisco, saying, “You just—she doesn’t have to do like those really conservative Republicans who invoke God all the time, she just looks at you and you know God is on her side.”
So God is on Rep. Pelosi’s side, even though the Roman Catholic advocates abortion-on-demand. All that can be forgiven, her supporters say, because she likes to cite Isaiah, as she did last year, when promoting an expansion of the Endangered Species Act (humans have yet to make the cut).
Democrats need to get on the same page when it comes to God talk.
