On Thursday of this week Mr. DeMint decided to throw a fit on the floor of The Senate in an effort to remove language from the stimulus bill that he referred to as "hostile to religion". Mr. DeMint is an idiot, but more on why later.

When I initially set out to write this piece the plan was to focus my anger on one particular Senator, Republican Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

First, there are a few other members of the Senate who need to be called out for their irresponsible and moronic actions, they actually supported DeMint's uninformed attempt to amend the stimulus package for purely political reasons with a complete disregard for the American public.

At the top of the list is the all-time worst senator ever - Joe Lieberman. Right behind the Jerk Extraordinaire are the two worst Democratic Senators currently serving in Washington, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana - both of whom we've ripped into in the past here at The Stonecipher Report. Glad to see those two keeping up the good work.

In addition to those three, we may have to add two more Democratic Senators to the short list of Republicans in disguise, both are from North Dakota - Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan. They both voted for DeMint's amendment and therefore have alerted the people of North Dakota that they care far more about public perception and cheap political tactics than they care about the actual welfare of their constituents.

Then of course there are the 37 other GOP senators who followed DeMint's lead, but that was to be expected. These are the remaining members of The Senate who believe that the past eight years have been just great.

Normally, I would cite what exactly my opposition to any legislation was before ripping into those who supported it, but that would cause most readers to become preoccupied with the issue and not the names involved as they continued to read. In this case it is important to make sure that no one forgets which senators supported the moronic DeMint amendment - Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad and a bunch of Republican Senators.

Well, with that ugliness out of the way, it's time for more ugliness: the idiocy behind the DeMint Amendment introduced on Wednesday.

Basically it all began with Pat Robertson (I know, shocking). His right-wing, non-profit law firm, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) released a statement claiming that the Democrats had slipped anti-religious and even anti-Christian language into the stimulus package bill.

To make a long story short, there is a provision in the bill that would prohibit Universities that receive stimulus money from using that money to build anything that would primarily be used as a religious facility, like a chapel...or a mosque. This is standard legislation, which has been a part of many Congressional bills for the past four decades. In fact, in 1971 the Supreme Court OKed it. This is not radical or controversial language, it is nothing more than a routine and simple guarantee that our tax dollars are not spent on the next Baha'i temple. Ya know, that separation of church and state thing.

Here's the specific bit of language that is causing a stir:

No funds awarded under this section may be used for... modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities (i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity; or (ii) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.

Absolutely nothing in the above statement says that religious universities are ineligible for stimulus funds as many on the Right are claiming. And not a word of the above language implies that Bible study or prayer will be banned by any institution that accepts stimulus money as Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ said.

The scope of the right-wing outcry about this is incredible. A Google search for anti-religious stimulus returns literally millions of results with titles like "Democrats even hide anti-religion "legislation" in their so-called stimulus", "Stimulus Bill Includes Hidden Anti-Christian Bigotry Section" or "Conservative Groups Lose Battle on Religious Discrimination".

Reading all of this would lead one to believe that the Democrats' sole mission was to destroy religion, but of course, as with most right-wing hysteria, a mountain is being made out of a molehill. Or, more accurately in this case, a mountain is magically being crafted out of thin air.

None of this would be all that bad (or surprising) if it was simply a bunch of right-wing nuts on the lunatic fringe running around and hyperventilating about it. Actually, that would be pretty standard, but now that this language has come dangerously close to being removed from one of the most important bills passed in the past decade, and now that the semi-mainstream media like FOX News is making an effort to link this language to some sort of secret, dark, anti-freedom of religion plan being slipped in by Barack Obama and the Democrats, it is time to shine the spotlight on these people.

If the 43 Senators who voted in favor of the DeMint Amendment actually understood what they voted for then our government is constantly teetering, just seven Senate votes away, on the edge of the abyss of complete and utter insanity. On the other hand, if these jokers did not understand what they voted for, and simply saw something that looked good politically and said "OK" to it without figuring out what they were actually agreeing to, then they should all be removed from Congress immediately.

The actions of these 43 senators are reprehensible, and we should all take note of who they were. So once again, in case you don't remember who voted for Jim DeMint's idiotic amendment yesterday, it was Joe Lieberman (I - CT), Ben Nelson (D - NE), Evan Bayh (D - IN), Byron Dorgan (D - ND), Kent Conrad (D - ND) and the following 37 Republicans:

Alexander (R-TN)

Barrasso (R-WY)

Bennett (R-UT)

Bond (R-MO)

Brownback (R-KS)

Bunning (R-KY)

Burr (R-NC)

Chambliss (R-GA)

Coburn (R-OK)

Cochran (R-MS)

Corker (R-TN)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Crapo (R-ID)

DeMint (R-SC)

Ensign (R-NV)

Enzi (R-WY)

Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA)

Hatch (R-UT)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Isakson (R-GA)

Johanns (R-NE)

Kyl (R-AZ)

Lugar (R-IN)

Martinez (R-FL)

McCain (R-AZ)

McConnell (R-KY)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Risch (R-ID)

Roberts (R-KS)

Sessions (R-AL)

Shelby (R-AL)

Specter (R-PA)

Thune (R-SD)

Vitter (R-LA)

Voinovich (R-OH)

Wicker (R-MS)





Other source used for this article:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/02/04/stimulus_religion/?source=refresh

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/aclj-demands-non-existent-threat-be-stripped-stimulus-bill

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00047

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_02/016776.php