Newt's at it again

Everyone's favorite serial adulterer and disgraced hypocrite Newt Gingrich is at it again, stirring up the wingnut know-nothings in this interview with Dan Gilgoff at USN&WR:

"In the last few years I've decided that we're in a crisis in which the secular state, if allowed, will fundamentally and radically change America against the wishes of most Americans," Gingrich said in a phone interview on Thursday. "You've had such rising hostility to religious belief that I wanted to reach broadly into the country and dramatically raise public awareness of threats to religious liberty."

If you really care about religious liberty, Newt, why aren't you supporting the ACLU? They're doing the work of protecting religious rights as expressed in the First Amendment. (Of course, those who want special privilege to ignore the establishment clause will not consider the ACLU an ally--but that highlights their own hypocrisy.)

Rob Boston gives Gingrich a good flaying, mentioning Newt's ethical problems, his adultery ("Newt's so pro-marriage he's had three of them!"), and concluding that:

In light of all of this, I'm really looking forward to hearing Gingrich, backed by his pals in the Religious Right, sternly lecturing the rest of us on morality and ethics.

Ron Chusid notes at Liberal Values that "You cannot claim to be the party of small government and simultaneously support using the power of the state to impose religious views upon others," but it's Melissa McEwan who really lays into Newt's persecution complex with my Quote of the Day:

We've got a Christian president who's just as Christiany (even if it's a different flavor) as the last guy, who had an almost unanimously Christian administration which relentlessly pandered to conservative Christians, including nominating three openly Christian justices to the Supreme Court (two of whom made it to the bench), an almost entirely Christian Congress who start each session with a prayer, guaranteed freedom of religion, money that says "In God We Trust," a pledge of allegiance that describes us as "one nation under God," television networks who will accept advertising from conservative religious groups but not liberal political groups, schools who are incorporating a religious belief into science classes, gays being denied marriage in order to protect its "sanctity," conscience clauses for pharmacists and healthcare providers, religion-based residential communities being built, Museums of Creationism springing up, laws still on the books that respect Christians' holy day (like in Indiana, where you still can't shop for a car or buy booze on a Sunday), churches not required to pay taxes, Christmas recognized as a national holiday, and on and on and on.

Anyone who looks at the American landscape and sees "threats to religious liberty" is fucking delusional.

Fuck OFF, Gingrich--and take your manufactured martyr complex with you.