Free Republic

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two. To assert that I am on God's side and you are not, that I know God's will and you do not, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God's kingdom is certain to produce hostility. By contrast, moderate Christians see ourselves, literally, as moderators....

MEMO TO FORMER SENATOR JACK DANFORTH: When I joined the Young Republicans in the late 1950s, the senior party was controlled by the Country Clubbers. I came from the wrong side of the tracks. My family lived on the South side of Racine, Wisconsin, where Republicans were an almost non-existent commodity. In the precinct where my parents voted there were regularly six Republican votes cast. Two of those were from my mother and father. My father, a German immigrant to this country, as a first-time voter and a United States citizen, supported Democratic nominee Al Smith. He admitted to shedding...

WASHINGTON - By adopting religious views as political doctrine and legislation, the Republican Party is leading the country on a dangerous path that could trample the Constitution and lead to bitter division, says former Sen. John C. Danforth, a GOP stalwart. The political success Republicans have had in harnessing the energy of Christian conservatives doesn't justify the GOP becoming their voice, Danforth said in an interview Wednesday. "It becomes extraordinarily divisive and legislatures get themselves entangled with writing religious documents into legislative form," Danforth said. "It's exactly what the Constitution says we can't do and it's exactly what we can't...

I talked about Christophobia in my book "Persecution," written almost two years ago, so I hope no one accuses me of stealing the term. But it is rearing its head again in light of the Schiavo case. It makes a lot of people, including some Christians, even Republican Christians, when Christians join together to influence current events or politics. Today, former Missouri Senator and friend of the family, John Danforth, published an op-ed in the New York Times lamenting the increasing Christianization of the Republican Party -- my paraphrase. Danforth's column begins: By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have...

THE TERRI SCHIAVO TRAGEDY has been seized on by long-time critics of the "religious right" to launch attack after attack on the legitimacy of political action on the basis of religious belief. This attack has ignored the inconvenient participation in the debate--on the side of resuming water and nutrition for Terri Schiavo--of the spectacularly not-the-religious-rightness of Tom Harkin, Nat Hentoff, Jesse Jackson, and a coalition of disability advocacy groups. The attack has also been hysterical. After Congress acted--ineffectively, it turned out--Maureen Dowd proclaimed that "theocracy" had arrived in the land. Paul Krugman warned that assassination of liberals by extremists was...

DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru] Here's what the man writes in today's Times: "During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We [Republicans] believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive." MORE DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru] Danforth was, as he notes, a reliable anti-abortion vote during his time in the Senate (although he came out in support of funding research on tissues taken from aborted fetuses toward the end of his...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR St. Louis — BY a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube. Standing alone, each of these initiatives has its advocates, within the Republican Party and beyond. But the distinct elements do not stand alone. Rather they are parts of a larger package, an...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said Thursday that criticism of the United Nations shouldn't detract from the organization's importance to the United States and to the world. In a moving farewell speech to the Security Council, Danforth said that during his six month stint as U.S. envoy he came to believe that the United Nations is "even more important than I thought it was when I came here." The 68-year-old former Republican senator from Missouri announced in early December that he would resign on Jan. 20 at the end of President Bush's first term. He said he...

Annan calls for rethink on Darfur, admitting that UN stance is failing EDITH LEDERER KOFI Annan yesterday called on the United Nations Security Council to reassess urgently its efforts to end the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region, saying the current approach is not working. The call came a day after the British charity group Save the Children announced it was pulling out of the ravaged region after four of its workers were killed and two others raped in Darfur in the space of two months. Both Mr Annan, the UN secretary general, and the Security Council have expressed deep...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Bush administration has confidence in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and is not calling for his resignation, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said on Thursday. Several Republican congressmen have called for Annan's resignation, accusing him of presiding over corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, administered by the United Nations but supervised by the 15-nation Security Council. But Danforth said he was representing the opinion of the White House and the State Department in supporting Annan. "We are expressing confidence in the secretary-general and his continuing in office," Danforth told reporters. "No one to my knowledge...

Plop in the middle of the entangled, entangling, impossible mess of the United Nations, where Kofi Annan ego attempts achingly to overswell diurnal scandals (this morning's -- "Swiss Firm Suspected of Fraud/Paid U.N. Chief's Son $50,000"), enters John C. Danforth. This resolute human being, who only four months ago became U.S ambassador to the United Nations, announced that he was quitting. Why? And why at this time? Because, he said, he wants to be home. He needs to spend more time with his wife, Sally. "Forty-seven years ago," Mr. Danforth wrote to the president, "I married the girl of my...

Did anyone see Jerry Falwell on Hardball tonight?

REUTERS Filed at 6:36 p.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has resigned after less than six months in the job, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, wanted to give President Bush a chance to move in a different direction now that a new team was coming in following Bush's re-election on Nov. 2, U.S. sources said. Some former colleagues noted that Danforth, a moderate in a conservative administration, had expressed frustration in recent speeches in his home state about not being more of...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites)'s ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites) defended the world body on Wednesday, after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) said the United States, not the U.N., was best for democracy. Schwarzenegger electrified the Republican National Convention on Tuesday evening with a speech blending quips from his movie-star past with somber stories about his immigrant struggles. At one point, seeking to define the beliefs of his political party, he stated, "If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope for democracy, then...

A video purporting to show an American being beheaded in Iraq has been posted on a militant Islamic website.      The hostage said he was from San Francisco and urged American troops to leave Iraq, it is reported.The al Qaeda-linked group led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the killing.    The man named himself as Benjamin Ford on the video.   "My name is Benjamin Ford. I am from San Francisco, California," he says, dressed in a plain beige T-shirt as he sat on a chair.   "We need to leave this country right now. If we don't, everyone is gonna be killed...

I am sorry for the vanity, but I hope that by posting it on a Friday night that I do as little damage to the forum as possible. There was an amazingly beautiful hymn performed at Reagan's State Funeral that I can't get out of my head, one that I wish to add to my personal collection. It is a marvelous performance that culminates with the grand organ adding itself to the youth choir that opened the hymn, adding depth and weight to the life they were celebrating. Can anyone in freeperdom help me identify it, and possibly point me...

Today in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, President Bush attended the swearing in ceremony of the new representative of the United States to the United Nations, Senator John Danforth. Later in the East Room of the White House, he addressed those attending a reception commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights bill into law in 1964. Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island on the Daily Dose!

NEW YORK, June 29 (JTA) — One of the most pro-Israel U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations might seem like a tough act to follow, at least to supporters of the Jewish state. But U.S. Jewish officials are lauding John Danforth, an attorney, Episcopal priest and former Republican senator from Missouri, who will be sworn in Thursday to succeed John Negroponte. Praised for his integrity, focus on human and civil rights, and friendship for Israel, Danforth is expected to stand up for the Jewish state — and the moral calling of the United Nations. A June 16 cartoon in the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Like the rest of us, former Missouri Republican Senator, UN Ambassador-designate, and Episcopal Minister John Danforth has the right to think and say anything he wants. And the funeral of a political leader inevitably has political elements and implications. But you would think that a man of God like the Rev. Danforth would have the decency to resist the kind of cheap and misleading stunt he pulled while officiating at former President Reagan's memorial service. In his homily to Reagan, Danforth correctly noted that the former President's vision held "policy implications."...

ROME (AP) - President Bush said Friday he had chosen former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If confirmed by the Senate, Danforth, a Republican who is a popular figure among both Republicans and Democrats, would succeed the current ambassador, John Negroponte, Bush's choice to be ambassador to Iraq. Since 2001, Danforth has been Bush's special envoy to war-torn Sudan. He served in the Senate for 18 years. Bush made the announcement in a statement released while he was in Rome on a three-day European trip during which the U.N.'s role in post-occupation...