Q&A

Q: Just how far right are the Republican presidential candidates this election?

A: Karl Rove has become a voice of measured reason in his party, despite being as solidly a horrifying epic garbage nightmare as ever.

Barack Obama, when he ran for president in 2008, wrote a book, and, in that book, he first of all attributed to me a comment that I've never made, which was that we are "a Christian nation." I find that remark offensive: We are based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, we derive a lot from it, but if you say we're a Christian nation, what about the Jews, what about the Muslims, what about the non-believers? I mean, one of the great things about our country is the First Amendment guarantees you the right to believe or not to believe, as you choose.

Note, of course, that Rove is only "offended" by this idea when he can use that offense to criticize President Obama, and not when, for example, he's conceiving a Federal Marriage Amendment that seeks to codify religious beliefs that are not shared by large swaths of the population.

Rove is a colossal hypocrite—but my point is not that he's got a modicum of integrity (he doesn't); my point is that none of the Republican candidates, save for possibly Jon Huntsman, would get caught dead making any kind of argument that could be mistaken for a tolerance of atheists, or non-Christians of any stripe.

My point is that the collection of bozos running for the GOP nomination make KARL FUCKING ROVE, the architect of Bush Conservatism, look liberal.