In that context, the idea of “who brought it up first” is certainly debatable. The reporter was merely asking questions in response to what the White House said first. Why indeed did they find it necessary to point out that she attends a very conservative Christian church? I think we both know the answer to that one.

For my money, I’m more inclined to say that the President did bring it up first (through subordinates delivering it) and then reaffirmed it here. Is that an intellectually dishonest argument?

Why not check the transcript?

We’ll take a couple of questions. Deirdre.

So our outreach program has been just to explain the facts to people. But, more importantly, Harriet is going to be able to explain the facts to the people when she testifies. And people are going to see why I named her — nominated her to the bench, and she’s going to make a great Supreme Court judge.

So it seems it wasn’t the “first thing” he brough up. It was the first thing the press brought up. But the way the news stories are written, you’d never know that, would you?

“People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “They want to know Harriet Miers’ background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers’ life is her religion.”

Okay, this is the FIRST thing be beings up. Sorry Cal, but that certainly seems like a litmus test to me.

And let’s be honest here, Bush would never pick a Jew if religion is a litmus test, since his Christian religion is such a huge part of his life. The logic certainly follows and it doesn’t seem like a jump at all if indeed religion was part of his decision, which the above quote demonstrates rather clearly.

Strike three for me.

An attempt to smuggle a religious zealot stealth candidate onto the court would be strike three, to me. But I’m not yet convinced that this is what’s happening. Look at Bush’s quote. “Part of Harriet Miers’ life is her religion.â€Â?

That’s a litmus test? Hardly. Religion is a part of every Americans’ life — even the non-religious who yet have to navigate through our religion-saturated society. Everyone here has an attitude toward religion.

As usual I have no idea what Bush really meant, after reading his own jumbled language filtered through a generally hostile media. So I’m still waiting to call strike three.

Justin, how you get “No Jews allowed” out of that quote is utterly beyond me. And how far from the “right” sites I have been seeing “John” has to stray to hear the sound of crickets must be measured in miles, not yards.

I only hear crickets on the right regarding this point. HMMMM.