Sen. Knotts: The devoutly hateful Christian

South Carolina Republican State Sen . Jake Knotts says he could "care less" after the Lexington County GOP where he lives voted 25-7 to censure him for his reference to President Obama and Nikki Haley, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, as unwelcome "ragheads". (Haley is an Indian-American). Knotts' enmity has been fueled by his expressed Christian values and his belief that Haley is getting a "free ride" from the media, telling a reporter: "have you ever asked her if she believes in Jesus Christ as her lord and savior and that he died on the cross for her sins? Have you ever asked that?" No reason to, Jake. But I do I have a question for him or anyone else: How can a so-called devout Christian be so hateful? Hmmm? Anybody?

Jim Duh-Mint, back to the pulpit

While Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is under attack from the conservative Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), accusing him of being a closet gay, Graham's Republican colleague in the Senate, Jim DeMint, shown at right, is busying himself defending the tea party movement as being, blessed be, a "spiritual revival". DeMint, who is known for saying a lot of silly things, (He predicted a year ago that the health care reform bill would fail and would be President Obama's "Waterloo"), now opines that government is failing because it has "turned its back on God." Hear him out:

"I think some have been drawn in over the years to a dependence relationship with government and as the Bible says, you can't have two masters and I think as people pull back that they look more to God. It's no coincidence that socialist Europe is post-Christian because the bigger the government gets the smaller God gets and vice-versa. The bigger God gets the smaller people want their their government because they're yearning for freedom."Apart from the non-sequitur bit about freedom, might somebody remind DeMint that when the French revolted to rid themselves of oppressive royalty to, um, gain their freedom. they also buried religion, too, sending many clerics to the guillotine. It had nothing to do with socialism and much to do about putting food on the table.

But here I go again, preaching secularly to a South Carolina politician. I don't have a chance.