Teresa H. Kerry tells reporter to "shove it."

Did you write that opinion, Just, or did someone else?

Either way, that's about as nasty a smear as I have seen yet.

Congratulations. A new low.

Just! Here's a handy quote for occasions when selective perception rears it's lovely head: When a pickpocket sees a saint,all he sees is pockets.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Just imagine having Edwards but one heartbeat away from the President of the United States of America.

But forgive me if I find it hard to believe that God would carry on a conversation with a lieing, two faced politicion who failed at every business he tried.

Presidential wannabe John Kerry, in his acceptance speech, threw a bone to the religious right with a line something like (paraphrased), 'we should not be concerned about whether God is on our side but rather commit ourselves to being on God's side."

I want to say this to you tonight: I don't wear my own faith on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday. I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side. And whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all: The measure of our character is our willingness to give of ourselves for others and for our country.

Now if Senator Kerry and God don't have a conversation about that, I wonder how Kerry will know what God's side is?

So the bottom line here: Rabel and Revel give John Kerry and John Edwards all the benefit of the doubt that 'they didn't really mean it' with their analogies re what God wanted or what God's side is [..]

What would Lincoln have said about Bush's appeals to religious conservatives? Implicit in these appeals seems to be the notion that if you really believe in God, you'll vote Republican.

Lincoln spoke constantly of the Bible. He referred to God as the creator, but he really spoke more like the Declaration of Independence than does Bush. The Declaration of Independence never says God. It says "nature's God." He spoke of a kind of natural law that does not depend on a deity specifically or on a deity with a personality. He relies only on intelligence, not on revelation or faith. So I see differences. President Bush is a man of faith -- he says he is, and I'm sure he is. Lincoln was not a man of faith in the sense that he would accept something on faith that could not be proven intellectually. He wouldn't, for example, say, "Life beings at conception because I believe life begins at conception." He would never say that.

So do you think Lincoln would have supported embryonic stem cell research? Bush has refused to because it involves the destruction of human embryos.

I think Lincoln would have asked, "Who says when life has begun?" Confronted with the stem cell situation, he would not establish a rule on the basis of a proposition that hasn't been proved by science. When does life begin? It's not established in the Constitution or by science. And Lincoln would have said, "As long as it's not established this way, I cannot use this as the starting point of my reason" -- which is what President Bush does.

But does that mean Lincoln wasn't religious? Then as now, I have a hard time imagining America electing a president who claims to have no belief in God.

A congressman once asked him, "Mr. President, you talk about the Bible a great deal. Do you belong to any particular religion?" Lincoln said "No." The congressman countered, "Mr. President, you purchased a pew at the Baptist church." And Lincoln said, "Yes, but only my wife uses it." And the congressman said, "Why, then, are you not a member of any specific religion?" And Lincoln said, "Because they all appear to have prohibitions, admonitions and proffered truths which cannot be established as a matter of intellect or natural law, which is reason -- simple reason -- unattended by revelation of faith. Most of them insist that you believe in certain things not because you can prove absolutely that they are so, but because you want to believe in them." Then he said, "Give me a church or a religion that has one principle: Love one another as you love yourself, and I will belong to that church."

It must have been easy for his political opponents to attack him, even though it appears Lincoln hewed closely to the spirit of the First Amendment's establishment clause against state-sponsored religion.

He honored all religions. When people said he was an enemy of religion, he became very angry. He said that wasn't true. He just did not discriminate. He was the first president to appoint religious chaplains in the military, for example. He was especially good to Jewish chaplains. A lot of people think Abraham Lincoln was religious because he spent so much time quoting the Bible. And yes, it was politically fashionable to quote the Bible. But when you asked him about his being religious, he told you the truth. He belonged to no specific religious group.

I listen to all his speeches that I can, and I can't recall a single instance referencing God or religion or faith that I thought any way unusual or any different from that used by Kerry or Clinton or Bush the first, or Reagan, or Carter, or any previous president.

So start looking people. See if you can find a direct quote from any credible source--not paraphrased or insinuated but a direct quote--that makes GWB look any more like a religious nut than Kerry or Clinton or any other presidential candidate or president. I already have and couldn't find anything. Maybe you all will do better.

What you will find are liberal Bush-bashers who know some of you will believe anything bad about him and they keep feeding this malarky to you whether it has any basis in fact or not.

Dr. RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention: Among the things he said to us was, "I believe that God wants me to be president."

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We need commonsense judges who understand that our rights were derived from God. And those are the kind of judges I intend to put on the bench.

NARRATOR: In the last year, in recess appointments, Bush has pushed through two federal judges, Charles Pickering and William Pryor, both outspoken religious conservatives.

MODERATOR: Governor Bush, a philosopher/thinker. And why.

Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), Texas: Christ, because he changed my heart.
MODERATOR: I think the viewer would like to know more on how he's changed your heart.

Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, if they don't know, it's going to be hard to explain. When you turn your heart and life over to Christ, when you accept Christ as a savior, it changes your heart and changes your life. And that's what happened to me.

Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: There came a point in my life when I felt something was missing on the inside. By chance -- maybe it was more than chance -- one day, I spent a weekend with the great Billy Graham.

Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: And my relationship with God through Christ gives me meaning and direction.

Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Governments cannot make people love one another. It's been the great false hope of the past. All you got to do is pass a law, and people will love one another. But love comes from a higher calling, a higher authority. The great strength of America lies in the hearts and souls of citizens who've heard that call, not in the halls of government--

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: When we see social needs in America, my administration will look first to faith-based programs and community groups.

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I asked Congress to join me and pass what I called the faith-based initiative, which would help change the culture of Washington and the behavior of bureaucracies. They've stalled. So I just signed an executive order.

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Government oftentimes will say, "Yeah, you can participate, but you've got to change your board of directors to meet our qualifications." You know, "You got to conform to our rules." The problem is, faith-based programs only conform to one set of rules, and it's bigger than government rules.

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: The handbook of this particular child care is a universal handbook. It's been around for a long time. It doesn't need to be invented. It's a-- let me see your handbook there. This handbook is a good book. It's a good go-by.

Rev. C. WELTON GADDY: The Bible, guidebook for public policy? Now, President Bush is the chief executive officer of this nation, pledged to defend the Constitution. He was speaking as a religious leader, not worried about the constitutional implications of that rhetoric.

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We will rid the world of the evildoers. We've never seen this kind of evil before. But the evildoers have never seen the American people in action before, either, and they're about to find out. Thank you all very much

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.