Republican Legislators’ Stealth Issues

Great column in Saturday’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle by Reed Eckhardt about Republican hypocrisy on the floor of the Wyoming Legislature.

In his column, Eckhardt posits that some of the most wacked-out of the many wacked-out bills proposed by the Repubs in this session are motivated by a fundamentalist Christianity. He wouldn’t mind so much if these fundies, such as Laramie County’s own Rodney "Pete" Anderson, would only admit that their actions are motivated more by religion than by civic responsibility.

Anderson recently quoted a Biblical verse that condemns gambling. This was in reference to a bill to bring the Powerball lottery to Wyoming. While Anderson drummed up the Bible to make his case, he was less forthcoming in the so-called "women’s right to know" bill, an anti-abortion bill dressed up as health care. This proposal demanded that doctors educate pregnant women on the "realities" of abortion. Says Eckhardt: "The underlying motivation is the belief that abortion is murder – as defined by the Bible – and therefore any and all legislative roadblocks must be thrown up in its way. It’s the same with the bill that would assess a second murder conviction on those who kill a baby in the womb as well as the mother."

The goal of these and similar bills is "to get a wedge into the law, to stake out a legal position that fetuses are unborn children." This is not about "a desire to protect women or even their fetuses but about a drive by Christians to write their beliefs into law."

The odd thing is that Bible-thumping in our Legislature has been pretty minimal over the years. We’ve had the usual stuff, but nothing like the endless litany of fundamantalist posturing you get in Bible Belt states. Wyoming has its live-and-let-live philosophy that is valued by conservatives and liberals alike.

But we also have a lopsided Legislature with a huge Republican majority. Fundie operatives in states with better-balanced lawmaking bodies look at Wyoming and say: "This is a place where we can pass some of these kooky laws and establish precedents to turn back abortion on a national scale." They also know that Wyoming is not known for its aggressive press and those bothersome investigative reporters that like to dig up the real rationale behind bonehead laws.
You’d think that Anderson and other Republicans could glory in their overwhelming majority and their beliefs and just say what they mean. We’re supposed to be the land of straight-shooters, home to free-thinkers like Al Simpson and Dave Fruedenthal. But that’s just not the case.

Fortunately, we do have eagle-eyed columnists like Eckhardt. He concludes his Feb. 10 column with this: "Since Mr. Anderosn and others like him want to play Bible Bingo -- picking verses to buttress their opinions and to hide behind. Let me close with one for them from Matthew 23:27 (New King James):

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness."