Last week I talked about Senate candidate Ken Blackwell and his gross pandering to the religious right. The result of his extremism has been an anemic response from most voters, even if JC digs him. Today the story is Katherine Harris. As we know, Harris is competing with Joe Lieberman for the worst campaign in the country. I’ve been leaning towards giving the award to Harris, especially since she’s been floundering for much longer than Lieberman, but also for crap like this (via Lindsay):

Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told,” Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is “wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.”

“If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” Harris said. […]

Harris’ campaign released a statement Saturday saying she had been “speaking to a Christian audience, addressing a common misperception that people of faith should not be actively involved in government.”

If Harris thinks that God picks our leaders, she’s going to take her crushing defeat pretty hard.

Facing terrible poll numbers and scorn from her party, Harris is resorting to the old Hail Mary Evangelicals. It’s a pathetic attempt at pandering that will likely fail. At least Blackwell has been courting Ohio evangelicals for years, whereas Harris is grasping at straws. To turn out the religious base, candidates need to do more than make a final appeal; Bush and Blackwell have long standing relationships based on rhetoric and results. Of course, evangelicals do owe Harris a big thank you for the Florida election results that got them two Supreme Court Justices, but that doesn’t mean they’ll back a loser.

So which is worse? The sunrise ad by Lieberman/Isay? or Harris threatening voters with an eternity in Hell if they don’t vote for her?


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