[Apologetics] FW: Former aide to Miers claims his Christmas message was too Christian for her!

[Dianne Dawson]

I think this report would be more credible if the actual message was repeated in the article, along with samples of previously approved messages.  I have a hard time giving a whole lot of weight to reports like this that come years after the incident and have no verifying witness reports. - Dianne

Art Kelly <akelly at americantarget.com> wrote: Please see the important item, Former aide to Miers claims his Christmas message was too Christian for her, in which Harriet Miers would NOT approve a Christmas message for Bush to sign (that was actually LESS Christian than ones previously signed by President Clinton) because it might offend people of other faiths!
 
Art


 
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The Tipsheet for October 7, 2005

Conservative grassroots groups mobilize for Katrina offsets  
More than 750 national, state, and local organizations are adding their voice to the growing call for spending cuts to offset the cost of hurricane relief to the Gulf States. The Coalition on Human Needs, as the broad alliance calls itself, sent a letter Thursday to all members of the Senate and House urging them to "oppose cuts in Medicaid, Food Stamps, and other vital assistance that would lead to reduced help for low-income people, and to focus instead on policies that will help people move out of poverty." Spurred by conservatives lead by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, Republicans are coalescing behind spending cuts to pay for hurricane damage. In a Rose Garden speech this week, President Bush said federal relief should be accompanied by cuts and that he would work with lawmakers to identify offsets. Conservatives have identified increased Medicaid co-payments, Medicaid block grants, and increased Medicare premiums as potential
 offsets. On Wednesday, House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) suggested an across-the-board 2 percent cut on all discretionary spending.

Pro-life groups say they did not organize against Dreier  
Republican aides across Capitol Hill said they were overwhelmed by phone calls from conservative activists last week following the indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the subsequent leak that Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) would temporarily replace him as majority leader. The callers were protesting Dreier's centrist voting record, particularly his recent vote in favor of a stem-cell measure, as well as his vote against the federal marriage amendment. The rapid flurry of activity prompted a number of staffers to conclude that some of the conservative right-to-life groups had set up phone banks to pressure leadership against the selection. Peter Brandt, a senior policy director of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, vehemently disputed this claim last week. Brandt conceded that Focus founder James Dobson may have spoken with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) during the course of that afternoon, but he said no one in his office could confirm the Dreier
 selection nor did Focus ever reach out to its constituents in an effort to pressure Hastert not to name Dreier. "We did not bring our constituents in," Brandt said, adding, "When Focus weighs in, hopefully folks will know." In fact, Focus did not receive a single email about the presumed selection of Dreier, Brandt said. Similarly, a spokeswoman for American Values President Gary Bauer said her boss did not rally supporters against a Dreier selection. Asked whether Dreier would be an acceptable member of leadership, Brandt said, "He wouldn't be a real favorite of ours."

Former aide to Miers claims his Christmas message was too Christian for her  
Writing for www.christianworldviewnetwork.com, a Christian Evangelical website, a young social conservative expressed his frustration and doubt about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' conservative credentials based on an incident when their paths crossed early on in the Bush administration. Ned Ryun is a 30-something conservative activist who heads Generation Joshua, a group that encourages young, Christian conservatives to get involved in politics. He wrote correspondence for Bush when Meirs served as Bush's staff secretary (the staffer responsible for reviewing the paperwork that presidents review and approve). In 2001, Ryun was assigned to write the President's Christmas message. "After researching Reagan, Bush, and Clinton's previous Christmas messages, I wrote something that was well within the bounds of what had been previously written (and in case you are wondering, Clinton's messages were far more evangelical than the elder Bush's)," he wrote, adding that his immediate
 superiors approved the message. But Miers had a problem with it because "the message might offend people of other faiths, i.e., that the message was too Christian. She wanted me to change it. I refused to change the message (In my poor benighted reasoning, I actually think that Christmas is an overtly Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ and the beginning of the redemption of man.)," Ryun wrote. Ryun said he took his complaint to Ken Mehlman, who is Jewish and served as the political director at the time. "He was not offended by it in the least. Miers insisted that I change the tone of the message. I again refused, and after several weeks, the assignment was taken out of my hands," Ryun wrote. "I was later encouraged to apologize to Miers. I did not apologize." Ryun uses the incident to illustrate why the conservative base is less than thrilled with Mier's nomination. He concludes that, "Some will probably write that incident off as an insignificant, almost
 meaningless, occurrence. And perhaps it is. But Miers purposefully sought to dilute the Christianity of the message, thus revealing to me at least a willingness to compromise unnecessarily without outside pressure. That is my opinion based off that experience and I would be more than happy to be proved wrong."

NAM jumps the gun on Gov. Bush's drilling plan  
Whoops. It seems that the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), one of the capital's most influential trade groups, spoke too soon in congratulating Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) for his endorsement of a House Resources Committee plan to lift moratoriums on gas drilling in portions of the outer continental shelf. NAM President John Engler, who recently agreed to take on a new role as spokesman for the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth, a pro-OCS lobbying coalition, participated in a conference call with reporters during which he referenced Gov. Bush as having toned down historic opposition to drilling off Florida's eastern coast. But, according to a NAM statement, Engler had been misinformed by a Wednesday report in the Orlando Sentinel. "The Governor's office contends that the headline is inaccurate, the article is misleading and the opening paragraph misstates the governor's position on the bill," Bush communications director Alia Faraj wrote in a memo distributed to the
 media. As Gov. Bush worked to reiterate his opposition to mining for oil and gas within 100 miles of the Florida coastline, which could fly in the face of Bush administration efforts to increase offshore coastal drilling, Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.) continued to negotiate with House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) on removing the gas moratoriums provision from the committee's bill.

Gas bill attracts support of electric utilities  
House Republicans Friday will push the Gasoline for America's Future Act, a measure that seeks to expand the nation's oil refining capacity to reduce--though not immediately--prices at the pump. But the measure also has the support of interests outside of oil and gas companies. The Edison Electric Institute, or EEI, for example, has urged its electric-utility member companies to lobby in favor of the bill. The group supports the measure, being pushed by Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), because it would codify an administration rule allowing utilities to conduct significant improvements on plants without installing anti-pollution controls, unless the plant is going to emit more pollution per hour. Critics say the changes - to a section in the Clean Air Act known as New Source Review - will lead to the release of more emissions. "What he's doing would be like raising the speed limit, and then arguing people won't drive faster," says Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Trust.
 But an EEI point paper distributed on Capitol Hill says that emissions will be capped by a variety of rules that "impose far greater controls and reductions than the outdated NSR program." Barton's bill is expected to pass the House, but its future in the Senate is less clear.
  


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