Faith No More?
No day of rest for the question of how much of Joe Lieberman's faith is too much for Campaign 2000.
Al Gore's running mate for the White House has been criticized for his repeated references to religion on the campaign trail. Last week, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent a letter to Lieberman, a devout Orthodox Jew, asking him to tone down his rhetoric. A spokeswoman for the Connecticut senator said Lieberman has always supported the separation of church and state, but the debate rages on.
On CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday, the ADL's national director Abraham Foxman said such rhetoric excludes "those who don't embrace the Judeo-Christian religion and those who don't accept religion and are atheist."
"At a time where we're a kaleidoscope of religions and faiths and beliefs, to harp on the specifics of these issues is exclusive rather than inclusive," added Foxman, whose group is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism.
Conservative activist Bill Bennett, a former Education Secretary now with the group Empower America, said religion does have a place in public life. Over the years, Bennett and Lieberman have joined forces to condemn what they regard as excessively violent and sexual content made by Hollywood.
"There is a lot of stuff said and put out on the air and in radio and music, which is more damaging than Joe Lieberman's professions of his faith," Bennett told Face The Nation on Sunday. "Our kids are not really being overcome by piety. This is not the major problem some American life right now."
Historian Douglas Brinkley compared Lieberman in 2000 to Jimmy Carter in 1976, when the one-time Georgia governor stressed his "born-again Christian" profile as he sought the White House. Brinkley, who wrote a book on Carter, also cited earlier examples of religion in American politics.
"All we have to do is grab a piece of currency and look at a one dollar bill or five dollar bill and it says 'In God We Trust' in our money," Brinkley told Face The Nation. "If you walk into the Supreme Court, you see behind where the Chief Justice sits on the wall an engraving of Moses and the Ten Commandments. Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural mentioned 'God' 14 times."
Given that long heritage, are Lieberman's professions of piety for real - or are they meant to score points with Southern conservatives and Reagan Democrats in November?
Bennett, who's known Lieberman well for years, said the senator's faith is genuine, but he added a few caveats.
"As natural as that is to him, I think the political calculation is the most natural thing to the Gore campaign," said Bennett. "I'm sure they're seeing how this is playing and saying, 'Stay at it, Joe.' That I object to. That's the cynical use of religion. I would object to it for a Republican or Democrat."
Also, Bennett took issue with a few of Lieberman's recen statements on the campaign trail.
"Joe Lieberman needs to be careful. He said the other day, 'I think "Honor thy father and thy mother" requires prescription drugs.'...My copy of the Commandments doesn't have the fine print that indicates that."
Lieberman's likening of President Clinton to Moses parting the Red Sea did not sit well with Bennett, either.
"The Bible is about a people's moral sense. Moses improved it. I think Bill Clinton helped corrupt it," Bennett said.
Even so, historian Brinkley noted the Gore-Lieberman team could not be in a better position in time for the Labor Day holiday.
"They're 10 percent ahead in the Newsweek poll and here we are on Sunday talking about the morality - (that) there is too much morality in the Gore-Lieberman campaign, instead of a Buddhist Temple scandal or White House coffees."
To that, Bennett had no argument.
"It's even better that I'm here defending Joe Lieberman - and I'm a Republican," he said.
But to the ADL's Foxman, a line has been crossed - and not for the better.
"I think that once you begin preaching from the pulpit of a campaign, you are cheapening religion in that what happens is that, 'Vote for me, because I'm holier than thou. Vote for me, because I embrace God more.'"