McIlheran's Christian identity politics

Local calumnist Patrick McIlheran grouses that although Obama is apparently more Jesusy than Bush, you don't hear anyone complaining about it. He's found a blog post that says so. "Any talk of church-and-state principles," concludes McIlheran, "is so much poppycock."

But the brute fact is, church-and-state watchdog outfits don't care who's the president, they concern themselves with policy.

Example:

Obama's creation of an "Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Initiatives" is a mistake. Some of the appointees on the council are great, and some are awful. But there shouldn’t be a council at all. We don't see how a presidential advisory group composed of religious leaders (and the vast majority of the council members are) can be squared with the separation of church and state.

And just as troubling, the president has delayed action on overturning the Bush administration's deplorable executive orders allowing publicly funded "faith-based" agencies to discriminate on religious grounds in hiring.

Where is the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's antidote to Patrick McIlheran's ridiculous partisan hackery. Or at least they could provide a legal disclaimer on his efforts: "Parody, not to be taken seriously."*

* See, e.g., Hustler v. Falwell.