Today Show and Sunday Simulcast

Tune in Monday morning April 25th: I will be on the Today Show some time between 7 and 9 on a roundtable discussing religion and politics, and Senator Frist’s participation in the Justice Sunday simulcast sponsored by the Family Research Council. More details to come — just subscribe (on the left sidebar) for easy email notification. . .

UPDATE: Canceled! Seems I got trumped by Tony Perkins, Family Research Council’s President, himself. Though, if you have to get bumped, being replaced by the organizer of the event, is not so bad.

When they get a video of the show up, I’ll post a link.

We did go to a local church last night to watch the simulcast. It was a small church, Living Hope, only founded a year ago, but both ABC News and the Toronto Star were there covering the event. The Star quotes me in their article about the simulcast.

It was interesting to watch the simulcast here in an ultra-blue state. Thirty-two people (not counting children) filled the small church, and they were clearly engaged and energized, clapping throughout the event. When Dr. Dobson quoted Lord Acton’s aphorism on power, beginning: “Power corrupts. . ” several people around us completed the quote, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Well-informed voters — and Tony Perkins knows how to work a pumped-up crowd. He had everyone pull out their cell phones, hold them up, and enter in the Capitol switchboard number on the spot.

It will be a bad day on the Hill today for people whose job involves manning the phones.

The Dude sat through the whole event with us, attentive and curious. He kept bugging me to make sure I had the numbers we needed to call. He was particularly troubled when one of the speakers mentioned the total number of abortions since 1973. Startled, he looked up at me, then reached for a piece of paper and wrote: “44 million dead souls just from abortion.”

Al Franken was signing people up for the simulcast, saying that it was a big event. I thought as I watched the event that, indeed, the broadcast was going to drive people like Franken right over the edge. He says he’ll be talking about the simulcast today, and I’m guessing it won’t be pretty. . .

And speaking of being unhinged. . . if you haven’t seen the ad that People for the American Way is running, you can find it here. For some reason that escapes me, they are re-running an old ad from 25 years ago. I guess they are wanting to communicate that an “old threat” has returned, but when I first saw the ad running yesterday during Meet the Press, I missed the fact that it was an ad resurrected from the archives. I just thought it was weirdly over-the-top, even for PFAW.

I’d better go: the Dude just walked in to tell me that he wants to call Capitol Hill. . .

UPDATE: The Capitol Switchboard operator said she was a little busy this morning. Then the Dude called our Senator directly. Couldn’t get through. . .