Column/Legend
1 - Prefix  - L-Life,  H-Homosexual Behavior/Perversion, R-Religion/Legal Persecution/ACLU, E-Education, M-Media Bias, O-Other
2-7 - Yr, Mo, Dy
8 - L -Letter to Editor, C-Commentary, O-Op-Ed, M-Metro

Hotlink Index of this weeks's family values related news:  [Supreme Court Battle]   [Life]   [Homosexual Behavior/Perversion]   [Religion/Religious Persecution]   [Education]   [Media]   [Other]

SUPREME COURT BATTLE
S060104        Anti-Alito push fails to sway U.S.
S060105        ABA rates Alito as 'well-qualified'

LIFE
 

HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR/PERVERSION
H060104       Massachusetts sued on marriage petition

RELIGION/RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
R060102       Bible's history explored
R060104L     In the beginning...

EDUCATION
E060104       Teacher donations
E060105E     Abramoff and Congress
E060105E     Queries for the 'queering' of academe
E060106       Florida court finds vouchers illegal

MEDIA
M060104      Abramoff fallout far-reaching?
M060104      Abramoff pleads guilty
M060104      Black Republicans
M060104L   Wake up, Hollywood
M060105      Abramoff admits to boats scheme
M060105      Senate Democrats also 'ensnared' in scandal
M060106      2 TV stations refuse to air 'The Book of Daniel' series
M060106      Keeping the money
M060106E    Looking for virtue in a wrong place

OTHER
O060103C     Is psychology in denial?
O060104       Swingers stun soccer moms, dads
O060104Va  GOP keeps Senate seat; Democrat wins for House
O060106       Government urged to end abstinence-only education
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O060106   Government urged to end abstinence-only education

By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 6, 2006

Abstinence-only education is a flawed policy that should be abandoned, a trade association for teen health providers says in a paper published this week.
    "Although abstinence is often presented as the moral choice for teenagers, the current federal approach to abstinence-only funding raises serious ethical and human rights concerns," the Society for Adolescent Medicine said in its Journal of Adolescent Health.
    People have a "basic human right" to complete sexual health information, the paper said.
    However, it said, abstinence-only programs don't teach teens about contraception and they discriminate against homosexual youth by teaching them that sex should be saved until marriage.
    Abstinence-only programs "should be abandoned" and its funding reassigned to programs that offer "comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education," concluded the paper, which was endorsed by the American College Health Association.
    Leslee Unruh, president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., scoffed at the paper as "the same-old, same-old."
    "All the data is there: If you abstain from sex until marriage, you're going to have better outcomes in life" physically, emotionally and financially, Mrs. Unruh said.
    What's "ludicrous," she added, is thinking that teenagers can have responsible sex.
    Even if they don't get pregnant or get a disease, it's not going to be good for them emotionally or help them achieve better outcomes in life, she said.
    President Bush supports abstinence education, and funding for the approach has more than doubled during his administration. Federal funding for abstinence education in fiscal 2006 is expected to increase again, albeit modestly, to $177 million.
    However, the Society for Adolescent Medicine and other health trade groups are dismayed by the federal government's abstinence education approach, primarily because of its strict eight-point definition.
    With abstinence-only education, "the problem is not the 'abstinence', the problem is the 'only,' " said Dr. John Santelli, a health professional at Columbia University and lead author of the paper.
    The eight-point definition, created by Congress in the 1996 welfare law, dictates that abstinence education must teach abstinence as the "expected standard" for all school-age children and monogamous marriage as the "expected standard of human sexual activity."
    The rules are so strict that federal abstinence grantees cannot teach about "safer sex," even with their own nonfederal funds, Dr. Santelli and his colleagues wrote.
    Sexual abstinence is a healthy choice for teens, they wrote, but "few Americans remain abstinent until marriage" and abstinence-only education doesn't offer much to sexually active or homosexual teens. Making abstinence-only messages the sole option for teens is "flawed from scientific and medical ethics viewpoints."
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M060106   2 TV stations refuse to air 'The Book of Daniel' series

January 6, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two television stations are refusing to broadcast a new NBC series about an Episcopal priest who abuses painkillers and has a homosexual son, a promiscuous straight son, a daughter who deals marijuana and a wife who drinks too much.
    Conservative Christian groups call the depiction of Jesus blasphemous, accusing the writers of portraying Christ as tolerant of sin in talks with the priest.
    "I don't think NBC would have portrayed a Muslim cleric or a Buddhist monk, the Dalai Lama, in a show this way. Why? Because they know to do so would be mean-spirited and insensitive," Bob Waliszewski, of Focus on the Family's teen ministries.
    NBC affiliates KARK in Little Rock, Ark., and WTWO in Terre Haute, Ind., said sensitivity to viewers led them not to air "The Book of Daniel," which debuts tonight. In Little Rock, the WB affiliate has arranged to show the drama instead.
    "If my action causes people in our community to pay more attention to what they watch on television, I have accomplished my mission," Duane Lammers, WTWO's general manager, said on his station's Web site.
    The series stars Aidan Quinn as the Rev. Daniel Webster, who discusses his many troubles in regular chats with a robe-wearing, bearded Jesus. The American Family Association, in Tupelo, Miss., and Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs group led by James Dobson, are asking supporters to lobby their local NBC affiliates to drop the show.
    NBC said yesterday, "We're confident that once audiences view this quality drama themselves, they'll appreciate this thought-provoking examination of one American family."
    But the American Family Association said the series was another sign of NBC's "anti-Christian bigotry." Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, an anti-defamation group, called the series the "work of an embittered ex-Catholic homosexual."
    The show's creator and executive producer, Jack Kenny, said he drew on the emotionally guarded family of his male partner. He said his goal was to depict how "humor and grace" help a flawed man struggle with his faith and family. He said the writers never meant to mock religion or Jesus.
    James Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said a California Episcopal church is advising the series and that he has read scripts for eight episodes.
    He called the show "a tremendous opportunity for evangelism for Episcopalians." The Washington Diocese has started a Web log for comments on the show and to invite discussion.
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E060106   Florida court finds vouchers illegal

January 6, 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Supreme Court struck down a voucher system that allowed some children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense, saying yesterday that it violates the state constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public schools.
    The 5-2 opinion struck down the Opportunity Scholarship Program, championed by Gov. Jeb Bush, which was the nation's first statewide system of school vouchers.
    Voucher opponents argued that the program unconstitutionally diverted money from public to private schools, and that it violated the separation of church and state.
    Under the 1999 law, students at public schools that earn a failing grade from the state in two out of four years were eligible for vouchers to attend private schools.
    Judges had allowed the state to continue the program while the case was on appeal, and about 700 children are attending private or parochial schools through the program.
    About 24,000 more attend such schools under more recently created programs, including one for children with disabilities. Yesterday's ruling did not directly affect those programs but could eventually be cited as a precedent.
    Chief Justice Barbara Pariente, writing for the majority of the court, said the Opportunity Scholarship Program "diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools," which are the sole means set out in the state constitution for educating Florida children.
    Private schools also are not uniform when compared with each other or the public system, and are exempt from many standards imposed by law on public schools, such as mandatory testing, she added.
    The 1st District Court of Appeal had ruled that the system violated the separation of church and state in the Florida Constitution, but the state Supreme Court did not address that issue.
    At a hearing last June, Barry Richard, representing the state, told the court that lawmakers have the "quintessential power" to spend state money as they see fit, including spending it on private school vouchers.
    The U.S. Department of Justice was among those filing friend-of-the-court briefs in support the state. Supporters of voucher opponents included the Florida Education Association, the Florida PTA, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the League of Women Voters.
    Two more recent voucher programs dwarf the "opportunity scholarships." Nearly 14,000 students attend private schools on state-funded McKay scholarships, which was created for children with disabilities. An additional 10,000 poor children attend private schools on scholarships funded by businesses that get tax credits from the state.
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M060106E   Looking for virtue in a wrong place

January 6, 2006

Jack Abramoff hasn't done much for the rest of us lately, but he has restored our faith in the wisdom of Mark Twain, who described Congress as "our only native criminal class."
    The pooper-scoopers among us are mostly Republicans, but not all. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota took $79,300, the righteous Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa scooped up $45,750, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan got only petty cash ($6,250). Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada ($68,941), the role model for Senate Democrats, and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington ($41,000), unlike most of their colleagues, aren't even going to give the tainted money back, either to Mr. Abramoff himself or to one of the Indian tribes through whom the contributions were conveniently laundered.
    They're entitled to keep the cash because, not being Republicans, they think they haven't done anything wrong. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island ($42,000) will keep it, too, not wanting to make Indian givers of Jack and his tribal friends. Besides, when you're a Kennedy, isn't that proof enough that you're a saint?
    These Democrats take their inspiration from the governor that Huey P. Long left in charge of Louisiana when he came to Washington to take his seat in the Senate. "I seen my opportunities," the convict governor said as he departed for his fitting by the prison tailor, "and I took 'em."
    Like panicked Republicans, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, among other Democrats, hurried out to find an orphanage, a home for unwed mothers, anything respectable to take the hot money off their hands. Nevertheless, this is first and last a Republican scandal, not least because Jack Abramoff and associates (who include several well-known Washington lobbyist names) lavished cash and junkets on congressmen who count, and since 1994, when they took back the Congress, that meant Republicans. Even more to the point, the 1994 tsunami was about repealing the widely and correctly held perception that "Congress" was a synonym for "corruption." The Republicans told us they came to town via the high road and weren't like Democrats. A new day was dawning over the Potomac. No more Mr. Bad Guy.
    Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House who was the architect of the Contract With America that enabled the Republicans to pick up an astonishing 54 seats in the House in 1994, warns his old friends and former colleagues that now they risk losing everything in November if they try to pin blame on the Democrats.
    "You can't have a corrupt lobbyist unless you have a corrupt member of Congress," Mr. Gingrich told Rotarians in Washington in the wake of the proceedings that made Mr. Abramoff a capital pariah. If the party's congressional leaders, Bill Frist in the Senate and Dennis Hastert in the House, try to turn the scandal into a festival of mere lobbyist bashing, they will pay a high price. Everybody already knows a lobbyist is undesirable (except after dark).
    "If they intend to retain a majority," he said, elaborating, "then they need to take the lead in saying to the country that we need to clean this mess up. But any effort to push this under the rug, to say this is just one bad apple, that's baloney."
    Apples and baloney make a particularly unappetizing pie, and only the terminally naive imagined in 1994 that the Republican sweep would write finis to scandal, and any reasonably observant citizen has seen this scandal coming. Once in power, the Republicans set about to get their share of plunder that had been a Democratic preserve for so long. Resolve and discipline evaporated. Restraint gave way to greed. Big government and insensate spending, which were high crimes and misdemeanors when the Democrats did it, suddenly became Republican virtues. Power corrupts, in Lord Acton's famous formulation, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Lord Acton had never even met these worthies. If you don't believe Jack Abramoff, you could ask Duke Cunningham.
    "Ethics" is suddenly the congressional mantra, though looking for an ethic in Congress is as foolish as looking for a virgin in a bordello. Mr. Frist says he intends to put "ethics" on the Senate agenda this year and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says "ethics" will be an "element" in their drive to win back the House. This may be the best we can do. H.L. Mencken warned of expecting too much when three wolves and two sheep discuss what's for lunch.
 
    Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.
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M060106   Keeping the money
    Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, citing his support for American Indian causes, says he has no plans to return any of the $42,500 he took from tribes represented by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
    "He's proud to have their support," Kennedy chief of staff Sean Richardson said Wednesday. "He has got direct personal relationships with tribes. ... He looks at it as a human and civil rights issue, the fact that they're still not treated with the dignity and respect they deserve."
    The Rhode Island Democrat was the top congressional Democratic recipient of Abramoff-linked funds, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign watchdog group that analyzed contributions from 1999 to 2005. He was eighth overall among members of Congress, the Associated Press reports.
    Mr. Abramoff, who has admitted he defrauded some Indian tribes, is at the heart of a burgeoning Capitol Hill corruption scandal.
    Mr. Kennedy never was lobbied by Mr. Abramoff or his associates and did not receive any checks from Mr. Abramoff, Mr. Richardson said.
    Although President Bush and other top Republicans scrambled to give away contributions from tribes linked to Mr. Abramoff, Kennedy aides said the congressman's family, beginning with his late uncle Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s, has championed American Indian causes.
    The congressman co-founded the Native American Caucus in the House in 1997. He also raised money from several tribes for his party as the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during 1999 and 2000.
    The congressman has received contributions from 110 tribes and visited about a dozen reservations, Mr. Richardson said. Mr. Kennedy has accepted donations from Indian gambling interests since he first came to Congress a decade ago.
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M060105   Abramoff admits to boats scheme

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 5, 2006

Jack Abramoff yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud in a $23 million scheme to purchase gambling boats in Miami, a day after admitting to fraud and tax evasion charges in a separate scandal that threatens several congressmen.
    Abramoff, 46, the once-powerful Washington lobbyist and friend to both Republicans and Democrats, said he defrauded lenders in a gambling boat deal in 2000, using phony documents to obtain $60 million in loans toward the $147.5 million sale of SunCruz Casinos by Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis to a group of investors headed by Abramoff and his partner, Adam R. Kidan.
    U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck set sentencing for March 16. Under a plea bargain, Abramoff faces six years in prison for his conviction of conspiracy and wire fraud. Kidan pleaded guilty in the case in December. A federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. indicted both men in August.
    The plea agreement requires Abramoff to cooperate in the Justice Department's ongoing corruption investigation in Washington.
    On Tuesday, Abramoff told U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in Washington that he had taken part in a scheme involving the "corruption of public officials." As part of that plea bargain, Abramoff agreed to pay at least $25 million in restitution, which federal prosecutors described as the profits he concealed as part of the conspiracy.
    One source close to the Washington investigation said "a minimum" of 20 people are of interest to federal investigators in the probe, including elected officials.
    Another federal law-enforcement official said the corruption probe is being fueled by a "treasure trove" of e-mails sent by Abramoff and his associates to several elected officials.
    In court Tuesday, Abramoff acknowledged that he and others "provided things of value" to one elected official, identified only as "Representative No. 1," in exchange for a series of officials acts. The representative has been identified as Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio Republican, who has denied any wrongdoing.
    President Bush, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, and his successor, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, yesterday joined several congressmen who said they will return or donate to charity campaign cash they received from Abramoff or groups he represented.
    "While we firmly believe the contributions were legal at the time of receipt, the plea indicates that such contributions may not have been given in the spirit in which they were received," said Mr. Blunt's spokeswoman Burson Taylor.
    Mr. Bush's re-election campaign will return $6,000 in contributions tied to Abramoff. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert announced earlier this week that he also would return contributions from Abramoff or give them to charity.
    Democrats who yesterday said they would return the donations include Sen. Richard J. Durbin and Rep. Lane Evans, both of Illinois.
    Abramoff helped raise $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign, earning the honorary title "pioneer" from the campaign. The campaign said it will return only $6,000 that came directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes he represented.
    Republican National Committee spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt told reporters yesterday that there was nothing to indicate that contributions from other donors represents "anything other than enthusiastic support for the (Bush-Cheney) BC-04 re-election campaign."
    c?Audrey Hudson contributed to this article.
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S060105   ABA rates Alito as 'well-qualified'

By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 5, 2006

The American Bar Association yesterday rated Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. "well-qualified" to serve on the Supreme Court, even as several left-leaning advocacy groups released reports arguing his judicial philosophy would force the court rightward.
    The association's 15-member standing committee voted unanimously, with one person abstaining.
    A well-qualified rating, the group's "strongest affirmative endorsement," means Judge Alito is at the top of the legal profession, has outstanding legal ability and breadth of experience and meets the highest standards.
    Republicans said that leaves Judge Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, well-positioned for next week's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
    "Judge Alito is right on track to become Justice Alito," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican.
    Presidents used to seek an American Bar Association (ABA) rating before submitting a nomination to Congress, though President Bush discontinued the practice in 2001. At that time, key Senate Democrats called the ABA the "gold standard" for determining a nominee's worthiness.
    The ABA still provides its ratings to the Judiciary Committee and is expected to testify next week.
    Yesterday, liberal advocacy groups said the ABA rating was both expected and not important as senators decide how to vote on the nomination.
    "I don't think anybody is disputing how well-qualified Judge Alito is for this seat," said Seth Rosenthal, legal director for the Alliance for Justice, which released a 168-page report looking at Judge Alito's rulings in split-decisions on the 3rd Circuit.
    And Elliot M. Mincberg, legal director of People For the American Way, which released its own 155-page report, said the story out of yesterday should be the reports' findings of how often Judge Alito ruled in favor of the government over individuals.
    The Alliance for Justice report says that in cases where the 3rd Circuit was split and Judge Alito was part of the decision, he sided with the government 85 times out of 104. The majority opinion in those cases sided with the government 57 times.
    Liberal groups also are planning to begin running commercials this week to stir up opposition to the nomination.
    Judge Alito's backers predicted the reports would be overshadowed by the ABA rating.
    Mr. Alito, the son of Italian immigrants, did win the broad backing yesterday of groups representing Italian-Americans, which said they will be watching to ensure Judge Alito is given a fair hearing.
    A. Kenneth Ciongoli, chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, called Judge Alito "a poster child for the American mainstream." He and leaders of other groups, such as the Order Sons of Italy in America, said they were appalled by insinuations that Judge Alito may be soft on organized crime because of his Italian ancestry.
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M060105   Senate Democrats also 'ensnared' in scandal

By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 5, 2006

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said yesterday that almost all Senate Democrats have accepted money from scandal-plagued lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his associates or his Indian tribe clients.
    "I think Democrats might want to be a little bit careful before they start pointing fingers," said Sean Spicer, spokesman for the House Republican Conference. "This is something that has ensnared both parties."
    The Senate campaign committee said 39 of the Senate's 44 Democrats, plus Democrat-leaning independent James M. Jeffords of Vermont, have taken funds from Abramoff, directly or indirectly.
    Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Republicans hope Democrats will be equally ensnared in the fallout to Abramoff's admission to purchasing support from lawmakers for his clients' initiatives.
    The five Democrats excluded from the NRSC's list are Daniel K. Akaka of Hawaii, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey.
    But Democrats say their counterparts are distorting the facts.
    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, has distributed to her party's members a talking-points memo that stresses that every person indicted in the scandal is a Republican, every potential indictee in published reports is a Republican and that Abramoff directly contributed only to Republicans.
    Meanwhile, the office of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, whom the NRSC highlighted as a recipient of considerable Abramoff-related money, scoffed.
    Mr. Reid received money from Indian tribes connected to Abramoff, but never from the lobbyist, said Jim Manley, the senator's spokesman.
    "Any contributions he received are part of lawful fundraising. Senator Reid has done nothing wrong," said Mr. Manley, adding that not "a single Democrat" took money directly from Abramoff.
    "Abramoff was a Republican operative, and this is a Republican scandal. Their efforts to drag Democrats into this are almost laughable," he said.
    Both Republicans and Democrats have been the beneficiaries of Abramoff's lobbying activities. But the scandal threatens to shake up the Republican leadership that controls the Capitol.
    Some say it will make it more difficult for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, to return to his post. Mr. DeLay, whose connection to Abramoff also is at issue, was indicted last year in a separate Texas case, and has vacated his leadership post pending resolution of the matter.
    Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, said the Abramoff scandal likely will lead more Republicans to call for leadership elections.
    "I expect that number to grow quickly," said Mr. Flake, one of a handful of lawmakers who have called for such a vote. "The Abramoff stuff to me and to most people is much more dangerous, much more costly to the party than the Texas indictment."
    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Republicans must undertake real reform in business, government and congressional conduct to keep their majority.
    "The danger for Republicans is to pretend this isn't fundamental or to pretend they can get by passively, without undertaking real reform," the Georgia Republican told reporters after a speech to the Rotary Club at the Hotel Washington yesterday.
    Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, promised yesterday to "examine and act on any necessary changes to improve transparency and accountability for our body when it comes to lobbying."
    Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, said the judicial system needs to be left alone to do its job. Mr. Hastert is giving to charity the Abramoff-related donations he received.
    Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty this week to tax evasion, conspiracy and mail fraud and agreed to cooperate with an ongoing investigation into influence peddling on Capitol Hill. He admitted to providing campaign contributions and lavish gifts in exchange for official acts.
    "Everyone is definitely holding their breath, some more than others," said one House Republican aide. The aide said numerous offices are going through their financial records to ensure they don't have any money connected to Abramoff.
    Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Administration Committee, is specifically mentioned in court documents as having received gifts in exchange for support on various issues.
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E060104    Teacher donations
    "If we told you that an organization gave away more than $65 million last year to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International, AIDS Walk Washington and dozens of other such advocacy groups, you'd probably assume we were describing a liberal philanthropy.
    "In fact, those expenditures have all turned up on the financial-disclosure report of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union," according to a Wall Street Journal editorial.
    "Under new federal rules pushed through by Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, large unions must now disclose in much more detail how they spend members' dues money. Big Labor fought hard (if unsuccessfully) against the new accountability standards, and even a cursory glance at the NEA's recent filings -- the first under the new rules -- helps explain why. They expose the union as a honey pot for left-wing political causes that have nothing to do with teachers, much less students," the newspaper said.
    "... The new disclosure rules mark the first revisions since 1959 and took effect this year. 'What wasn't clear before is how much of a part the teachers unions play in the wider liberal movement and the Democratic Party,' says Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency, a California-based watchdog. 'They're like some philanthropic organization that passes out grant money to interest groups.'
    "There's been a lot in the news recently about published opinion that parallels donor politics. Well, last year the NEA gave $45,000 to the Economic Policy Institute, which regularly issues reports that claim education is underfunded and teachers are underpaid. The partisans at People for the American Way got a $51,000 NEA contribution; PFAW happens to be vehemently anti-voucher."
    The Journal said: "It's well understood that the NEA is an arm of the Democratic National Committee. (Or is it the other way around?) But we wonder if the union's rank-and-file stand in unity behind this laundry list of left-to-liberal recipients of money that comes out of their pockets."
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M060104   Abramoff pleads guilty

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 4, 2006

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud, agreeing to cooperate in an ongoing investigation into influence peddling on Capitol Hill.
    Abramoff admitted to U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle he had taken part in a scheme involving the "corruption of public officials," saying he gave campaign contributions and funded lavish trips and other items "in exchange for certain official acts."
    As part of the plea bargain, Abramoff agreed to pay at least $25 million in restitution -- which the government has described as the profits he concealed as part of the conspiracy.
    "Words will not ever be able to express my sorrow and my profound regret for all my actions and mistakes," he told Judge Huvelle in the Washington courtroom. "I hope I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and those I've wronged or caused to suffer."
    It was not clear yesterday who might be targeted in the government probe, although both Republicans and Democrats have been the beneficiaries of Abramoff's lobbying activities. Since he was first identified as an investigative target, lawmakers from both parties have returned more than $200,000 in campaign contributions.
    Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said the Justice Department will pursue the investigation "wherever it goes" and intended to "expend the resources to make sure people know that government is not for sale." Abbe Lowell, Abramoff's attorney, said his client will continue to work with investigators.
    Democrats are expected to make ethics a centerpiece of this year's midterm election. After Mr. Abramoff's confession, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the Republican-led Congress the "most corrupt in history." Republican leaders were silent.
    According to court documents, Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, conspired to defraud Indian tribes in six states of millions of dollars. Scanlon pleaded guilty to related charges in Miami in November.
    The court documents also said Abramoff gave public officials and their relatives gifts of money, trips, meals and entertainment in return for favorable treatment of his clients. One member of the House, identified as Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio Republican, reportedly received a "lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses" and other benefits in exchange for support on various issues.
    The documents said Abramoff arranged for a $50,000 check to be sent through the mail from Texas to pay for the Scotland trip. Abramoff also is accused of arranging for one of Mr. Ney's former staff members to lobby the congressman in 2002 before the ex-staffer's one-year ban on lobbying had expired.
    Mr. Ney has denied any wrongdoing, saying yesterday that at the time he dealt with Abramoff, "I obviously did not know, and had no way of knowing, the self-serving and fraudulent nature of Abramoff's activities." The congressman's attorney, Mark Tuohey, described the charges as "nothing new," saying they were included in a November plea agreement by Scanlon.
    Also at issue are Abramoff's ties to Mr. DeLay, who accepted about $57,000 in campaign contributions as well as golf outings and other trips provided for or arranged by the lobbyist for lawmakers.
    The documents also said Abramoff, who is expected to plead guilty to two additional federal charges in Florida stemming from a 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats, filed a tax return for 2002 that concealed his illegal income.
    Abramoff told Judge Huvelle "I plead guilty, your Honor" to each of three counts outlined in a November indictment. He had faced up to 30 years in prison, but prosecutors are expected to recommend 9? years under terms of the plea bargain.
    Prosecutors are thought to have finalized the Abramoff deal after a guilty plea by former partner Adam Kidan, who admitted Dec. 15 in federal court in Miami to committing mail and wire fraud in connection with the 2000 boat deal in Florida.
    At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan could not say yesterday whether Abramoff had ever met with President Bush, although the lobbyist and his associates logged more than 200 visits with administration officials and he raised $100,000 for Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.
    Mr. McClellan called Abramoff's actions "unacceptable and outrageous." The spokesman said, "If laws were broken, he must be held to account for what he did."
    House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, joined the growing list of lawmakers who have either returned money received from Abramoff or given it to charities. Lawmakers who have done so include Rep. Ernest Istook, Oklahoma Republican; Rep. Denny Rehberg, Montana Republican; Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican; Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat; Sen. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican; and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat.
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H060104   Massachusetts sued on marriage petition

By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 4, 2006

A homosexual rights legal organization filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging a ruling that allowed a petition drive for a constitutional amendment that would end same-sex "marriages" in Massachusetts.
    Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly "simply got it wrong" in September when he certified VoteOnMarriage.org's marriage amendment for a petition drive, said Gary Buseck, legal director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), which filed its lawsuit before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
    Article 48 of the state constitution says citizens cannot use constitutional amendments to reverse judicial decisions. The sole purpose of the marriage amendment, Mr. Buseck said, is to reverse the court's 2003 Goodridge decision, which legalized same-sex "marriage" in Massachusetts.
    The proposed marriage amendment would allow marriages only between one man and one woman.
    Johanna Schulman, president of GLAD's board of directors, is the lawsuit's plaintiff. Mr. Reilly and William F. Galvin, secretary of the commonwealth, are named as defendants.
    The lawsuit asks the court to find that Mr. Reilly erred when he certified the VoteOnMarriage.org amendment for a signature drive. It also asks the court to block Mr. Galvin from taking any "further steps" to get the proposal on a ballot.
    This fall, backers of the VoteOnMarriage.org amendment collected about 170,000 signatures, roughly twice the number needed.
    Mr. Galvin certified more than 123,000 signatures in December. GLAD attorneys expect that he will send the amendment to state lawmakers when they go into session today.
    The amendment must be approved twice by lawmakers before it can go before voters in November 2008. If the amendment is passed, backers say, it would not nullify existing same-sex "marriages."
    More than 6,500 same-sex couples have "married" since the Goodridge decision went into effect in May 2004.
    A spokesman for Mr. Reilly said yesterday that although the attorney general doesn't support the marriage amendment personally, he thinks that allowing it to proceed was the right decision.
    In an opinion column written in September, Mr. Reilly said he looked carefully at the history of Article 48.
    Citizen petitions have been used since the early 1900s to amend the state constitution "in response to a court decision finding a law unconstitutional," Mr. Reilly wrote. Petitions may not be used to "put a law back into effect" after a court has found it unconstitutional, but citizens are clearly allowed to amend the constitution "going forward," he wrote.
    The amendment "was drafted with sound legal advice from constitutional scholars, and as long as the constitution and recent precedent are followed," it should survive a court review, said Kris Mineau, head of the Massachusetts Family Institute and spokesman for VoteOnMarriage.org.
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S060104   Anti-Alito push fails to sway U.S.

By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 4, 2006

Despite a major coordinated campaign, liberal interest groups have failed to convince the American public that the Senate should reject Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.
    Every major poll indicates that far more voters think Judge Alito should be confirmed than think he should be rejected. Though that support generally is lower than it was for John G. Roberts Jr. before his confirmation for chief justice in the fall, it is on par with the public support for Supreme Court nominees during the past 20 years.
    "Since the nomination of Samuel Alito, left-wing groups have lashed out at him through a number of avenues in an attempt to derail his nomination," conservative activists Sean Rushton and Joseph Cella said in a memo to supporters. "The left's campaign has involved television, radio, print and Internet campaigns, public statements, the issuing of reports, and a van-based road tour. In all these media, the left failed to generate any substantive opposition to Judge Alito."
    A poll conducted by The Washington Post just before Christmas, for instance, found 54 percent in favor of Judge Alito's confirmation, compared with 28 percent opposed. A CNN poll last month similarly found 49 percent favoring Judge Alito and 29 percent opposed.
    Judge Alito's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee begin Monday.
    Liberal interest groups started formulating opposition even before President Bush nominated Judge Alito in late October to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Before Mr. Bush finished introducing his nominee in a White House ceremony, People for the American Way issued a statement promising to "wage a massive national effort to defeat the nominee."
    Other groups quickly followed suit and urged senators to oppose the nomination. They also aired ads against Judge Alito in states such as Maine and Rhode Island, where Republican senators represent more liberal electorates.
    "Rolling Justice," a caravan of Alito opponents organized by the liberal Alliance for Justice, traveled through key states to try to raise opposition to the nomination. The effectiveness of the campaign was not clear.
    At a December stop in Craig, Colo., three Rolling Justice members stopped at a Holiday Inn to meet with locals. No one showed up.
    In an e-mail to journalists yesterday, People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas said the campaign against Judge Alito represented the most formidable progressive coalition since the defeat of Robert H. Bork's nomination to the high court in 1987.
    He said public opinion will turn against Judge Alito once his record receives full attention.
    "While the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Alito next week will be as civil as the John Roberts hearings, there is no question that there will be much more drama and tension," Mr. Neas said.
    Today, the group plans to release a final version of its report on why Judge Alito should be blocked.
    Also today, the National Italian American Foundation will kick off a nationwide campaign of supporters who, like Judge Alito, are of Italian descent.
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M060104   Abramoff fallout far-reaching?

January 4, 2006

ASSOCIATED PRESS
    The plea deal worked out by Jack Abramoff could send seismic waves across the political landscape in this congressional election year.
    The Republicans, who control Congress and the White House, have more to lose, but some Democrats with links to Abramoff and his associates also are expected to be snagged in the influence-peddling net.
    While the full dimensions of the corruption probe are not yet clear, some political consultants and analysts already are comparing its damage potential to the 1992 House banking scandal that led to the retirement or ouster of 77 lawmakers.
    "You don't have to be a political genius to sniff the smell of blood in the water," said Republican consultant Rich Galen.
    Mr. Galen said even lawmakers in seemingly safe districts, and those "who don't have a reputation for being fast and loose with the rules," could be vulnerable if voters rise up in reproach "and everybody drops five or six points" in this year's midterm contests.
    Abramoff, a former $100,000-plus fundraiser for President Bush with close ties to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud. That cleared the way for his cooperation with federal prosecutors in bringing charges against former business and political associates.
    The investigation is thought to involve as many as 20 members of Congress and aides and possibly several administration officials.
    The timing couldn't be worse, politically, especially for Republicans. Lawmakers who may be indicted could find themselves coming to trial this summer, just ahead of the midterm elections. Around the same time, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is expected to stand trial in the CIA leak case.
    Mr. DeLay, who had to step down as majority leader in September after a grand jury in Texas indicted him in a campaign-finance investigation, is awaiting a trial date. And former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California Republican, gave up his seat Dec. 1 after admitting he had accepted $2.4 billion in bribes from defense contractors.
    Most Americans are convinced that corruption reaching into all levels of government is a deeply rooted problem. According to an AP-Ipsos poll last month, 88 percent of those polled say the problem is a serious one, with 51 percent calling it "very serious."
    The Democratic National Committee called the situation the latest installment of a Republican "culture of corruption." That notion was disputed by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who denounced Abramoff's activities as "outrageous" and noted that the lobbyist and his clients contributed to both parties.
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O060104   Swingers stun soccer moms, dads

January 4, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Some teenage soccer players and their parents saw more sights than they wanted when they stayed at a hotel where about 200 swingers were having a New Year's party.
    Paul Camporini brought his wife, seventh-grade daughter and eighth-grade son from Safety Harbor and said he had to "delicately explain to my Catholic schoolchildren that swingers change partners during the evening."
    "My biggest gripe is that the hotel had two distinctly different groups under the same roof," said Mr. Camporini, 49. "A soccer team and middle-aged swingers should not have been booked together."
    The families said the sexually adventurous partygoers sometimes flashed breasts and bare buttocks in front of the children as they sashayed through the hotel atrium. The parents described the dress at the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Airport in Orlando as "raunchy, despicable and worse than prostitutes."
    "We thought we were coming to Orlando, not the Las Vegas Strip," said Mark Gilbert, the father of a boy who plays on the Clearwater Chargers, a group of 13-and-under players from Florida.
    The teams booked the $92-a-night rooms for Disney's Soccer Showcase, and said hotel management did not tell them about the swingers' party or try to keep the partygoers away from the children.
    Hotel managers did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment. All of the swingers had checked out of the hotel by late Sunday.
    "We're not prudes by any means," said Rob Young of Greenville, S.C., who said his two daughters, Leah, 13 and Lauren, 11, asked questions he struggled to answer. "We would have liked to have been informed when we checked into the hotel so we could have made other arrangements.
    "The kids could see through the glass atrium into the ballroom where naked people were dancing. There were exposed breasts, thongs and see-through dresses on women who were not wearing any underwear."
    Mr. Young said he complained to hotel management and to John Hollis, an off-duty Orlando police officer hired by the hotel for a New Year's Eve security detail. He said neither did anything to help.
    Lt. John Mina, a watch commander for the Orlando Police Department, said Officer Hollis didn't witness anything illegal.
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M060104   Black Republicans
    "American blacks who are affiliated with the Republican Party are vigorously vilified by Democrats, especially black Democrats. Uncle Tom, sell-out, Oreo -- the list of slurs is long," Ted Hayes writes at www.OpinionJournal.com.
    "But it is not only insults. I am the founder and director of a unique, progressive homeless facility in downtown Los Angeles, known as the Dome Village. Yet the 35 men, women and children and their pets who call the Dome Village home are being 'evicted' from privately owned property after 12? years -- apparently on account of my political beliefs and activities. You see, though I am a leading homeless activist, I am also a conservative Republican and a strong supporter of President Bush," Mr. Hayes said.
    "Here's how the situation played out. Recently, I was invited to address a local Republican Women's Club; my landlord read an article in the local paper reporting on the event. Soon after, I received a notice raising the Dome Village rent from $2,500 a month to $18,330. Shocked, I inquired as to the seriousness of the change, and the property owner blurted out that the cause of our 'eviction' was 'because you are Republican.' He said that as a Democrat, he was tired of helping me and the Dome Village. In other words, let the homeless be damned.
    "And people think the Democrats are the party of compassion and tolerance."
    Mr. Hayes added: "It is time for American blacks to have a conversation about the phenomenon of Democrats persecuting black Republicans. Why is this happening? What is it that the Democrats don't want black folks to understand about Republicans? What is it that the Democrats don't want black folks to know about Democrats? And how is it that we have come to this point -- after having endured so much -- where we have ourselves curtailed the freedom of political expression through the threat of retaliatory consequences?"
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R060102   Bible's history explored

January 2, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- Written, assembled and translated over many centuries, the Holy Bible is the most printed and most read book in human history, influencing everything from art and music to politics and pop culture.
    Regardless of whether its first scribes were touched by a divine hand as Christians believe, the Bible's evolution from ancient Hebrew text to the English language is a rich lesson in the history of civilizations, origins of the written word and the revolution of printing.
    The tale is recounted in an exhibition opening at the Florida International Museum on Jan. 13 that boasts artifacts as rare and priceless as they come, among them bits of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a fragment of the Gospel of John dating to about 250 A.D., a 1455 Gutenberg Bible and a first edition of the King James version from 1611.
    William H. Noah, founder and curator of the exhibit, isn't a biblical scholar but a pulmonary physician who lives near Nashville, Tenn. He said his personal interest in the history of the sacred text led him to study it and begin to assemble a collection that opened in Tennessee a year ago called "Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to the English Bible."
    "I had traveled the world researching this for years and was just curious," Dr. Noah said. "You get all these extreme views [of the Bible] from different groups, and as I started to research this, I found that the real academic view was an incredible story."
    Dr. Noah said the focus of the 8,500-square-foot exhibit is more historical than religious, tracing the evolution of the Bible from pictograph writings on clay tablets 5,000 years ago to the Dead Sea Scrolls -- the oldest known copies of most of the Old Testament books, written on animal skins -- to translations into Latin, German, French and English.
    The displays include a working replica of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, which brought the Bible to the masses in the 15th century.
    The St. Petersburg opening is the first big splash for the exhibit, which was tested in civic centers in Knoxville, Tenn., and then Lexington, Ky., last year, drawing about 100,000 visitors. The four-month St. Petersburg stop is the exhibit's first in a museum and its first in a major population center.
    "I wanted to open in a smaller community because of the controversial nature of anything biblical, and I wanted to see how it would be received," Dr. Noah said. "I was very impressed."
    The crowds, he said, included academicians, religious leaders, the faithful and the curious. The exhibit was held over in Knoxville because of the demand.
    In Lexington, the exhibit drew visitors from all across Kentucky, said Niki Heichelbech, spokeswoman for the city's convention and visitors bureau.
    "Whatever you may go into it with, you come out with a completely different feeling," she said. "It definitely opens your eyes in ways you thought it might not. It certainly had an effect on people."
    The exhibit is being promoted heavily with mailings to area churches and schools, and the museum hopes to lure the area's wintering snowbirds.
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O060104Va   GOP keeps Senate seat; Democrat wins for House

By Christina Bellantoni
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 4, 2006

Virginia Republicans kept an open seat in the state Senate but failed to capture a Democratic seat in the House of Delegates, unofficial results from the Virginia State Board of Elections showed last night after two special elections.
    Republican Senate candidate Ryan T. McDougle won 6,822 votes in the 4th District in Hanover County, while Democrat Roger G. Cavendish, a small-business owner, received 1,558 votes, with all 72 precincts reporting.
    Mr. McDougle, a delegate from Mechanicsville, will take the seat left vacant by Sen. William T. Bolling, a Republican who was elected lieutenant governor in November.
    Meanwhile, Democrat Dan C. Bowling bested Republican T. Shea Cook and two independent challengers for a House seat from the 3rd District, which represents part of Southwest Virginia.
    Mr. Bowling, a member of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors, received 6,575 votes to replace Delegate Jackie T. Stump, a Buchanan Democrat who is retiring for health reasons. Mr. Cook received 3,064 votes, with all 45 precincts reporting.
    Mr. Stump, who served 16 years in the House, will take a spot on the Virginia Parole Board.
    For their Senate campaigns, Mr. McDougle raised $163,981 and Mr. Cavendish raised $6,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), www.vpap.org.
    Running for the House seat, Mr. Cook raised $65,141 and Mr. Bowling raised $2,870, according to VPAP.
    Also in that race were independent candidates Gerald L. Elkins and R. Brian Wright. Mr. Elkins captured 999 votes, and Mr. Wright received 256 votes.
    With the results of the special elections, the House has 58 Republicans, 39 Democrats and three independents, and the Senate has 24 Republicans and 16 Democrats.
    However, the legislative shuffle is not over. One special election is scheduled for Tuesday, and two more are expected at the end of the month.
    All three seats now are held by Republicans.
    Delegate L. Preston Bryant Jr., Lynchburg Republican, is leaving the House to become secretary of natural resources for Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat who will be sworn in as governor Jan. 14. A special election for Mr. Bryant's seat from the 23rd District will be held Tuesday.
    Sen. William C. Mims, Loudoun Republican, will become chief deputy attorney general under Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican who has been elected attorney general. A special election for Mr. Mims' seat from the 33rd District has not been scheduled.
    Officials from both parties said they think the race for Mr. Mims' seat will be competitive. The two other seats are favored for Republicans.
    Democrats have nominated Mark Herring for the 33rd District seat. He will face either Randy Minchew or Mick Staton, Republicans who are facing off for the nomination.
    Legislative leaders will schedule a special election for Mr. McDougle's seat in the 97th District. It is likely to be held at the end of this month.
    The 60-day legislative session begins next Wednesday.
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E060105E   Queries for the 'queering' of academe

By Suzanne Fields
January 5, 2006

While most of us were opening the last of our "holiday" presents, basking in the glow of Lancome's "multi-defense protective tinted cream," or deciding whether to wear the new tie with prancing horses or the one with intertwined golf clubs, several hundred Nervous Nellies and Fearful Freddies, many with newly minted Ph.Ds in hand, were busy networking, i.e., job-hunting, at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in Washington.
    This meant sitting through days of seminars on subjects of interest only to the authors of the learned papers. (Who else could understand what they were talking about?) Their parents had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to educate them, incurring loans putting them deep in debt for decades, and it was time to shed the cap and gown and look for work. The politically incorrect graduates who don't conform to the unstated but clearly implied correct color have to work hardest to find jobs. That's particularly true for white candidates who majored in black studies. How can a white man teach black literature?
    Of course, at most professional conventions, whether of accountants, plumbers, dermatologists or hip-hoppers, the range runs from dull to boring to shocking. But MLA conventions are unusual, if not unique. Nick Gillespie, the editor of Reason magazine who has attended MLA sessions as both member and reporter, observes that "there are few collective groups more insufferable than humanities professors." (Gulp. Full disclosure here: When I was a card-carrying liberal in an earlier century I earned my Ph.D with a dissertation exploring "realism and allegory in the early plays of Harold Pinter.") The graying profs were particularly frightened this year by the news, as one professor after another told ghost stories at the bar if not around a campfire, that more and more conservative kids are arriving on campus, ready to argue.
    Tenured professors are hysterical (a good "gendering" word) over the rise of the right on the campus, of students who aren't buying into lesbian literature, identity politics, deconstructionism, feminism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, Marxism, gay culturalism and all the other -isms that have dominated the curriculum for the generation since the '60s. Assumptions are under siege.
    One seminar, examining the image of professors in the media culture, asked the question: "Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things about Us?" Why indeed? The profs have been difficult to take seriously since the New York Times published a list of their goofiest scholarly papers in 1989, including such intellectual gems as "Jane Austen and the Masturbating Girl," and exposed the obfuscating jargon that was more like kitty litter than ideas, littering conversations with such phrases as "transgressive discourses," "systems of stratification" and "culturally over-determined structures of seeing." Not long afterward the New Criterion, a rigorously conservative intellectual journal edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball, bid "Farewell to the MLA." They argued that the "feminization" of the organization had left it prey to radical sexual philosophies like "gay studies" and "queer theory." The likes of Joseph Conrad and Willa Cather were reduced to the blather of pop psychology, anthropology, "gendering" and power relations.
    But the winds, like the times, change. Among the affiliated organizations listed in the MLA catalogue this year is the Conference on Christianity and Literature. Nick Gillespie of Reason has in recent years sponsored special sessions on "market-friendly libertarian topics" and the sessions were well attended. A sophomore from Duke University reports that John Milton, one of the deadest and whitest males so enthusiastically maligned in the politically correct covens, is once again popular.
    Sneering at the white man fell particularly hard on William Faulkner, who was all but evicted from campus. When Faulkner accepted his Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, he spoke of the importance of "the old verities and truths of the heart... love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice." Such qualities have since been strangers at MLA sessions. When the Faulkner Journal called for scholarly papers they asked authors to consider "the whiteness of Faulkner himself." One paper was titled, "Why Are You So Black? Faulkner's White-face Minstrels Primitivism and Perversion."
    The dead white man is still under siege, to be sure, but the pop guns are of smaller caliber. It's still easier to be admired as a transgendered man seeking to become a woman so he can be a lesbian than to be proudly heterosexual and unapologetically white, but authentic scholarship may be scaling the walls of the academy, providing a growing awareness that "diversity" requires conflicting theories. Anyone who reads John Milton quickly discovers that a mix of ideas engages and provokes the intellect toward wisdom. There's a subversive or two hiding in the ivy.
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E060105E   Abramoff and Congress

TODAY'S EDITORIAL
January 5, 2006

With lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea to charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud, official Washington is girding itself for a very public revelation of conduct ranging from the shady to the felonious. So far, only one House member -- Rep. Bob Ney -- has been identified as a possible recipient of Abramoff's bribery, although prosecutors anticipate the plea deal they reached to yield more names.
    The focus on the investigation is on charges that Abramoff provided public officials and their relatives bribes in exchange for legislative action and favorable treatment of his clients. In the case of Mr. Ney, this included "a lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses, tickets to sporting events ... regular meals at [Abramoff's] upscale restaurant, and campaign contributions," according to court documents. Mr. Ney denies any wrongdoing. It should be noted that junkets and campaign contributions are not illegal per se, and some of the charges against Abramoff were felonies unrelated to congressional backroom dealing.
    What is clear from all this is that Congress -- and the Republican leadership in particular -- needs to fix how the lobbying system works. Polls show that Americans are disgusted enough with the legislative branch and the Abramoff case only confirms what they've always suspected about how Washington works. It is probable that more sitting members of Congress will face criminal charges as the investigation unfolds. Yet Democrats shouldn't be too eager in their self-righteous condemnation, since the reality is both parties are likely to be implicated.
    But the onus of leadership is on Republicans, especially since it was they who wrested control of the House in 1994 with an anti-corruption platform. They have now controlled Congress for the better part of a decade and whatever strides they might have made early on have fallen to the wayside. Returning to the theme which brought him to power, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been vocal in his belief that this is a problem Republicans must solve. "I think Abramoff is just part of a larger pattern that has got to be rethought," he told The Washington Post. "Things have got to be done to really rethink where the center of the political process is. Right now, the center is a lobbying and PAC [political action committee] system center, which is not healthy." Republicans would be wise to listen to their former speaker and not duck his challenge.
    Severe restrictions on gifts to congressmen and staff should top any reform agenda. We do, however, caution against zealous overregulation. As undemocratic as the system can be, the right of the public to lobby and contribute to its representatives is a fundamental part of American democracy. When it addresses reform, Congress must resist the demagogues and find the proper balance between protecting this right and curtailing its abuse.
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R060104L   In the beginning...
    The letters "The science of intelligent design" (Sunday), responding to Tom Bethell's Commentary column "Banned in biology" (Dec. 26), denounce the concept of intelligent design because they say it is not science or at best it's bad science.
    The obvious inference is that evolution is science, and it's good science. That's interesting to me because evolution proposes, as a theory of the beginning of life, that non-living matter changed into living organisms through a natural process. Many accept that theory as scientific fact in spite of the fact that science has proved that only life begets life (the law of biogenesis). Is that really good science?
    Suppose someone proposed a theory that lead could be changed into gold by some natural process. Would that be considered good science without any proof?
    Unless and until proponents of evolution can bring scientific proof, not just consensus, that life was formed from non-living matter through some natural process, the debate will continue. Why not just admit and teach that science is unable to explain the origin of life?
 
    DANIEL P. McKIM
    Springfield
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M060104L   Wake up, Hollywood
    I love reading Wesley Pruden's columns, and "Horror in Hollywood — it's not a movie" (Friday) hit home with me. Hollywood is crying the blues because attendance at movies has gone down. Hello, Hollywood. Do you ever stop and wonder why? Do you ever look at the horrible TV ads that promote upcoming movies? They turn you off right there. Do you really know what it costs for an evening out at the movies and maybe a bag of popcorn? It is unreasonable. I could go on and on as to why attendance is down.
    There is an age group that Hollywood does not cater to at all. That is the older senior citizens, and my husband and I are in that group. I am talking about the over-70 age group. There are millions of us out here who would like nothing better than to spend an afternoon at a good and decent movie. We like to have lunch and go to the movies or go to the movies and then have an early dinner.
    However, there are no movies worth the price that we care to see. Most of us are not interested in the R-rated movie category. We don't care for the loud and absurd violence that is so loud that even the very hard of hearing can't stand the films. We don't care for all the sex that is portrayed. We have been there and done that. The filthy language used sure doesn't appeal to most of us.
    Hollywood, you are missing out on a great audience out here that you don't give a hoot about when making movies. We find our best evenings of entertainment are at home watching old movies on TCM or AMC and having a bag of popcorn along with them. We recently watched "Going My Way" and "The Bells of St. Mary's" and even stayed up past our regular bedtime and enjoyed every minute of those old movies. Wake up, Hollywood, and try making a movie now and then for us "old folks."
 
    CAROLYN WRAY
    Locust Grove, Va.
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O060103C   Is psychology in denial?

By Warren Throckmorton
January 3, 2006

A recent book edited by eminent psychologists Rogers Wright and Nicholas Cummings delivers a stunning indictment of the mental health professions. "Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The Well-Intentioned Path to Harm" documents and critiques the ascent of social activism over open-minded scientific inquiry and quality care in the current mental health establishment. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about mental health care in this country.
    The book casts a critical eye on much of the psychological and psychiatric professional associations' social activism over the last 30 years. However, Drs. Wright and Cummings cannot be dismissed as disgruntled conservatives. Their deeds validate their claim to be "lifelong liberal activists."
    For instance, while president of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Cummings supported developing the first task force championing the mental health needs of homosexual males, lesbians and bisexuals.
    In addition to being personally involved in social activism, the authors have been keen and pragmatic observers of the mental health professions over the last 40 years. My own contact with Nick Cummings made a lasting impact on me. I first met Dr. Cummings in 1986 when American Biodyne, the first real managed behavioral health care company in America, came to Ohio as a manager of the state employee program in that field. I had just started my counseling private practice in Portsmouth, Ohio, and wanted to get on board the managed care train.
    Biodyne did something very novel for a managed care company: All therapists in the preferred network had to be trained by the company leaders, including the president and founder, Nick Cummings. In all my years of education, both in school and post-grad, I have never listened to a better trainer than Nick Cummings. He believed mental health therapy could be a powerful influence in a person's life but was never to be used to gratify the therapist or to promote a political agenda. That same theme permeates this book.
    Drs. Cummings and Wright believe modern psychology has been overthrown by social activism and as a result faces irrelevance.
    As one example, Drs. Cummings and Wright demonstrate how political support for homosexual activism has led to stifling of client self-determination. Consider this quote from the book regarding sexual identity therapy:
    "In the current climate, it is inevitable that conflict arises among the various subgroups in the marketplace. For example, gay groups within the APA [American Psychological Association] have repeatedly tried to persuade the association to adopt ethical standards that prohibit therapists from offering psychotherapeutic services designed to ameliorate "gayness" on the basis that such efforts are unsuccessful and harmful to the consumer. Psychologists who do not agree are termed homophobic. Such efforts are especially troubling because they abrogate the patient's right to choose the therapist and determine therapeutic goals. They also deny the reality of data demonstrating that psychotherapy can be effective in changing sexual preferences in patients who have a desire to do so." (From the introduction).
    Sexual identity therapy is not the only political hot potato the authors tackle. They demonstrate how politically correct posturing can obscure research findings.
    For instance, co-editor Dr. Wright cites research by Dr. Cummings suggesting positive male figures in the lives of children are significantly related to a decrease of children requiring medication for behavior problems. However, he laments such research results are frequently stifled or even dismissed because they offend feminist sensibilities.
    Drs. Wright and Cummings express concern over the professional consequences of psychology's misadventures into social activism. They paint a picture of psychologists unable to support themselves in their field because it has become enamored with producing position statements on social change.
    Mental health care in America is adequate, but barely. Any practicing counselor knows how difficult it is to find quality services outside of metropolitan areas.
    Drs. Cummings and Wright predict psychology's preoccupation with social activism threatens to make it irrelevant as a force for quality and affordable health care for all people.
    So how does the current APA leadership react to the critique from Drs. Cummings and Wright? Not well. It appears the former APA luminaries are cold-shouldered by current leaders.
    At a recent meeting of National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, Dr. Wright noted the APA made a "strategic decision not to respond" to their book to avoid giving it attention. Further, the APA initially prohibited its member-publications from even reviewing the book. Observed Dr. Wright: "So much for diversity and open-mindedness."
    In my opinion, the current APA leadership will ignore these warnings at their peril. When it comes to trends in mental health care, Nick Cummings has rarely been wrong in his predictions. I don't think he is wrong this time.
 
    Warren Throckmorton is associate professor of psychology and fellow for psychology and public policy in the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City (Pa.) College.
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