Rough week for religious right

A few recent items point to the woes of our friends in the religious right:

1. The Christian Coalition isn't paying its bills. Jon Frank of The Virginian-Pilot reports:

A local law firm has asked a judge to garnishee the assets of the Christian Coalition of America to collect more than $75,000 in unpaid legal costs. …

The garnishment order may be more of a glitch than an indication of severe financial distress, McKissick said. McKissick said membership and fund-raising in the organization hit a low point after George W. Bush was elected in 2000.

People became complacent, McKissick said, and it seemed that since a conservative Christian was president, there were no battles left to fight. … Now membership is "surging," he said, in advance of the 2004 presidential election.

The coalition is now emphasizing "voter identification, voter registration and voter education" in an all-out effort re-elect Bush for another term, McKissick said.

Membership is "surging," just not surging fast enough to pay their bills on time.

2. Shakeup at Concerned Women. Sandy Rios, the former president of the far-right women's organization, is out. I have no idea what this is about. Rios was the last in a line of inept leaders at the massive-but-ineffectual lobbying group, and there's a chance she may be replaced by someone with more political savvy — which would be bad news. On the other hand, the group's terse statement reads more like this is a case of a rat fleeing a sinking ship.

3. Anti-gay amendment backers form circular firing squad. CWA's professional homophobe-in-chief Robert Knight is not pleased with the newly revised wording of the Federal Marriage Amendment and is signaling a clear refusal to compromise. (Knight is also quoted in this New York Times article on the wording change.) The indication here seems to be that supporters of the amendment won't be satisfied with any version of the wording that has any chance of garnering a two-thirds majority in Congress. Glad to hear it.