Didn’t Brian Bosma or John Hostetler ever play with other kids when they were young? Or have they just forgotten how to play well with others?
We are used to these “Righteous Brothers” whining whenever anyone objects to their efforts to use government to force their beliefs on everyone else. Tell them to stop bullying others, and you are accused of prejudice against “people of faith.” It reminds most parents of their three-year-old stamping his foot and insisting that if he can’t take that other kid’s candy, it isn’t fair.
Didn’t Brian Bosma or John Hostetler ever play with other kids when they were young? Or have they just forgotten how to play well with others?
We are used to these “Righteous Brothers” whining whenever anyone objects to their efforts to use government to force their beliefs on everyone else. Tell them to stop bullying others, and you are accused of prejudice against “people of faith.” It reminds most parents of their three-year-old stamping his foot and insisting that if he can’t take that other kid’s candy, it isn’t fair.
Bosma’s defense of proselytizing prayer at the statehouse, and Hostetler’s victim act in response to concerns about the Air Force Academy’s harassment of non-fundamentalist-Christian students are tiresome, but such shenanigans have become pretty much par for the course. A Hostetler effort that has generated less comment, however, is more pernicious—and arguably more illuminating of the real agenda involved.
Hostetler has authored a budget amendment forbidding the use of federal funds to pay any U.S. marshals who may be sent to move a Ten Commandments monument from the Gibson County Courthouse lawn. A federal court recently ruled that the monument violated the Establishment Clause and must be removed. If the County were to defy the federal court’s order, U.S. marshals would presumably be sent in to do the job.
The House has passed the amendment, which is similar to one proposed by Hostetler and passed by the House in 2003, when the monument in question was the five-ton version erected by Judge Roy Moore. The Senate rejected the 2003 version and it never became law.
To their credit, Gibson County officials have disavowed any intention to defy the court order. The attorney who defended the placement of the monument in court was quoted as saying, “We’re law-abiding people. Whether we like the ruling or not is irrelevant.”
That, of course, is the point. The rule of law becomes meaningless if we only have to obey laws and court decisions we like. Similarly, separation of powers—one of the fundamental elements of the American government structure—becomes meaningless if one branch can effectively control either of the others. (If the Democrats were to win control of Congress in 2006, would Hostetler agree that they could then “de-fund” the Bush Administration, to keep it in line? Not likely!)
Think back to your days in Little League or sandlot baseball or whatever team game you played. What if the umpire called an out, but the player refused to abide by the call, and insisted on running the bases? How long would the game have continued? We all know that every call an umpire makes isn’t correct; people can and do argue—often heatedly—with umpires and their decisions. But without an umpire, without someone whose job it is to call them as he sees them, without someone who has final authority to make the call, there can be no game at all.
The lawyer from Gibson County understands that; John Hostetler clearly doesn’t.