It's too early to say whether this will blow over quickly, but it's already clear that the Bush/Cheney ethos of never admitting error or backing down (well, never admitting to backing down) has already pushed them to the brink of a serious problem.
To wit: The Southern Baptist Convention is peeved at the Bush/Cheney campaign for trying to get the names of church members for political mobilization. They're offended, and believe they've been undermined by the campaign. When confronted with the intrusion into the privacy and independence of the churches, a spokesman for B/C had the gall to deny that they'd done anything wrong.
It's nice to see that the tactics which have bonded America to its old allies so closely the last few years are now being turned on political allies of this administration within the U.S. If it continues, we can expect the same glorious results.
More of the AP story follows...
Baptists Angry at Bush Campaign Tactics
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative denomination closely aligned with President Bush (news - web sites), said it was offended by the Bush-Cheney campaign's effort to use church rosters for campaign purposes.
"I'm appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local congregation in this way," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"The bottom line is, when a church does it, it's nonpartisan and appropriate. When a campaign does it, it's partisan and inappropriate," he said. "I suspect that this will rub a lot of pastors' fur the wrong way."
The Bush campaign defended a memo in which it sought to mobilize church members by providing church directories to the campaign, arranging for pastors to hold voter-registration drives, and talking to various religious groups about the campaign.
Other religious organizations also criticized the document as inappropriate, suggesting that it could jeopardize churches' tax-exempt status by involving them in partisan politics.
Campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the document, distributed to campaign staff, was well within the law.