American Hezbollah

Hezbollah is an Arabic word standing for "party of God," and it's the name of an Islamic political and paramilitary organization based in Lebanon.

Hezbollah also is the Arabic word for what Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen thinks of the Republican Party.

Van Hollen told a gathering in Lake Geneva today that the Republican Party is "a party of God, we’re a party of faith, we’re a party that will do the right thing and represent the people."

Such theocratic rhetoric brings to mind George W. Bush's messianic complex and his image among worshipful admirers as a messenger of God. It also helps explain why W's administration has hired more than 150 zealous graduates of Pat Robertson's clown college, Regent University.

Such rhetoric also comports with the opinions of Bishop Thomas Doran of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford, who sees the Democrats as the party of "abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation," as he so gently put it in a column last summer.

One wonders if America's "party of God" might eventually mimic its Islamic namesake with a Christian form of Jihadism.

Pope coming to America

The Vatican confirmed today that Pope Benedict XVI will visit the United States on some unspecified date at the invitation of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

It'll be interesting to see if the pontiff makes nice with any prominent officials of the Democratic Party. I mention that matter in light of how Bishop Thomas Doran of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford feels about Democrats.

You might recall that Doran kicked up something of a fuss last August when he wrote a column in the diocesesan newspaper denouncing the Democrats as the party of "abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation."

Democrats should be unelected, Doran wrote: "Their continuance in public office is a clear and present danger to our survival as a nation."

Perhaps Doran expects that the pope will avoid pleasantries with any Democrats before first asking them where they stand on the issue of buggery.