Kaine Likely To Expand Faith Offensive As DNC Chair

Barack Obama's decision to tap Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to be the next Democratic National Committee chairman is a sign that the party will very likely continue and perhaps expand on the unprecedented faith outreach initiatives that Howard Dean launched during his tenure as chair.

Kaine's 2005 run for governor was one of the few statewide races in the year following the Democrats' landslide defeat among so-called values voters, and his bid became a test case for many of the faith-based tactics that have now become commonplace among Democrats.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[JohnFromCensornati]

Oh, goodie. Maybe he'll give Rick Warren a bat-phone.

[PhoebeMarieGriddlebone]

Oh... that headline gave me hope that they would be starting to consider faith-based initiatives "offensive."

Rats.

[PVPublicola]

You guys should've tapped Mark Warner for the job. The only thing Tim Kaine is really good at is carrying Warner's water.

[JohnFromCensornati]

You "guys"? Has Obama multiplied?

[PhoebeMarieGriddlebone]

Shhh.... apparently it thinks HuffP0 appoints head of the DNC.

[SCVADem]

Mark Warner's too busy getting sworn in as a senator tomorrow.

[ranchero42]

Kinda scary. In spite of the label "Democrat", the writer may have purposefully juxtaposed the words "christian" and "identity" in order to elicit an emotional response from the reader. I find myself trying to assure others that these appointees serve at the pleasure of the President. I hope that it's not in vain.

[PhoebeMarieGriddlebone]

There is a movement called chr!stian identity, and Eric Rud0lph is its most fam0us member.

[bygollymissmolly]

What "faith based" tactics are you talking about?

[Scoppertop]

Code Word: Offensive

[ninosabogada]

To reach out to those who feel their faith has been hijacked by the religious right makes some sense, as long as it's along the lines of taking care of the environment, helping the poor, educating children, things like that. To reach out to those who wish to inject religion into government would be a huge mistake. I agree - enough already. The First Amendment is still there, no matter how eviscerated other parts of the Constitution are.

[PoliticalAmazon]

To have freedom of religion, we must have freedom from religion. We are working our way towards creating Dick Cheneys of religion who, instead of having companies that sell war, we hae companies that sell big0try.

The only way we will all have the freedom to follow the religion of our choice is if the government stays out of religion. Governmen-subsidized religion gives an unfair advantage to those who make the cut for subsidization, and disadvantage to those who don't believe religion should be tinted by government, or who don't have the staff necessary to apply for these programs.

[vjoseph]

My parents will be quite happy and so will my brother. I have encouraged him to start taking his religion back from the nutjobs who have destroyed it. Its time for the moderates to be leaders once more

[vjoseph]

You are getting more and more predictable, its actually funny. Did you guys conveniently skipped the part that Howard Dean started that initiative? How drole

[SaucyB]

um? the first paragraph states "likely continue and perhaps expand on the unprecedented faith outreach initiatives that Howard Dean launched during his tenure as chair."
read much?

[vjoseph]

Hmmm... you are repeating exactly what I said! Acting like a jerk much?

[Independent voter]

I hope that he does a hell of a good job. I find faith very offensive and any plans that he can develop to extricate faith from our government is sure to be a winner.

[Retrofuturistic]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I find faith very offensive too....

[PhoebeMarieGriddlebone]

Me, three.

[Coinyer101]

ughh. we are becoming more like iran, everyday.

[PhoebeMarieGriddlebone]

All the Tal!bangen!cals are missing are mach!ne guns and trucks to ride around on the back of!

[SDSlivesOn]

The Peter Principle at work: Tim Kaine has been a total dud as VA governor, so let's make him head of the DNC.

[joetherealist]

It worked pretty well for Bush, failed his way all the way to the top.

[happycat]

No more Bible Thumping!

[robXdion]

HuffPo God-haters start your engines!

[CyrusBeaucephus]

keep your unprovable myths and bizzare conjectures about reality to yourself

[YouDisgustMe]

lol well said

[vjoseph]

HAHAHA, I was going to say that. Damn, you beat me to it

[2bad]

I don't hate your gods, just the self-righteous, sanctimonious people that insist on shoving their cult beliefs and dogma down everyone's throat!

[Mike4Obama]

heh. Too funny.

[hotcognition]

right, because if you believe that religion doesn't have a place in our government like our nation's founders suggested, the logical conclusion is that you must HATE god.

and fyi, religious and non-religious people alike can acknowledge that faith-based approaches to governing haven't been working (e.g. abstinence only education, etc) since bush had an entire beaurocracy dedicated to religiously based initiatives in the white house. you can be religious in your private life and take pragmatic evidence-based approaches to solving our country's problems.

we don't hate god, but since we live in a country that celebrates diversity let's leave god out of solving the problems of a diverse population, shall we?

[geobushono]

kissing the ring is now US GOV'T policy. Do you think that's what Thomas Jefferson when he put pen to paper?

[montecarlo408]

No, he was too busy putting his "pen" to something else, cough, cough, Sally Hemmings.