Obama is not the first president to connect the American spirit to the story of Moses: Washington compared the Revolution to the Exodus; Jefferson quoted Moses in his second inaugural.

The committee's report offers vivid, behind-the-scenes evidence that the founders of the United States viewed themselves as acting in the image of Moses.

Despite harsh criticism that Obama is injecting religion where it doesn't belong, "bearing false witness" has a long presence in American jurisprudence, as do most of the Ten Commandments.

Ted Kennedy was called the Moses of Health Care. This analogy was also used frequently on the death of other great American figures.