Who knew that seeming double-centenerian Pete Domenici was such a player? None of us, it turns out, until the former longtime Senator of New Mexico recently admitted to an extra-marital affair with a colleague's [Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada] daughter, which produced a now-thirty-something son.

Domenici is certainly not the first politician to suffer from Strom Thurmond Disease. You may remember the late Senator Thurmond, he of the presidential campaign in 1948 based on the segregation of the races - something he couldn't personally accomplish with the hired help in his own household (let's call it an Early Schwarzenegger). Just two weeks ago, at the age of 87, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, his bi-racial child who could not acknowledge her father publicly until his death in 2003, passed away herself. Just another sad story of conservative hypocrisy, and in Thurmond's case, one of many dalliances with women not his wife for the "family values"-spouting, Lost-Cause romantic.

This is not to say this kind of thing doesn't happen on the Democratic/liberal side. (I have two words for you. John and Edwards.) Yet, the difference is that like most Republicans, Domenici was all too concerned what was going on in our private lives if we were gay, a woman, or a President being impeached in the 1990s over an affair. He was a moral exemplar, you see, who was so pristine and pure you'd think he brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain. He could deign to lecture us all, including then President Bill Clinton.

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I'm sort of grateful I had to be away this weekend as the Aurora tragedy entered the "endless news cycles of speculation and rehash" stage. It's a raw thing, this idea that cable news has to churn the story over and over, with "expert" embellishment and endless speculation about why, why, why such a thing has happened. Add the whacko radical evangelicals and their penchant for blaming everything but the person and the gun and of course, the many, many, many different ways one can put their hands on 6,000 rounds of ammunition in a fairly short time, and the free-for-all begins to spiral down, down, down.

But in the realm of evangelicals, there are still a couple of go-to guys that at least give the appearance of being reasonable and open-minded, even though they seem to prove over and over that appearances are deceiving.

And so it comes to pass that the screen shot of a now-deleted Rick Warren tweet about the Aurora tragedy surfaces, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that there is no sunlight between Mr. Warren's judgmental attitude and the odious American Family Association.

For some unknown reason, a guy who by all accounts was an introverted churchgoer at some point in his past, a camp counselor and a boy genius type snaps. He booby-traps his apartment in an apparent attempt to murder his neighbors and any innocent bystanders who might have actually had the misfortune to be there, packs up his car with his four guns, his body armor and proceeds to inflict deadly and grievous harm to nearly one hundred people and would have done much more had his gun not jammed.

After all of that, a Christian pastor's response to this is to say what? That he behaved like an animal because he was raised to believe he was one? Um, no. That's so wrong. So, so very wrong.

I'm sure the 2012 Saddleback Forum Mr. Warren intends to hold with Mitt Romney and President Obama will be all fair and balanced, right?

He explained that the purpose of the forum is "to promote social civility so that people with major disagreements (can) talk without beating each other up."

Whoa, that's some real leading by example there, Mr. Warren. You get some idea in your head that Mr. Boy Scout was raised on monkey juice and evolutionary theory, and you call him an animal (along with anyone else who might actually dare to believe that) and then claim you're going to host this sweet nicey-nice "lets-all-get-along-even-though-I-think-you-suck" forum?

Really?

Also, a side note to media: Could you have found a creepier front shot that wasn't a mug shot? Wow, like we need to really know the guy is probably insane? I agree with the shooting victims: focus on the heroes and not the bad guy.

These tweets were Rick's passive-agressive response to all the criticism he got over his "giving money to the poor breeds dependence" quip on "This Week."

He obviously got his fee-fees hurt, because he took the extraordinary step of blocking me (guess he didn't care for the post linked above -- or this) and wrote, "Ignore slander...beware when all men speak well of you."

The tweets above are of a piece with what Franklin Graham said a while back -- that the church does a much better job than the government at taking care of people -- so really, who needs all this Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid stuff anyway? Overlaps beautifully with Republican dogma, doesn't it?

Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that when populations are impoverished, charities that run on donations from those populations also become impoverished. If feeding the poor is your goal, one would think, you should be happy to get all the help you can get. But to right-wing partisans like Warren -- charity becomes a pissing contest, and an opportunity to bash government.

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Rick Warren, who was last seen bashing President Obama like some garden variety wingnut blogger, appeared on "This Week" Easter Sunday, and made this startling remark.

WARREN: Well, certainly the Bible says we are to care about the poor. There’s over 2,000 versus in the Bible about the poor. And God says that those who care about the poor, God will care about them and God will bless them. But there’s a fundamental question on the meaning of “fairness.” Does fairness mean everybody makes the same amount of money? Or does fairness mean everybody gets the opportunity to make the same amount of money? I do not believe in wealth redistribution, I believe in wealth creation…

Let's look at that last line, again.

I do not believe in wealth redistribution, I believe in wealth creation…

It's difficult to overstate how just radical this remark is. Progressive taxation has been around for nearly 100 years. A progressive tax was endorsed by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. And we still operate under a progressive tax.

Why? Because a progressive tax helped the country pay for fighting two World Wars, the interstate highway system, putting man on the moon and created the social safety net programs of the New Deal and Great Society. And it transformed the country from the extreme wealth inequality of the Robber Baron era to the thriving middle classes of the '50s, '60s and '70s.

Warren is saying all that was a mistake, and is endorsing the flat tax craziness of Herman Cain.

WARREN: The only way to get people out of poverty is J-O-B-S. Create jobs. To create wealth, not to subsidize wealth. When you subsidize people, you create the dependency. You — you rob them of dignity. There are a lot of negative things that happen to us. Rather, we should be focusing on wealth creation and job creation, in my opinion…

Since Warren is against "subsidizing people" -- I say we start taxing his ministry like any other business. Also, I don't ever remember the part in the Bible where Jesus fretted about "dependency" when he instructed his followers to give everything they had to the poor, do you? Why would a supposed follower of Jesus say such a thing?

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Rick Warren isn't preaching the Gospel they taught me in Catholic school. He's teaching the Gospel of Supply Side Jesus. And to oppose "wealth redistribution" is to oppose what built most of the 20th century.

This is the man who the media has dubbed "America's Pastor." God help us all.

It's Easter and I'm trying to be nice. But as I recall, Jesus knocked down the moneychangers in the temple, so there's divine precedence, right? On This Week with Jake Tapper, here's the smarmy megachurch pastor, Rick Warren, who's already preparing for a possible change in administration (we last saw him preachifying at President Obama's inauguration) by spreading the blame around for the country's economic mess.

This man of God, the one preaching about "instant gratification" on the part of people who bought things, doesn't have a word to say about the crooks who tricked them into it. And he doesn't mention the wars and tax cuts for the rich that are the main drivers of our national debt. Nor does he mention his own $14 million net worth, because someone might quote Luke 18:22-23 to him:

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

I'm tired of these Prosperity Gospel snakes perverting the things that were so powerful about the person they claim to follow, trying to turn Jesus into some kind of Heavenly CEO. Oh, and Happy Easter!

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There are many things wrong with the presumptive Republican candidacy of Mitt Romney. Mitt is wishy-washy, a mediocre politician at best, willing to say or be for anything that will get him ahead. But that's just me as a liberal. If I was a Republican Party elder, I'd be fearful of a Romney campaign for an entire other reason. It's a terribly hard sell to convince the evangelical right (a huge percentage of Republican voters) to consider a Mormon elder like Romney a true Christian.

Rick Warren, head of Saddleback Church, which claims 20,000 weekly church goers, and co-author of the ridiculously popular book "The Purpose Driven Life" (with sales of more than 30 million units), is very influential among the evangelical community. What he told Jake Tapper has to make every Republican operative working for a 2012 victory very, very nervous.

“I have a congregation that’s very large. It talks to me all the time. Most people would not think they’re better off economically than they were four years ago,” Pastor Warren said. “I hold everybody responsible for that. I hold the people who got themselves into debt. I hold the government that got themselves into debt. I hold multiple administrations. It’s not the fault of any one person.”

With Republican Mitt Romney moving closer to becoming the first Mormon presidential nominee, I asked Warren whether he believes Mormons are Christians — a contested issue among evangelicals.

“The key sticking point for evangelicals and actually for many is the issue of the Trinity… that’s the historic doctrine of the church that God is three-in-one,” Warren said. “Not three Gods; one God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mormonism denies that.”

Ouch.

I don't see how Romney gets over that hurdle. The only hope I guess he has is to revive the whole Obama-is-a-Muslim trope to point to the only religious faction more horrifying to the evangelical voter.

Think Progress pointed out, the half-full Rick Perry prayer rally was on the same day - down the street from an event for poor Texans to get free school supplies, uniforms and immunizations. The 100,000 person event was so over capacity it was turning people away.

There seems to be a theme here. The poor have no more famous an advocate than Jesus Christ but the mega-churches seem to be focusing on the mega-donors and the mega-rich.

Case in point: Rick Warren. Last week he tweeted a hard-right (and incorrect) talking point about how half of Americans pay no taxes. This coming from a guy whose the leader of a non-profit (think tax exempt) church in affluent Orange County.

Above is a video from my show, a The Young Turks spin-off, TYT Now talking about this divide. It's a disconnect that gets worse in countries where wealth distribution is stark.

In the same show we talked to C&L reader, author Rick Perlstein about the right-wing, conservative women and the effort to scare up the votes for 2012. "I'm writing the third book in my trilogy about how these guys [GOP] took over the country," says Perlstein.

If you guys have any guests you like to see interviewed let me know!

Here's our Facebook page.

As part of this weekend's Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm, Tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors is holding a "Pin the Tail on the Theocrat" contest.

Open thread below.

"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:9-10

I wonder if Jesus feels that Rick Warren is pierced with many griefs:

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren's plea for donations to fill a $900,000 deficit at his Southern California megachurch brought in $2.4 million, Warren announced to cheers during a sermon at the church on Saturday.

Warren said the amount raised after the appeal was posted online Wednesday included only money parishioners brought in person to Saddleback Church by New Year's Eve. More was arriving by hand and by mail, he said.

"This is pretty amazing," said Warren, who made the announcement by bringing out 24 volunteers each holding a sign for $100,000. "I don't think any church has gotten a cash offering like that off a letter."

The pastor said he planned to talk about what he called his church's "radical generosity" in the rest of the weekend's sermons. He said the total came from members, and the donations were all under $100.

"We're starting the new decade with a surplus," he said. "It came from thousands of ordinary people. This was not one big fat cat."

The posting on Warren's Web site read: "With 10 percent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated."

Warren said the church had largely managed to stay within its budget during the year, but "the bottom dropped out" when Christmas donations were down.

The letter cited the church's accomplishments in 2009 and detailed how the donations would be used, including the church's food pantry, homeless ministry, counseling and support groups.

I realize that churches require donations for support, but I'm having a hard time with the notion that the man who wrote The Purpose-Driven Life and all its ancillaries was nearly as hard up as his flock was, with 10% unemployment.

Maybe Jonathan Turley has the right idea:

First, there was Rod Parsley saying that Satan has been messing around with his bank accounts and needs a massive infusion of cash to fight his demonic plan, here. Now, fellow Evangelical pastor Rick Warren has asked for roughly a million dollars from his faithful due to a few end of the year shortfalls in cash flow. Given these calls to the faithful, I wish to add my own discovery of a demonic plan to deny me of ready cash and call upon everyone on this blog to send me money immediately to fight for righteous and redemptive blogging.

There you go...God is commanding you to send me money, even though I have a decent living and am more fortunate than most human beings on this planet. You don't want to go against God's design, do you?

distributorcap NY: The Man in the Gold-Laced Flannel Suit

The Brad Blog: Wingnut Andrew Breitbart calls for my death

Attytood: Decade From Hell

Pam's House Blend: Insane birther ad in the Washington (Moonie) Times illustrates the power of TEH STOOPID

The Gist: Rick Warren can't "take sides" on gay executions

3quarksdaily: Will be awarding four prizes every year for the best blog writing in the areas of science, philosophy, politics, and arts & literature. There's cash involved folks! The deadline for nominations is December 2