Sen. Chuck Schumer famously expressed skepticism whether then-Alabama Attorney General William Pryor could uphold the law if a case came before him that conflicted with his "deeply held" (religious) beliefs.

Republicans, not being complete and total idiots, recognized that this was a code -- though expressly prohibited by the Constitution, the senior senator from New York is applying a religious (or anti-religious) test for office.

Of course, when challenged, Schumer and his Democrat colleagues deny that they are applying a religious test. Such denials is a pattern, as I pointed out more than three years ago with California's own Dianne Feinstein. After denying that she had a litmus test for judges, Feinstein explained her position by using the textbook definition of a litmus test.

On Sunday, many churches across the country participated in "Justice Sunday." My church didn't participate and I didn't watch the program on any cable channel. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist appeared in a pre-recorded message and didn't that didn't include any of the words "God," "faith," "religion." His message wouldn't have been controversial had it been delivered at a League of Women Voters meeting. But it was aired in churches, and that's got liberals up in arms. The New York Times editorial page is quick to criticize, while hiding behind "mainstream" (read: "liberal") churches.

[T]o the dismay of many mainstream religious leaders, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, participated in a weekend telecast organized by conservative Christian groups to smear Democrats as enemies of "people of faith." Besides listening to Senator Frist's videotaped speech, viewers heard a speaker call the Supreme Court a despotic oligarchy. Meanwhile, the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, has threatened the judiciary for not following the regressive social agenda he shares with the far-right fundamentalists controlling his party.

Apart from confirming an unwholesome disrespect for traditional American values like checks and balances, the assault on judges is part of a wide-ranging and successful Republican campaign to breach the wall between church and state to advance a particular brand of religion. No theoretical exercise, the program is having a corrosive effect on policymaking and the lives of Americans.

Just for those of you unfamiliar with liberalspeak, "regressive social agenda" is also known as "traditional values." You know, marriage consisting of one man and one woman, opposition to partial birth abortion, etc.

Of particular note is the characterization that Republicans are the ones "breaching" the wall between church and state. Liberals aren't really concerned about the separation of church and state, otherwise they'd have come down like a ton of bricks on the candidate that actually campaigned in churches.

This complaint is only applicable to churches where people tend to vote Republican. A simple Google search turns up a certain Democrat senator campaigning for president speaking at church after church after church after church.

A similar search for President Bush turns up a whole bunch of nothing.

I know it's tough to believe, but liberals and conservatives disagree on a lot of issues. But the Democrat party and their allies on the Times editorial page and the various left-wing think tanks want to turn this into some sort of religious war. Remember, it's not the GOP that brought up "deeply held beliefs."