Memo to Religious Conservatives: Shut Up!

So how should we talk about the Supreme Court vacancy???

According to a NY Times article, The White House and Senate Republican leaders are urging conservatives to cool the rhetoric over Alberto Gonzalez. Heck, even respected conservative leader Grover Norquist is cautioning fellow conservatives ...

"The only ones who could make somebody sound extreme," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group, "are some of the president's allies talking in an inappropriate way and themselves sounding extreme, which then gets tagged to the nominees."

Apparently they have some polling that suggests the public wants a serious and dignified nomination process. So they are advising us to "play nice."

"Every contact we have with these folks is 'stay on message, stay on purpose,' " Mr. Ueland said. "The extremism of language, if there is to be any, should be demonstrably on the other side. The hysteria and the foaming at the mouth ought to come from the left."

Some conservatives don't buy it -- and why should they? We know by experience that emotion trumps logic. We've seen what they did to Bork and Thomas ... And besides, the stakes are high. How long have we been waiting for this opportunity??? In any event, here is another admonition to shut up:

If all my side does is talk about process - 'we want a fair hearing, etc.' - while Ted Kennedy is talking about 'we are not going to let somebody on the court who is going to take away the rights of individuals,' as silly as I think that is, it will affect the way people think about the battle," Mr. Bauer said.

Of course, we all know this is going to be a war.