By: Cahir O'Doherty | Published Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 11:35 AM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:52 PM
Christine O'Donnell, Delaware GOP candidate for the Senate, yesterday startled a Widener law school audience by frankly asking where in the constitution is the separation of church and state?
The Tea Party candidate inspired horrified gasps and laughter from the law school audience as it became apparent she appeared not to know that the First Amendment calls for barring the government from establishing religion.
When her Democratic opponent Chris Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"
This ladies and gentlemen is you country under the Tea Party. Watch below.
O'Donnell was mercilessly skewered for a youthful indiscretion by the-no morals, no-qualms, no holds barred-but-stay in power-left, while her follicularly challenged opponent got a pass from the oVomit sphincter-inserted crowd, known as 'media' after he said he was 'a bearded Marxist.' Goes to show what their marching orders are. They will stop at nothing to preserve the rubber-stamp for socialist transformation of this country by the democRat machine now in power. Remember to vote the OUT on Tuesday.
chesapeake | Oct 27, 2010, 10:17 AM EDT
Would that the leaders of this nation understand the concept of "separation of church and state! This was intended to prevent the establishment of a single church (religion) in the USA; rather it was to promote religious freedom for Catholics, Protestants, Jews, presbyterians. atheists and other befiefs. It was NOT intended to repress the trappings of religion )i.e. Manger scenes, menoras, etc.). Christine O'Donnell may be politically naive; but she is still a better candiadate than the RINO she bested in the primary. Gad, wouldn't it be something is she actually pulled an upset and beat her tax-raising, pro-government, socialist-leaning opponent. Talk about no glee in Mudville!
maloney | Oct 25, 2010, 08:22 PM EDT
marthaanna, love illegal beaners & hate Italians. Makes you a chump & a bigot.
MarthaAnne | Oct 23, 2010, 07:44 PM EDT
Italian. Christine O'Donnell's mother is NOT IRISH SHE IS ITALIAN.
That's where she learned to think that you get a human brain in a mouse. From her mother. The mother sets the stage for a child's intellectual life, and she did that.
I know this is not PC, but I doubt that there are any Irish mothers who would raise a daughter to be as unintellectual as O'Donnell is. The Italians are not nearly as education-oriented as the Irish are and I am sorry but it is the reality.
cpflann | Oct 22, 2010, 12:37 PM EDT
If we read the Constitution like the Fundamentalist Christians read the Bible, we're all in trouble. The principle of the separation of church and state is embodied in the 1st Amendment. The fact that the words "separation of church and state" don't appear there doesn't make it any less of a principle. If you believe that the Federal government can only do what's specifically stated in the Constitution, then you have to get rid of: the FDA, the SEC, the National Institutes of Health, the interstate highway system, Medicare, Social Security, the Veteran's Administration (including hospitals, veteran's benefits, etc.), the minimum wage and the states west of the Mississippi (since the Constitution doesn't contain any right of the Federal government to buy land). Many of the tea baggers have already said they want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare and the minimum wage. The rest is just a logical extension.
hollabackgurl | Oct 22, 2010, 12:07 PM EDT
Wingnuts are now living in an alternate reality. The seperation of church and state has been a founding principal of this nation for centuries, and the First Amendment makes that clear. Isn't reading comprehension taught in schools anymore? Do the right wingers think we're a fundamentalist theocracy now?
Monsoonman | Oct 22, 2010, 11:45 AM EDT
Good point Felicia, the pseudo intellectual liberals guffawed and sneered at Christine O'Donnel when she questioned if that phrase was in the 1st amendment. She was right, they were wrong. Going a bit further it hasn't gone unnoticed that the Harvard "law professor" that currently occupies the Whitehouse is deliberately misquoting the declaration of independence by leaving out mention of our creator...Very illuminating.
Felicia | Oct 22, 2010, 04:05 AM EDT
As many have stated here and I have checked my copy of the Bill of Rights and Other Amendments to the Constitution and the 1st Amendment does NOT have the separation of church and state clause in it only the statement that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, etc.
I find it troubling though that our President does not know the Declaration of Independence that he has quoted lately. Three times he left out that we are endowed by our CREATOR with certain inalienable rights!! He graduated from Harvard I believe.
hollabackgurl | Oct 21, 2010, 05:52 PM EDT
She's a know-nothing in the original sense of the term, but of course she's also anti-immigrant too.
DonMcGuinness | Oct 21, 2010, 06:32 AM EDT
The first amendment does NOT create a separation of Church and State.
It prevents the Government from establishing a church or a religion. Such as the religion of socialism.
And it prevents the Government from dictateing to the states, what if any religious ideas it can or can not freely excersize within the state or community.
The local community has the right under the constitution to determine and establish standards for their community.
The Federal Government has no constitutional right to abridge the right of the state in any way shape or form when it comes to religion within a community. Including what that community wishes to teach its children in PUBLIC schools.
Make no mistake, Socialism is a religion and when the Federal Government dictates to a state what it can and can not teach it is establishing a religion of the state.
heybuldog69 | Oct 20, 2010, 11:37 PM EDT
The separation of Church and State Phrase came from a Thomas Jefferson commentary on the First Amedment.It is contained in the Letter to the Danbury Congregation whch he wrote in the early 1800's. The Pittburgh Kid is wrong in Stating it came from the Liberals in the 1960's.
elektros | Oct 20, 2010, 07:25 PM EDT
PittsburghKid, the man who first spoke about separation of church and state was Thomas Jefferson. Relatively new, you say? Sure, and isn't everything in America relatively new?
maloney | Oct 20, 2010, 07:22 PM EDT
O'Donnell may not be the picture perfect candidate but she is head & shoulders above the Dem. candidate from SC. Alvin Greene. She also isn't near as bad as Dem. House member from FLA. Allen Grayson. She knows the constitution better than Cahir, who gets paid to write lies. She uses less uppers than hollowbutt who preformed a blogging blitz on this post. I love how liberals will hide behind the constitution while at the same time try to destroy it.
seanomelbourne | Oct 20, 2010, 06:52 PM EDT
What mirth it's Cahir's fault for printing the article,not Christine's fault because she's ignorant.Even us Aussies know your 1st amendment. That's right Pittsburghkid!! mention the Muslims you bigots just can't stick to the point.If the people vote for O'Donnell it would be a sad indictment of the ignorance of the people.
Pittsburghkid | Oct 20, 2010, 06:41 PM EDT
O'Donnell is right. The Constitution never mentions Sepatation of Church and State. The Constitution does state that the Federal Government can not have a sponsered church like the "Church of England".
The Constitution goes no futher on the subject of church and state.
The term a wall between church and state was never in the Constitution. It is an interptation of the Constitution, base on liberal thinking.
Up until 1962, pray was in all public schools. This idea of the separation of church and state is relatively new.
Nov. 2, Americans are going to the polls to return America to it's roots.
I love Ireland almost as much as I love America. I hope that O'Doherty is an exception.
The No NOthings were an anti-immagration group of a different time.
Illegal immigration is a real problem for the U.S., U.K., France and Germany.
Wait until the Muslims start disrupting Ireland, you will welcome the British back.
warrenpoint00 | Oct 20, 2010, 06:40 PM EDT
Christine o donnell a know nothing. Tell us something we dont know Cahir.Pack all them kooks up an head them off to Alaska to the queen bee of kooks.God bless America
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 05:06 PM EDT
That's all you got left in your bag of subterfuge Southernman? Your unqualified candidate is crashing and burning due to her own ineptness and you want to call it sexism rather than admit she's unqualified and a kook?
Southernpride | Oct 20, 2010, 04:59 PM EDT
Cahir O'Doherty Has a lot of hate and anger towards women
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 04:13 PM EDT
P.S, the United States constitution isn't a "procedure." It's the founding document and the fabric of the nation. If you don't even know what's in it, how can you even dare to represent it?
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 04:07 PM EDT
Putting someone is a spacesuit doesn't make them an astronaut, Jim Thompson. Your parents generation knew that, why don't you?
JimThompson | Oct 20, 2010, 03:44 PM EDT
Name me one politian that really knows anything excfept to take care of himself. She might do better than many currently in office since she might be able to learn correct procedures.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 03:37 PM EDT
People like Christine O'Donnell are fundamentalists one step away from burning libraries and learning in favor of blind acceptance of gospel.
Dompedro | Oct 20, 2010, 03:33 PM EDT
the comments are more revealing and funnier than the article!
But .... where does it say that cpflann can take away the vote of rightwingers? does someone else have control of the votes of, say, left wingers? Or are they the only ones to vote?
vincem13 | Oct 20, 2010, 03:11 PM EDT
And Comrade Coons could only name one of the five freedoms protected in the 1st Amendment. Does he get a pass because you and he both have party membership cards with Putin's signature on them?
cpflann | Oct 20, 2010, 02:58 PM EDT
One of the aims of the First Amendment is prevent ANY state religion-theistic or otherwise. Keep in mind what O'Donnell is promoting-the teaching of Creationism in the public schools, among other things. This is the same bunch that thinks that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, that the dinosaurs lived alongside humans and that Noah's Ark is buried somewhere on Mt. Ararat. This is fundamentalist Christianity at its worst.
BishopSean | Oct 20, 2010, 02:33 PM EDT
The Founding Fathers--including Jefferson and Franklin--were clear in wanting Christian moral philosophy to underpin our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. This has resulted in the greatest freedoms and prosperity in history. The USA is 1st country to legislate Freedom of Conscience and Religion. Secular humanists prefer to change this for moral relativism. By the way, Secular Humanism is a non-theistic religion, according to the US Supreme Court (1961 Torcaso v. Watkins). But most Americans have not decided to make Secular Humanism our nation's official religion. I hope we don't because that kind of thinking brought us Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Vorwoerd and Margaret Sanger. This topic is worth serious enquiry.
Ratslayer | Oct 20, 2010, 02:10 PM EDT
No more SOCIALISM!!!! NO more POLICE, FIRE, COURTS, SANITATION, ETC. If yer house is on fire, put it out yerself! Freaking libs -- always thinking about others and not themselves!!
cpflann | Oct 20, 2010, 01:34 PM EDT
I can't wait for this election to be over. I'm glad none of the right-wingers on this board have a vote. Christine is an embarrassment to the state of Delaware. She's raised enough money (95% from out of state) to live very comfortably for the next few years until Carper is up for re-election. Maybe she'll get a job for Fox News. She did say she has Hannity in her back pocket.
killowen | Oct 20, 2010, 01:33 PM EDT
sad sad .... who funds such gobble gooked cook.
we're in deep doo doo.
TheOldPerfessor | Oct 20, 2010, 01:20 PM EDT
If you don't have the facts on your side, be sure and call names.
IrishTierney | Oct 20, 2010, 01:16 PM EDT
Speaking of an origional "KNOW NOTHING", Cahir O'Doherty you are just that! As well as a complete hack!!! The fact that they are paying you for that crap, you should resign and give them their money back.
IrishTierney | Oct 20, 2010, 01:10 PM EDT
Maybe Coons can explain how jobs are created. Oh wait he already tried to, and can't! Fcuking lib-tard moron! Keep being a yes man, and keep voting your party line on our way towards Obama socialism!!
Dub2Daingean58 | Oct 20, 2010, 01:02 PM EDT
Chair and O'Dowd = LIBERAL TO THE CORE.....But Nov. 2nd is coming T.G.
Nicomax | Oct 20, 2010, 12:50 PM EDT
Actually, I think she and her kind know the Constitution better than we are led to believe. It's just that they don't like many portions of it, including not allowing the government to establish religion. If they get their way, Christianity will become the approved belief system.
jdi2269 | Oct 20, 2010, 12:39 PM EDT
CAHIR HAS NEVER MET A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT HE DIDN'T LIKE AND NEVER MET A REPUBLICAN HE LIKES. THIS GUY ISN'T QUALIFIED TO WRITE A COLUMN. LETS' GUESS HIS EDUCATION....I'LL BET A 7TH GRADE DROPOUT!
irishmoonfrog | Oct 20, 2010, 12:39 PM EDT
It is an appalling comment on the absolutely horrendous job our public schools do in teaching fundamental Constitutional principles, that so many people respond to this by calling O'Donnell "ignorant". The 1st Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a religion OR from interfering with the practice of religion. Our public schools are producing sheep, indiscriminately indoctrinated into secular humanist statist collectivist claptrap!
glorybe1929 | Oct 20, 2010, 12:29 PM EDT
You all are original "know nothings" until you have had the experiance. Geo. Washington had never been a president or fought a war or whatever but with the proper motives and good values and knowing God does help a person in his first experiances. Help does come from above, or below depending on whom you ask.
britfether | Oct 20, 2010, 12:29 PM EDT
I also wanted to mention that if O'Donnell thinks it is OK to teach creationism in our schools, does she also think it is equally imperative that we teach that the Earth was orginally seeded by interplanetary humanoids from another galaxy who decided to settle here on earth ten thousand years ago, who were named Adam and Eve? Because there is about and equal number of wingnuts that think that theory is correct also.
TheOldPerfessor | Oct 20, 2010, 12:13 PM EDT
Actually, the first amendment does call for separation of Church and state according to Thomas Jefferson and two centuries of Supreme Courts. All of you scholars out there from the spin room will have a hard time finding the word God in the consitution - mainly because it isn't there. However, it appears many times in the Iranian constitution.
britfether | Oct 20, 2010, 12:12 PM EDT
OK, lets get right down to it.
First of all, you right wingers should have enough smarts to understand what is implied by the First Amendment, then the Jerfferson letter and other following Supreme Court arguments that have clarified the separation of church and state. It's a no brainer!
So lets move on to O'Donnell hersslf. After listening to her views on things like abortion (with no provisions for rape, etc), her views on masterbation, her statments about being in a coven when younger, and many of her other hair-brained opinions...is this the type of person you would compare to senators like Ted Kennedy, Jessi Helms, and many great Senators who have served our country?
It is a travesty that someone who has been personally bankrupt, and used campaign funds to support her debts in the past, is even running for a Senate seat. To think that she has the mentality, background or political experience to serve a so many have on both sides of the aisle is absolutely insane. To think that she could hold up under comaparison to anyone presently holding a Senate seat on either side of the aile is a mockery of our political system and an affront to the political process. Cute just doesn't cut it in politics and she hasn't enough depth or knowledge or even the most rudimentary political beginning to say that she deserves to be elected.
In this case, be honest about it, only your blind hatred of Obama and insane desire to regain the majority in the Senate is driving you to accept this joke of a candidate and stops you from walking away from this idiot. Face it GOP'ers, if she was running as a Democrat, you would have drawn, quartered, and chopped her up into little pieces by now. Why is it that you think that she is a Tea Bagger akin to the GOP and a FOX news hottie, that whitewashes the fact that she is a disgrace to our political system of electing officials to represent us?
susanna | Oct 20, 2010, 11:58 AM EDT
cpflann- Yes, I too attended Catholic schools and learned the Genesis creation story as a metaphor. However, my parents had to pay for me to attend private Catholic schools for there was no way we were going to learn our religion in a public school - and rightfully so. If there are people who want their kids to learn "intelligent design" let their parents send them to private Christian school.There is no place in the public schools for this kind of mumbo jumbo!
susanna | Oct 20, 2010, 11:50 AM EDT
God help us all if we do not allow separation of church and state. Just look at the history of the catholic church and other religious groups when it was not separated and the horrors that occurred as a result, including burning "witches" in this country.Just look at the horrors in the middle east from extremist religious factions as a result of religion not being separated from state. Look at what the Taliban has done and all "religious" extremist factions. Please, keep religion in the churches and out of my government!
susanna | Oct 20, 2010, 11:44 AM EDT
OMG - O'Donnell - like Palin - dumber than a box of rocks. Then there are her lies that she went to Harvard and Oxford! In my wildest dreams, I still can't imagine how stupid people like this even get as far as candidates! It is so embarrassing to me as an American!
diannerae | Oct 20, 2010, 11:37 AM EDT
Why not vote NPA and oust both parties?
pflynn70 | Oct 20, 2010, 11:24 AM EDT
Cahir, your liberal balls are showing once again and as usual, your dead wrong. At least O'Donnell has "balls" to go out and try to right the things you libs have so screwed up. You sit on your pious arse just writing snotty things about people who dissagree with you and your socialist Obama agenda.
Guess what's coming on Nov2......
maloney | Oct 20, 2010, 11:17 AM EDT
Cahir...another liberal who obviously has not read the constitution. O'Donnell was right! It's also obvious how liberals do not understand what they read or just common bred lying arseholes. How are you going to twist & turn the arse kicking you are about to receive into a liberal win?
mayoman | Oct 20, 2010, 10:53 AM EDT
O'Donnell is clearly an irrational and disorganized thinker; if she thinks at all. This present fad of totally unqualified people running for important political office is very unfortunate indeed, and should not be encouraged. I'm confident that the people of Delaware will have the good common sense to reject O'Donnell. The majority sees her for the charlatan and grandstanding bigmouth that she really is. It must also be said that the separation of church and state is a sound and practical concept, and one that has worked admirably for the nation for over two hundred years. It is one of the pillars of our democracy, and should never be undermined by anyone.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 10:51 AM EDT
The theory of evolution is science. Intelligent design is a religious belief. Coons is trying to tell her that but she's not even qualified to be a school teacher never mind a United States Senator.
cpflann | Oct 20, 2010, 10:40 AM EDT
Some people are missing the context. Christine is advocating the teaching of Creationism in the public schools; the literal interpretation of Genesis as fact. Even in my Catholic school in the Bronx in the 1960's, we were taught that the Genesis creation story was a metaphor, not literal fact. Teaching the fundamentalist Christian view of Creationism as Science in public schools is, in fact, a government establishment of religion. As a Delaware resident (and voter), I know that Delaware is a very diverse state, with many scientists and technicians from around the world working in our technology, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Teaching a narrow fundamentalist Christian doctrine as science would be offensive to their religious views and to the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
maycomb | Oct 20, 2010, 10:32 AM EDT
What does "hate" have to do with it, FatherVol? The separation of church and state is and has always been accepted as one of the founding principles of our democracy. It sounds like you'd rather live in a theocracy--you'll have to move elsewhere.
FatherVol | Oct 20, 2010, 10:18 AM EDT
Excuse me! There is NO "separation of church and state" in the Constitution itseld. There is only a clause that prohibits the "establishment" of an offical church.
And you liberals say conservatives and Republicans spew hate. You make me laugh!
maycomb | Oct 20, 2010, 10:03 AM EDT
O'Donnell's ignorance is frightening, and that is only exceeded by her seeming pride in that ignorance. And Bishop Sean, it is disingenuous to suggest that the founders meant only for religion to be safe from government interference and not the other way around as well.
himself1 | Oct 20, 2010, 09:52 AM EDT
O'Donnell is correct. Why are you trashing her?
rcrdskpr@aol.com | Oct 20, 2010, 09:39 AM EDT
o'donnell is correct. there is no law stating "separation of church and state". "there shall be no law establishing a state religion. " this is another attempt by liberal media to interpret the constitution in their own way, at the same trying make conservatives seem wrong.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 09:26 AM EDT
The constitution clearly states that congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion. This is freedom FROM religion. And the courts have understood and interpreted it as such.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 09:23 AM EDT
The exact words, "separation of church and state are not *in that form* in the US constitution. They were however in letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists. They have come to mean that Bishop Sean. I'm sure you realize.
johhnyb | Oct 20, 2010, 09:17 AM EDT
Coons quoted the First Amendment wrongly and O'Donnell is the ignorant one. Seems fair to me.
BishopSean | Oct 20, 2010, 09:09 AM EDT
Hi, Cahir. The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohobiting the free exercise thereof..." The "Wall of Separation of Church and State" statement is from the 1813 Jefferson letter to the Danbury CT Baptists, assuring them that Government would not interfere in their freedom of religion. In brief, it was to protect religious freedom from government; not to officially establish a secular humanist government. Regards.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.maloney | Oct 29, 2010, 09:00 PM EDT
Tampons all around for the libs Tues. night.
plasticpaddy | Oct 29, 2010, 08:32 PM EDT
2borNot2b the new minister of misinformation
2BorNot2B | Oct 29, 2010, 03:27 PM EDT
O'Donnell was mercilessly skewered for a youthful indiscretion by the-no morals, no-qualms, no holds barred-but-stay in power-left, while her follicularly challenged opponent got a pass from the oVomit sphincter-inserted crowd, known as 'media' after he said he was 'a bearded Marxist.' Goes to show what their marching orders are. They will stop at nothing to preserve the rubber-stamp for socialist transformation of this country by the democRat machine now in power. Remember to vote the OUT on Tuesday.
chesapeake | Oct 27, 2010, 10:17 AM EDT
Would that the leaders of this nation understand the concept of "separation of church and state! This was intended to prevent the establishment of a single church (religion) in the USA; rather it was to promote religious freedom for Catholics, Protestants, Jews, presbyterians. atheists and other befiefs. It was NOT intended to repress the trappings of religion )i.e. Manger scenes, menoras, etc.). Christine O'Donnell may be politically naive; but she is still a better candiadate than the RINO she bested in the primary. Gad, wouldn't it be something is she actually pulled an upset and beat her tax-raising, pro-government, socialist-leaning opponent. Talk about no glee in Mudville!
maloney | Oct 25, 2010, 08:22 PM EDT
marthaanna, love illegal beaners & hate Italians. Makes you a chump & a bigot.
MarthaAnne | Oct 23, 2010, 07:44 PM EDT
Italian. Christine O'Donnell's mother is NOT IRISH SHE IS ITALIAN. That's where she learned to think that you get a human brain in a mouse. From her mother. The mother sets the stage for a child's intellectual life, and she did that. I know this is not PC, but I doubt that there are any Irish mothers who would raise a daughter to be as unintellectual as O'Donnell is. The Italians are not nearly as education-oriented as the Irish are and I am sorry but it is the reality.
cpflann | Oct 22, 2010, 12:37 PM EDT
If we read the Constitution like the Fundamentalist Christians read the Bible, we're all in trouble. The principle of the separation of church and state is embodied in the 1st Amendment. The fact that the words "separation of church and state" don't appear there doesn't make it any less of a principle. If you believe that the Federal government can only do what's specifically stated in the Constitution, then you have to get rid of: the FDA, the SEC, the National Institutes of Health, the interstate highway system, Medicare, Social Security, the Veteran's Administration (including hospitals, veteran's benefits, etc.), the minimum wage and the states west of the Mississippi (since the Constitution doesn't contain any right of the Federal government to buy land). Many of the tea baggers have already said they want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare and the minimum wage. The rest is just a logical extension.
hollabackgurl | Oct 22, 2010, 12:07 PM EDT
Wingnuts are now living in an alternate reality. The seperation of church and state has been a founding principal of this nation for centuries, and the First Amendment makes that clear. Isn't reading comprehension taught in schools anymore? Do the right wingers think we're a fundamentalist theocracy now?
Monsoonman | Oct 22, 2010, 11:45 AM EDT
Good point Felicia, the pseudo intellectual liberals guffawed and sneered at Christine O'Donnel when she questioned if that phrase was in the 1st amendment. She was right, they were wrong. Going a bit further it hasn't gone unnoticed that the Harvard "law professor" that currently occupies the Whitehouse is deliberately misquoting the declaration of independence by leaving out mention of our creator...Very illuminating.
Felicia | Oct 22, 2010, 04:05 AM EDT
As many have stated here and I have checked my copy of the Bill of Rights and Other Amendments to the Constitution and the 1st Amendment does NOT have the separation of church and state clause in it only the statement that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, etc. I find it troubling though that our President does not know the Declaration of Independence that he has quoted lately. Three times he left out that we are endowed by our CREATOR with certain inalienable rights!! He graduated from Harvard I believe.
hollabackgurl | Oct 21, 2010, 05:52 PM EDT
She's a know-nothing in the original sense of the term, but of course she's also anti-immigrant too.
DonMcGuinness | Oct 21, 2010, 06:32 AM EDT
The first amendment does NOT create a separation of Church and State. It prevents the Government from establishing a church or a religion. Such as the religion of socialism. And it prevents the Government from dictateing to the states, what if any religious ideas it can or can not freely excersize within the state or community. The local community has the right under the constitution to determine and establish standards for their community. The Federal Government has no constitutional right to abridge the right of the state in any way shape or form when it comes to religion within a community. Including what that community wishes to teach its children in PUBLIC schools. Make no mistake, Socialism is a religion and when the Federal Government dictates to a state what it can and can not teach it is establishing a religion of the state.
heybuldog69 | Oct 20, 2010, 11:37 PM EDT
The separation of Church and State Phrase came from a Thomas Jefferson commentary on the First Amedment.It is contained in the Letter to the Danbury Congregation whch he wrote in the early 1800's. The Pittburgh Kid is wrong in Stating it came from the Liberals in the 1960's.
elektros | Oct 20, 2010, 07:25 PM EDT
PittsburghKid, the man who first spoke about separation of church and state was Thomas Jefferson. Relatively new, you say? Sure, and isn't everything in America relatively new?
maloney | Oct 20, 2010, 07:22 PM EDT
O'Donnell may not be the picture perfect candidate but she is head & shoulders above the Dem. candidate from SC. Alvin Greene. She also isn't near as bad as Dem. House member from FLA. Allen Grayson. She knows the constitution better than Cahir, who gets paid to write lies. She uses less uppers than hollowbutt who preformed a blogging blitz on this post. I love how liberals will hide behind the constitution while at the same time try to destroy it.
seanomelbourne | Oct 20, 2010, 06:52 PM EDT
What mirth it's Cahir's fault for printing the article,not Christine's fault because she's ignorant.Even us Aussies know your 1st amendment. That's right Pittsburghkid!! mention the Muslims you bigots just can't stick to the point.If the people vote for O'Donnell it would be a sad indictment of the ignorance of the people.
Pittsburghkid | Oct 20, 2010, 06:41 PM EDT
O'Donnell is right. The Constitution never mentions Sepatation of Church and State. The Constitution does state that the Federal Government can not have a sponsered church like the "Church of England". The Constitution goes no futher on the subject of church and state. The term a wall between church and state was never in the Constitution. It is an interptation of the Constitution, base on liberal thinking. Up until 1962, pray was in all public schools. This idea of the separation of church and state is relatively new. Nov. 2, Americans are going to the polls to return America to it's roots. I love Ireland almost as much as I love America. I hope that O'Doherty is an exception. The No NOthings were an anti-immagration group of a different time. Illegal immigration is a real problem for the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. Wait until the Muslims start disrupting Ireland, you will welcome the British back.
warrenpoint00 | Oct 20, 2010, 06:40 PM EDT
Christine o donnell a know nothing. Tell us something we dont know Cahir.Pack all them kooks up an head them off to Alaska to the queen bee of kooks.God bless America
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 05:06 PM EDT
That's all you got left in your bag of subterfuge Southernman? Your unqualified candidate is crashing and burning due to her own ineptness and you want to call it sexism rather than admit she's unqualified and a kook?
Southernpride | Oct 20, 2010, 04:59 PM EDT
Cahir O'Doherty Has a lot of hate and anger towards women
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 04:13 PM EDT
P.S, the United States constitution isn't a "procedure." It's the founding document and the fabric of the nation. If you don't even know what's in it, how can you even dare to represent it?
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 04:07 PM EDT
Putting someone is a spacesuit doesn't make them an astronaut, Jim Thompson. Your parents generation knew that, why don't you?
JimThompson | Oct 20, 2010, 03:44 PM EDT
Name me one politian that really knows anything excfept to take care of himself. She might do better than many currently in office since she might be able to learn correct procedures.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 03:37 PM EDT
People like Christine O'Donnell are fundamentalists one step away from burning libraries and learning in favor of blind acceptance of gospel.
Dompedro | Oct 20, 2010, 03:33 PM EDT
the comments are more revealing and funnier than the article! But .... where does it say that cpflann can take away the vote of rightwingers? does someone else have control of the votes of, say, left wingers? Or are they the only ones to vote?
vincem13 | Oct 20, 2010, 03:11 PM EDT
And Comrade Coons could only name one of the five freedoms protected in the 1st Amendment. Does he get a pass because you and he both have party membership cards with Putin's signature on them?
cpflann | Oct 20, 2010, 02:58 PM EDT
One of the aims of the First Amendment is prevent ANY state religion-theistic or otherwise. Keep in mind what O'Donnell is promoting-the teaching of Creationism in the public schools, among other things. This is the same bunch that thinks that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, that the dinosaurs lived alongside humans and that Noah's Ark is buried somewhere on Mt. Ararat. This is fundamentalist Christianity at its worst.
BishopSean | Oct 20, 2010, 02:33 PM EDT
The Founding Fathers--including Jefferson and Franklin--were clear in wanting Christian moral philosophy to underpin our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. This has resulted in the greatest freedoms and prosperity in history. The USA is 1st country to legislate Freedom of Conscience and Religion. Secular humanists prefer to change this for moral relativism. By the way, Secular Humanism is a non-theistic religion, according to the US Supreme Court (1961 Torcaso v. Watkins). But most Americans have not decided to make Secular Humanism our nation's official religion. I hope we don't because that kind of thinking brought us Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Vorwoerd and Margaret Sanger. This topic is worth serious enquiry.
Ratslayer | Oct 20, 2010, 02:10 PM EDT
No more SOCIALISM!!!! NO more POLICE, FIRE, COURTS, SANITATION, ETC. If yer house is on fire, put it out yerself! Freaking libs -- always thinking about others and not themselves!!
cpflann | Oct 20, 2010, 01:34 PM EDT
I can't wait for this election to be over. I'm glad none of the right-wingers on this board have a vote. Christine is an embarrassment to the state of Delaware. She's raised enough money (95% from out of state) to live very comfortably for the next few years until Carper is up for re-election. Maybe she'll get a job for Fox News. She did say she has Hannity in her back pocket.
killowen | Oct 20, 2010, 01:33 PM EDT
sad sad .... who funds such gobble gooked cook. we're in deep doo doo.
TheOldPerfessor | Oct 20, 2010, 01:20 PM EDT
If you don't have the facts on your side, be sure and call names.
IrishTierney | Oct 20, 2010, 01:16 PM EDT
Speaking of an origional "KNOW NOTHING", Cahir O'Doherty you are just that! As well as a complete hack!!! The fact that they are paying you for that crap, you should resign and give them their money back.
IrishTierney | Oct 20, 2010, 01:10 PM EDT
Maybe Coons can explain how jobs are created. Oh wait he already tried to, and can't! Fcuking lib-tard moron! Keep being a yes man, and keep voting your party line on our way towards Obama socialism!!
Dub2Daingean58 | Oct 20, 2010, 01:02 PM EDT
Chair and O'Dowd = LIBERAL TO THE CORE.....But Nov. 2nd is coming T.G.
Nicomax | Oct 20, 2010, 12:50 PM EDT
Actually, I think she and her kind know the Constitution better than we are led to believe. It's just that they don't like many portions of it, including not allowing the government to establish religion. If they get their way, Christianity will become the approved belief system.
jdi2269 | Oct 20, 2010, 12:39 PM EDT
CAHIR HAS NEVER MET A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT HE DIDN'T LIKE AND NEVER MET A REPUBLICAN HE LIKES. THIS GUY ISN'T QUALIFIED TO WRITE A COLUMN. LETS' GUESS HIS EDUCATION....I'LL BET A 7TH GRADE DROPOUT!
irishmoonfrog | Oct 20, 2010, 12:39 PM EDT
It is an appalling comment on the absolutely horrendous job our public schools do in teaching fundamental Constitutional principles, that so many people respond to this by calling O'Donnell "ignorant". The 1st Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a religion OR from interfering with the practice of religion. Our public schools are producing sheep, indiscriminately indoctrinated into secular humanist statist collectivist claptrap!
glorybe1929 | Oct 20, 2010, 12:29 PM EDT
You all are original "know nothings" until you have had the experiance. Geo. Washington had never been a president or fought a war or whatever but with the proper motives and good values and knowing God does help a person in his first experiances. Help does come from above, or below depending on whom you ask.
britfether | Oct 20, 2010, 12:29 PM EDT
I also wanted to mention that if O'Donnell thinks it is OK to teach creationism in our schools, does she also think it is equally imperative that we teach that the Earth was orginally seeded by interplanetary humanoids from another galaxy who decided to settle here on earth ten thousand years ago, who were named Adam and Eve? Because there is about and equal number of wingnuts that think that theory is correct also.
TheOldPerfessor | Oct 20, 2010, 12:13 PM EDT
Actually, the first amendment does call for separation of Church and state according to Thomas Jefferson and two centuries of Supreme Courts. All of you scholars out there from the spin room will have a hard time finding the word God in the consitution - mainly because it isn't there. However, it appears many times in the Iranian constitution.
britfether | Oct 20, 2010, 12:12 PM EDT
OK, lets get right down to it. First of all, you right wingers should have enough smarts to understand what is implied by the First Amendment, then the Jerfferson letter and other following Supreme Court arguments that have clarified the separation of church and state. It's a no brainer! So lets move on to O'Donnell hersslf. After listening to her views on things like abortion (with no provisions for rape, etc), her views on masterbation, her statments about being in a coven when younger, and many of her other hair-brained opinions...is this the type of person you would compare to senators like Ted Kennedy, Jessi Helms, and many great Senators who have served our country? It is a travesty that someone who has been personally bankrupt, and used campaign funds to support her debts in the past, is even running for a Senate seat. To think that she has the mentality, background or political experience to serve a so many have on both sides of the aisle is absolutely insane. To think that she could hold up under comaparison to anyone presently holding a Senate seat on either side of the aile is a mockery of our political system and an affront to the political process. Cute just doesn't cut it in politics and she hasn't enough depth or knowledge or even the most rudimentary political beginning to say that she deserves to be elected. In this case, be honest about it, only your blind hatred of Obama and insane desire to regain the majority in the Senate is driving you to accept this joke of a candidate and stops you from walking away from this idiot. Face it GOP'ers, if she was running as a Democrat, you would have drawn, quartered, and chopped her up into little pieces by now. Why is it that you think that she is a Tea Bagger akin to the GOP and a FOX news hottie, that whitewashes the fact that she is a disgrace to our political system of electing officials to represent us?
susanna | Oct 20, 2010, 11:58 AM EDT
cpflann- Yes, I too attended Catholic schools and learned the Genesis creation story as a metaphor. However, my parents had to pay for me to attend private Catholic schools for there was no way we were going to learn our religion in a public school - and rightfully so. If there are people who want their kids to learn "intelligent design" let their parents send them to private Christian school.There is no place in the public schools for this kind of mumbo jumbo!
susanna | Oct 20, 2010, 11:50 AM EDT
God help us all if we do not allow separation of church and state. Just look at the history of the catholic church and other religious groups when it was not separated and the horrors that occurred as a result, including burning "witches" in this country.Just look at the horrors in the middle east from extremist religious factions as a result of religion not being separated from state. Look at what the Taliban has done and all "religious" extremist factions. Please, keep religion in the churches and out of my government!
susanna | Oct 20, 2010, 11:44 AM EDT
OMG - O'Donnell - like Palin - dumber than a box of rocks. Then there are her lies that she went to Harvard and Oxford! In my wildest dreams, I still can't imagine how stupid people like this even get as far as candidates! It is so embarrassing to me as an American!
diannerae | Oct 20, 2010, 11:37 AM EDT
Why not vote NPA and oust both parties?
pflynn70 | Oct 20, 2010, 11:24 AM EDT
Cahir, your liberal balls are showing once again and as usual, your dead wrong. At least O'Donnell has "balls" to go out and try to right the things you libs have so screwed up. You sit on your pious arse just writing snotty things about people who dissagree with you and your socialist Obama agenda. Guess what's coming on Nov2......
maloney | Oct 20, 2010, 11:17 AM EDT
Cahir...another liberal who obviously has not read the constitution. O'Donnell was right! It's also obvious how liberals do not understand what they read or just common bred lying arseholes. How are you going to twist & turn the arse kicking you are about to receive into a liberal win?
mayoman | Oct 20, 2010, 10:53 AM EDT
O'Donnell is clearly an irrational and disorganized thinker; if she thinks at all. This present fad of totally unqualified people running for important political office is very unfortunate indeed, and should not be encouraged. I'm confident that the people of Delaware will have the good common sense to reject O'Donnell. The majority sees her for the charlatan and grandstanding bigmouth that she really is. It must also be said that the separation of church and state is a sound and practical concept, and one that has worked admirably for the nation for over two hundred years. It is one of the pillars of our democracy, and should never be undermined by anyone.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 10:51 AM EDT
The theory of evolution is science. Intelligent design is a religious belief. Coons is trying to tell her that but she's not even qualified to be a school teacher never mind a United States Senator.
cpflann | Oct 20, 2010, 10:40 AM EDT
Some people are missing the context. Christine is advocating the teaching of Creationism in the public schools; the literal interpretation of Genesis as fact. Even in my Catholic school in the Bronx in the 1960's, we were taught that the Genesis creation story was a metaphor, not literal fact. Teaching the fundamentalist Christian view of Creationism as Science in public schools is, in fact, a government establishment of religion. As a Delaware resident (and voter), I know that Delaware is a very diverse state, with many scientists and technicians from around the world working in our technology, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Teaching a narrow fundamentalist Christian doctrine as science would be offensive to their religious views and to the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
maycomb | Oct 20, 2010, 10:32 AM EDT
What does "hate" have to do with it, FatherVol? The separation of church and state is and has always been accepted as one of the founding principles of our democracy. It sounds like you'd rather live in a theocracy--you'll have to move elsewhere.
FatherVol | Oct 20, 2010, 10:18 AM EDT
Excuse me! There is NO "separation of church and state" in the Constitution itseld. There is only a clause that prohibits the "establishment" of an offical church. And you liberals say conservatives and Republicans spew hate. You make me laugh!
maycomb | Oct 20, 2010, 10:03 AM EDT
O'Donnell's ignorance is frightening, and that is only exceeded by her seeming pride in that ignorance. And Bishop Sean, it is disingenuous to suggest that the founders meant only for religion to be safe from government interference and not the other way around as well.
himself1 | Oct 20, 2010, 09:52 AM EDT
O'Donnell is correct. Why are you trashing her?
rcrdskpr@aol.com | Oct 20, 2010, 09:39 AM EDT
o'donnell is correct. there is no law stating "separation of church and state". "there shall be no law establishing a state religion. " this is another attempt by liberal media to interpret the constitution in their own way, at the same trying make conservatives seem wrong.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 09:26 AM EDT
The constitution clearly states that congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion. This is freedom FROM religion. And the courts have understood and interpreted it as such.
hollabackgurl | Oct 20, 2010, 09:23 AM EDT
The exact words, "separation of church and state are not *in that form* in the US constitution. They were however in letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists. They have come to mean that Bishop Sean. I'm sure you realize.
johhnyb | Oct 20, 2010, 09:17 AM EDT
Coons quoted the First Amendment wrongly and O'Donnell is the ignorant one. Seems fair to me.
BishopSean | Oct 20, 2010, 09:09 AM EDT
Hi, Cahir. The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohobiting the free exercise thereof..." The "Wall of Separation of Church and State" statement is from the 1813 Jefferson letter to the Danbury CT Baptists, assuring them that Government would not interfere in their freedom of religion. In brief, it was to protect religious freedom from government; not to officially establish a secular humanist government. Regards.