UPDATE: I was misled by google. If you put in "Exodus Ministries (the words used by President Bush), the first listing is the group linked below. I am, however, informed by readers that Exodus Ministry is in fact a group working with ex—offenders. See this website: 

To quote Gilda Radner's character Emily Litella*, "Never mind."

False alarm.

*I am indebted to reader Lane Beneke for correcting my earlier version, which credited Gilda's character Roseanne Rosanadana with the tag line.

Here is the original post, for the record:

President Bush lobbed an explosive softball at the Democrats, right over the plate in the strike zone, and they will not be able to help themselves. Swing they must and will. And it will blow up in their faces.

So far, not even NPR's Nina Totenberg seems to have noticed a note the President made in his brief remarks this morning, about Harriet Miers's work with various volunteer groups: her work with Exodus Ministries:

Exodus is the largest Christian referral and information ministry dealing with homosexual issues in our world today....

Exodus is a worldwide interdenominational, Christian organization called to encourage, strengthen, unify and equip Christians to minister the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ to those affected by homosexuality.

Nothing will arouse the blue state secularist homophile base of the Democratic Party like someone involved in Exodus. The group has been vilified extensively by some homosexual groups, which find the suggestion that anyone could leave a homosexual lifestyle with the assistance of religious faith anathema.

Expect the loonier elements of the flamboyant gay left to engage in their street theatre antics. Expect assertions that Ms. Meirs hates homosexuals. Expect assertions that her views are extreme and outside the mainstream. And of course, expect protestations that she is full of hate and a repressed lesbian herself.

This will trigger a look at the other side of the question. In sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ms. Meirs, a skilled advocate, will have full oportunity to present her own views.

This is a battle the Democrat left can't win with a majority of the American public, which sees religious faith as a good thing, and which accepts the rights of homosexuals to determine their own orientation, including the right to change to heterosexuality.

As far as I am concerned about the coming attacks, Dirty Harry summed up my feelings: "Go ahead — make my day."

By offering raw meat to the most flamboyant wing of the cultural left base of the Democrats, President Bush has once again demonstrated his poker playing skills. They will see his bet and raise. They are so convinced that the hand they hold is right, true, and just, that they must win,  that they will bet the Upper East Side co—op (few of them own a farm).

But they are a fringe element, as far as the vast middle of the American public is concerned. And no issue typifies this more than the entire matrix of questions surrounding religion and sexuality.

Expect an entertaining confirmation process. I am betting on it.

Thomas Lifson   10 03 05  6:48 AM PDT