Law students don’t have a reputation for spontaneously bursting into laughter, but that’s what happened during a debate at a Delaware law school when Delaware Republican Senate candidate (and avowed anti-onanist) Christine O’Donnell challenged her opponent’s assertion that the principle of separation of church and state is contained in the the Constitution. Her comments prompted a lot of guffaws from the audience, but liberal commentator Peter Daou points out that O’Donnell is simply (if clumsily) repeating a talking point that is popular among Christian conservatives: the words “separation of church and state” don’t appear verbatim in the Constitution, which means the whole concept was fabricated by godless liberals after one of their cocaine-fueled orgies. O’Donnell may not care if the audience laughs at her because she knows she has almost zero chance of winning the election. Instead, she may be burnishing her far-right credentials for a post-election gig as an authoritative voice of the Tea Party.
If that is her strategy, it’s a clever one. The Tea Party needs telegencic spokespersons, but I’m not sure O’Donnell is ready for the Sunday talk show circuit. Silly me; she probably won’t venture far from the Fox News lair.
