American Theocracy?
His career apparently stalled after superiors chided him for casting the war on terrorism in religious terms , Army Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin on Tuesday was caught up in a campaign for the U.S. Senate and a budding contest for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
A letter from U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., urging Boykin’s promotion and transfer to a high-profile assignment drew howls of outrage from a potential Democratic challenger to Allen. […]
A veteran Virginia political analyst, meanwhile, saw the letter as a sign that Allen continues to look beyond this year’s Virginia campaign and is bolstering his support among Christian conservatives for the 2008 presidential race.
Allen “saw what happened between Jerry Falwell and John McCain and he’s plenty worried about it,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Institute of Politics.
Lynchburg-based evangelist Falwell and Sen. McCain, who were foes when McCain sought the White House in 2000, recently mended fences and McCain is set to be the commencement speaker at Falwell-founded Liberty University.
Like Allen, McCain is considered a 2008 presidential prospect; neither has declared his candidacy .
“Conservative Christians are a large portion of the turnout in early Republican caucuses and primaries,” Sabato observed.
Allen “needs to depend on that group” if he is serious about gaining the nomination, he said. […]
Referring to a Somali warlord, who had said God would shield him from American troops, Boykin told congregants that “I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.”
Boykin later insisted that his references to an idol referred to the warlord’s corruption. He is not “anti-Islam,” he insisted.
I’ve long had Boykin’s quote on the sidebar over