Yes, in this case, most of the extremists have been on the Republican religious side and the federal government had no right to intrude. I was talking in general about radical elements in both parties becoming more influential and prominent, and in the case of the Democratic Party, increasingly dominant and exclusionary. I believe the MoveOn / Michael Moore contingent has pushed and is pushing more moderate left-leaning people away, while the Republican Party may be starting to head down a similar radicalised path, alienating more moderate right-leaning people.

Just my opinion.

As for that memo, these two points in a recent article summarise for me what is especially problematic about it:

(2) It is very poorly done, containing a number of typographical errors, failing to get the number of the Senate bill correct, and using points cribbed word-for-word from an advocacy group's website.

(5) No one has reported seeing any Republican distributing the suspect memo; the only people confirmed to have passed out the memo were <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/politics/22cong.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=e5958216ce6517fb&ex=1269147600&partner=rssuserland">Democratic staffers.

I think some people's righteous anger at the Christian zealots is clouding their judgement with regard to this memo. Both sides can play dirty. The fact is the source of the memo remains unidentified and it is not typical of the type of document it is purported to be.

But, like the Schiavo case, some will believe what they want to believe.