In the December 20th edition of the New York Times Magazine, Washington correspondent David Kirkpatrick writes that Robert George is “this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker.”

Kirkpatrick goes on to profile Dr. George as a politically-engaged scholar who has earned respect and notice throughout the conservative world, and an effective leader who will help to shape the landscape of American politics in years to come.

Here are a small selection of passages which we here at the American Principles Project think best describe the career and goals of our founder, Dr. George.

Dr. George, as Kirkpatrick points out, is deeply respected by leading conservatives for his passionate articulation of these principles.

“Glenn Beck, the Fox News talker and a big George fan, likes to introduce him as “one of the biggest brains in America,” or, on one broadcast, “Superman of the Earth.” Karl Rove told me he considers George a rising star on the right and a leading voice in persuading President George W. Bush to restrict embryonic stem-cell research. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told me he numbers George among the most-talked-about thinkers in conservative legal circles. And Newt Gingrich called him “an important and growing influence” on the conservative movement, especially on matters like abortion and marriage.” 

Dr. George’s ideas and counsel about the application of American principles to contemporary questions is sought by  some of the GOP’s most visible candidates.

“When George W. Bush became president in 2001, George was an active player in weekly White House conference calls for Catholic allies. Bush later awarded George a Presidential Citizens Medal. During the 2008 campaign, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain each sought George’s counsel.” 

Dr. George is attempting to change the narrative of modern U.S. politics, bringing it back to the principles which made it great, and applying them to the new challenges of today.

“In the American culture wars, George wants to redraw the lines. It is the liberals, he argues, who are slaves to a faith-based “secularist orthodoxy” of “feminism, multiculturalism, gay liberationism and lifestyle liberalism.” Conservatives, in contrast, speak from the high ground of nonsectarian public reason.” 

Dr. George has founded a distinctive organization named the American Principles Project to defend these principles and educate the next generation of Americans.

“Alarmed at signs that the Republican Party was moving away from cultural issues, he recently founded a new group called the American Principles Project, which aims to build a grass-roots movement around his ideas. “His new venture will make him a major political player,” the conservative writer Fred Barnes predicted in The Weekly Standard.” 

Dr. George’s standing in the academic world earns him a place in any debate, providing him the opportunity to champion fundamental principles and show how they apply to the challenges our nation and civilization face today.

“To a movement still stinging from decades of condescension, George brings gleaming Ivory Tower credentials: degrees in law and theology from Harvard; a doctorate in philosophy of law from Oxford; a Supreme Court fellowship; and the endowed chair at Princeton that Woodrow Wilson once held.”

Dr. George is respected on both sides of the political-ideological divide, confirming his belief that principles ought to unite us.

“George’s left-leaning colleagues say he is unfailingly polite and even helpful. He co-teaches­ a great-books seminar with the African-American scholar Cornel West, who told me he thinks of George as ’just a nice brother’.” 

Dr. George’s influence crosses the divides between religious groups and between religious and secular thinkers.

“George’s scholarship has earned him accolades from religious and secular institutions alike. In one notable week two years ago, he received invitations to deliver prestigious lectures at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Harvard Law School.”  

Dr. George has helped prominent religious leaders to make compelling arguments in defense of human life.

“With George’s assistance, [Newark Archbishop John] Myers wrote a letter laying out the case that abortion, as the taking of a life, was a crime against the natural law of human reason, not merely a violation of Catholic theology. Therefore, Myers and George argued, Catholic politicians and voters were wrong to write off the church’s teachings as a matter of personal faith. What’s more, the letter warned, voting for a candidate or a law upholding abortion rights would almost invariably put a Catholic so far outside church teachings that he should not receive communion. As the first systematic rebuttal to Mario Cuomo and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, the letter kicked off a now-familiar debate inside the church. ‘Whenever I venture out into the public square, I would almost invariably check it out with Robby first,’ Myers, now the archbishop of Newark, told me. Many of the bishops, Myers says, rely on George as “a touchstone” and ‘the pre-eminent Catholic intellectual’.” 

Dr. George is one of the foremost defenders of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.

“[Dr. George] is in many ways the public face of the conservative side in the most urgent culture-war battle of the day. The National Organization for Marriage, the advocacy group fighting same-sex marriage in Albany and Trenton, Maine and California, has made him its chairman. Before the 2004 election, he helped a coalition of Christian conservative groups write their [federal marriage] proposed amendment.”

To learn more about Dr. George and the efforts of the American Principles Project, visit http://www.americanprinciplesproject.org

Syndicated columnist and National Review editor Rich Lowry:

Harry Reid got his 60. Ben Nelson resorted to the typical Washington expedient in such situations and bought into a few window-dressing compromises, in exchange for an enormous Medicaid benefit to his state. The Cornhusker Kickback joins the Louisiana Purchase as the latest evidence that there’s nothing like a hundred million or so in federal dollars to alleviate a senator’s deeply held concerns about the substance of Obamacare. Nelson’s sellout is a gigantic step toward the passage of the bill, but it’s not over yet. Here are five obstacles that still stand between Reid-Pelosi and a White House signing ceremony:

[Edited for length]

1. Public Revulsion. The bill was already under water in every major public-opinion poll, and opposed by a margin of almost 2 to 1 in the latest CNN poll. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll put its support at freezing, 32 percent. A few ticks downward and the bill will be in the 20s.

2. The Stupak Dozen. Nelson cut a deal so far short of the Stupak language in the House that the National Right to Life Committee is going to score the cloture vote on the bill as a vote to subsidize abortion on demand. That won’t matter to anyone in the Senate, but it could have a major effect in the House.

3. Who Pays? If this disagreement over financing doesn’t represent as dire a threat to the future of the bill as the other factors we are cataloguing, it’s still a stumbling block.

4. Feeling Blue. As Michael Barone points out, nearly 70 percent of the Blue Dogs represent districts that voted for John McCain. A vote for this bill must look even more like a potentially career-ending decision now than it did the first time around.

5. The Left. Progressives are pained, at what should be their very moment of triumph. The Senate dashed their dreams of the public option. Without it, many on the left are abandoning ship.

I'm watching C-SPAN during the final hours of the debate which is proceeding Senator Reid's motion to end debate on his health care bill.

Here is a recap of what's happened so far this weekend, from the Associated Press:

Senate Democrats confidently advanced heath care legislation Sunday toward a make-or-break test vote in a push for Christmas-week passage. Republicans vowed to resist what they appeared unable to stop.

... Under Senate rules, Democrats needed 60 votes on three separate occasions to pass the measure. The first and most critical test was set for about 1 a.m. Monday. Democrats said Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's announcement Saturday that he would vote for the bill gave them the support they needed.

Politico's Carrie Brown says that Nelson's "health deal hinged on abortion."

It also involved money - and a lot of it - promised to Nelson's state of Nebraska:

[Nelson] won an agreement that the federal government will forever pick up Nebraska’s share of a proposed Medicaid expansion, a deal worth about $100 million in the first decade, according to a Senate aide. He carved Nebraska’s non-profit insurers out of a proposed industry tax.

And he built new restrictions on federal financing of abortions into the bill, infuriating groups on both sides of the emotional issue and almost certainly touching off a withering fight over the limits when House and Senate Democrats hash out a final compromise. 

A second Politico article says that health plans are on a "collision course" (presuming that  Reid's bill makes it out of the Senate) once the debate shifts to reconciling the Senate version with the one passed by Democrats in the House.

update - the Senate ended debate and passed the bill on a party line vote of 60-40.

From our friends at the Public Discourse:

As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of the Species, it is time to realize that the best way to honor his legacy is to fight its over-extension and misapplication into the realm of politics. The second in a two-part series - part one is available here.

Charles Darwin has never had a lack of enemies, but today he is more threatened by his own misguided disciples than by any opponents of science. Consider, in the first place, Peter Singer and his call for A Darwinian Left, published in 1999. Singer’s aim is to convince the Left to drop Karl Marx and take up Charles Darwin as its main source of intellectual inspiration.

This change is necessary, Singer holds, because the events of the twentieth century have discredited Marx by revealing his inadequate understanding of human nature. Marx dismissed fears that the creation of an all-powerful communist state would lead to tyranny, because he believed that the social and economic transformation that would make such a state possible would also transform human nature so that tyranny would no longer have to be feared.

This was a mistake, and, Singer implies, a responsible Left will have to avoid it by embracing a more realistic account of human nature, such as the one offered by Darwinian biology.

[Read more of Part II.]

You'll find the latest on Obama's so-called "Safe Schools Czar" Kevin Jennings below, taken from across the web.

Please don't forget to visit http://www.ExpelJennings.com to contact your Senator, and join our Facebook group (now with over 1,700 members!).

Americans are passionate about preserving the innocence of their kids, and they will not quietly stand by when some try to harm them. Thank you for taking a stand on this most fundamental of issues.

And now the update....

• The Left's Corruption of Youth - Robin of Berkeley at American Thinker
• Dr. Janice Crouse says "Kevin Jennings Must Go"
• Making Schools Safe for Exploitation - Bob Weir at American Thinker
• WND reports that Teachers [were] given professional credit for 'Fistgate'
• Robert Knight writes on "How to Defend an Indefensible “Safe Schools Czar”
• The latest from BigGovernment.com on Jennings
• Charles Winecoff writes on Jennings and his chief public defender Media Matters

From the USA Today blog On Politics:

Ben Nelson told a Nebraska radio station today that the compromise language on abortion doesn't go far enough. Speaking on KLIN, Nelson said he received compromise language from Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who also opposes abortion. However, Nelson said: "As it is right now, without further modifications, it isn't sufficient."

Nelson said the Democratic leadership has "added some important things," including more funding to combat teen-age pregnancy and an increased tax credit for low-income families to adopt children. He says there has been a "lot of improvement on the legislation, but the basic question on the funding of abortion has not been fully answered yet."

The radio interview can be heard here.

Nelson is the only member of the Democratic caucus who says he won't vote for the bill. "As it is right now, I can't and don't," Nelson said of voting for the bill. Abortion isn't the only issue that concerns Nelson. Congressional Quarterly today reported:

"The Nebraska centrist on Wednesday outlined concerns with a disability insurance program that the bill would create, cuts in Medicare payments to home health care providers and nursing homes, and unspecified tax increases. In addition, he expressed concerns that the bill would underpay some Medicare providers while not doing enough to contain long-term health care costs."

Politico has more on this fast-developing saga.

If Senator Reid is going to succeed in bringing this health care debate in the Senate to an end by Christmas, the next 48 hours are critical.

Nelson's concerns are a reminder that fundamental life issues are not the only severely-problematic issue with this current health care proposal.

The pressure continues to mount against Obama's so-called "safe schools czar." This is happening in the face of continued inaction on the part of the President, and silence from Jennings himself.

Today, Rep. Steve King renewed his call for Obama to fire Jennings, as reported by The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

The conservative lawmaker penned a letter to Obama to express his disappointment that the administration did not respond to his first letter in October. The previous letternwas co-signed by 52 other GOP lawmakers and called for Jennings' ouster.

King also refers to a resolution introduced by a Republican congressman pushing for the czar's resignation. [APP blogged that story here.]

"I am disappointed that concerned Members of Congress have been forced to resort to legislative action as a result of your unwillingness to act on this important matter," King wrote.

Jordan Fabian has a copy of Rep. King's full letter here.

This morning, Jim Hoft at BigGovernment.com published the text and signatures of our APIA coalition letter demanding that the Senate H.E.L.P. Committee fire Jennings.

Also, today MassResistance.org has published claims that Jennings is the original author of the "Heterosexism Questionnaire" which has been "used all over the country since the mid-1990's."

If all of these allegations against Jennings are false, why has he refused to deny any of them?

Pelosi has said that she is in "campaign mode" and is done for the year. Politico has more.

Senator Reid, meanwhile, said this morning that he is "going to finish this health care bill before we leave here for the holidays."

However, even if the Senate were to pass the bill, there would be no one in the House to approve it, so the continued rush makes little sense, except for the enduring fact that the longer this bill is debated in Congress, the less the American people support it.

An excerpt from his speech today on the Senate floor:

‘And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen. That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private’

Sounds like a scare tactic to me:

ABC's Karen Travers reports from Washington:

President Obama told ABC News’ Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.

The president laid out a dire scenario of what will happen if his health care reform effort fails.

... The president said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are on an “unsustainable” trajectory and if there is no action taken to bring them down, “the federal government will go bankrupt.”

“This actually provides us the best chance of starting to bend the cost curve on the government expenditures in Medicare and Medicaid,” Obama said. (ABC News)

Now tell me how creating a huge new entitlement program will fix the spiraling costs associaed with our old huge entitlement programs.

Today our sister organization American Principles in Action delivered this letter to the offices of Senators on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

This committee has oversight over the Department of Education which employs Kevin Jennings. The coalition letter we delivered to them was signed by eleven other organizations.

You are welcome to learn more about Kevin Jennings at http://www.expeljennings.org/

Also, our "Expel Kevin Jennings" Facebook group has over 1,200 members!

The Susan B. Anthony list has a new advertisement targeting Senator Bob Casey on abortion:

StopSpendingOurFuture.org has released a video that puts current levels of government spending in perspective historically, adjusted for inflation. It's an amazing video:

The latest happening on the Hill and in the White House, in these critical days.

Senate Democrats are moving to cut the medicare buy-in, hoping they can pick up enough moderate votes to pass Senator Reid's legislation out of the Senate by Christmas:

Senate Democrats late Monday said they were moving toward eliminating a Medicare expansion from the health care overhaul -- the last vestige of a public insurance option -- as their party leaders tried to appease moderates in pursuit of the 60 votes needed to pass President Obama's top agenda item by Christmas.

... The Medicare expansion plan, which would have allowed people ages 55 to 64 to buy in to the program, was designed to pacify liberals in exchange for dropping a robust, government-run public insurance option last week. But moderates, including Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut independent, said he wouldn't support it, citing fear over adding to the deficit and burdening taxpayers.

James Capretta, writing for National Review Online, lays out several arguments for why he hopes Senator Lieberman does not cave in to pressure....

.... however, Lieberman now appears to be almost on board:

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, said Tuesday he would vote in favor of a health-care reform bill if it has no public option and early Medicare buy-in.

"I'm going to be in a position in which I'm ready to vote for health-care reform," Mr. Lieberman said this morning on Capitol Hill.

The President, meanwhile, is making his final play for Senate passage:

In a provocative argument designed to rescue his foundering health care plan, President Barack Obama will warn Senate Democrats in a White House meeting Tuesday that this is the "last chance" to pass comprehensive reform.

Obama will contend that if it fails now, no other president will attempt it, aides said.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told POLITICO: "If President Obama doesn't pass health reform, it’s hard to imagine another president ever taking on this Herculean task. For those whose life's work is reforming health care, this may be the last train leaving the station."

Previewing the message, Vice President Joe Biden said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe": "If health care does not pass in this Congress ... it's going to be kicked back for a generation."

All of this happens with the backdrop of tea party activists and other concerned citizens converging on Washington DC today for the "Code Red Rally." Their message?

"Hands off our health care!"

Maxim Lott at Fox News picks up on some of the most recent controversies surrounding Obama's so-called "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings:

President Obama's "Safe Schools Czar," already a target of social conservatives for his past drug abuse and what they say is his promotion of homosexuality in schools, is under fresh attack after it was revealed that the pro-gay group he formerly headed recommends books his critics say are pornographic.

The group under fire is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which Kevin Jennings, now the assistant deputy secretary for safe and drug-free schools in the Department of Education, founded and ran from 1990 to 2008.

GLSEN says it works to create a welcoming atmosphere for homosexual students in schools, and that effort includes recommending books for students of all ages.

But critics say many of the books, particularly some that are targeted for children between Grades 7 to 12, are inappropriately explicit. A full list is available at the blog Gateway Pundit, which has published dozens of controversial passages from the books.

You can find APP's reporting on Kevin Jennings at this tag.

Our "Expel Kevin Jennings!" Facebook group has almost 1,200 members now.

The latest from the Hill, as reported by Politico:

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

Lieberman threw health care reform into doubt Sunday when he told Reid that he would filibuster the bill if it allowed Americans ages 55 to 64 to purchase coverage in Medicare. His comments on CBS’s “Face the Nation” set off a series of private meetings Sunday between the Senate leadership and top White House aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who encouraged Reid to cut the deal with Lieberman, the official said. The White House declined to comment.

Reid has called a special Democratic caucus meeting for 5:30 p.m. Monday.

As reported by the New York Times, Lieberman ruled out voting for the current bill when he was interviewed over the weekend.

Liberal bloggers are furious at Lieberman, as Mark Hemingway points out.

Finally, an inside report from Patriot Room:

So what will happen in the next 48 hours? CBO will give its scoring tomorrow or Wednesday in response to a request or series of requests by Reid that he did not share publicly - so few know what questions CBO will give an answer to until the scoring comes out. It is possible that the scoring may be little different from previous ones.

Sens. Bayh, Ben Nelson, Lieberman, Webb, and Lincoln are all possible defectors. A few others may exist. The end game will not be just one senator peeling away - one senator's name associated with denying the President. It will probably be a group of 3 or 4 that will announce in concert and, if so, more may join.

The next 48 hours is the key time in the life and death of Obamacare.

Now, I believe my sources as impeccable, naturally. But John Hawkins at Right Wing News has his sources and has heard of slippage to January. Goes to show the difference of views even among Senate insiders.

Encouraging news for hopes that the flawed health care legislation won't make it out of the Senate:

Senate Democrats who thought they had found a workable compromise on health care reform learned otherwise from independent Sen. Joe Lieberman over the weekend.

The Connecticut senator, whose vote is critical to the bill's prospects, threatened Sunday to join Republicans in opposing health care legislation if it permits uninsured individuals as young to 55 to purchase Medicare coverage.

Lieberman expressed his opposition twice Sunday: first in an interview with CBS, and more strongly later, according to Democratic officials, in a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (AP)

From the minority:

Republican opponents say Medicare's low reimbursement rates for hospitals and doctors will drive up premiums for those with private insurance — or will stop medical providers from accepting new Medicare patients. "Medicare costs are going to skyrocket, but access is going to go down," says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. (USA Today)

The Washington Examiner mentiones that Democrat Senators Ben Nelson and Claire McCaskill have stated their vote is not yet gauranteed for Reid's health care legislation.

I will be discussing the final stages of the health care debate on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo at 8PM EST tonight. You may watch the interview live online here.

A press release from the top republican on the House Education and Labor Committee:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. John Kline (R-MN) ... today repeated his call for the Obama Administration to immediately remove Kevin Jennings from his post as the top politically appointed official responsible for keeping America’s schools safe and drug free. Media reports have surfaced in recent days bringing to light numerous examples of Jennings’ lack of judgment, including his affiliation with organizations and events that have come under fire for promoting sexual activity among children. Jennings was not confirmed to his post by the U.S. Senate, leaving his appointment solely at the discretion of Administration officials.

“It has been clear for months that Mr. Jennings demonstrates neither the judgment nor the responsibility to effectively serve in this post. He has no professional experience that qualifies him as an expert on keeping our children safe and free from drugs; indeed, news accounts have documented a track record that puts children in danger, whether it’s Mr. Jennings’ failure to report the sexual abuse of a student or his association with events that promote promiscuity among children,” said Kline. “I don’t know what more this Administration needs to see. The evidence is clear, and mounting. Kevin Jennings is the wrong individual to entrust with the safety of our schools, and he should immediately be removed from office.”

Earlier this week Rep. Michael Burgess used time on the floor of the House of Representatives to call for the administration to immediately fire Kevin Jennings.

We posted video of his speech here.

This is also, of course, our own efforts at American Principles in Action here:

http://www.expeljennings.com

It is disingenuous for Democrats to sell a bill as fiscally responsible when it is clearly not:

he chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, has estimated that if the Senate health care bill became law, it would make the United States health care system more expensive than if we simply did nothing -- undermining the primary rationale for Obama's health care push.

In a report released last night, which reaches similar conclusions to its analysis of the House bill, CMS found that if the Senate health care bill passed, America would spend $234 billion more on health care over the next 10 years than if we did nothing.

As Obama put it in his June speech to the American Medical Association, "If we fail to act, one out of every five dollars we earn will be spent on health care within a decade." Yet if we adopt the Senate bill, spending will actually rise to 20.9 percent of GDP, according to CMS, compared to 20.8 percent if we simply do nothing.

CMS also found that if the proposed cuts to payment rates go into affect, then medical providers would start losing money and be forced to drop Medicare. Specifically, it said that 20 percent of providers to Medicare's hospital insurance program "would become unprofitable within the 10-year projection period."

By 2019, CMS estimates the bill would insure 33 million more people, while still leaving 24 million without insurance. Of the 33 million who have new insurance, 18 million would be added to the Medicaid rolls.

More fascinating details from Philip Klein at the American Spectator.