I see that there is much outrage amongst Republican bloggers over 9 Democrats voting no on H. Res. 847, a bill recognizing Christmas as an important holiday to Christians.

(Yes, apparently we need Republican Congressman Steve King from Iowa to tell us that Christmas is important to Christians.)

But anyway, the real outrage is because of two other bills recognizing Ramadan (H. Res. 635) and Diwali (H. Res. 747). Both of those bills passed the House unanimously. (Except for the people who chose not to vote, who I noted with no small amount of suspicion were mostly Republican in the case of Ramadan.) (By the way, I can't seem to get direct links to the text of these bills to work with that silly THOMAS bill tracking system.)

Virginia's own Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA-3rd) explained his rationale for voting against the Christmas bill on his web site, but I think he missed the basic problem with the bill. It's the only one of the three that specifically links the founding of America with a religion -- namely Christianity. That alone would be enough for me to vote against it, since I'm of the opinion that America should be religion-neutral. (Actually I would strike all three of these bills from the records since they are all silly and meaningless.)

Out of curiosity (or maybe it was growing dread) I went looking for any other bills like this.

I found that H. Res. 579 from the 109th Congress, expressing a sense to protect Christmas for Christians, passed 401-22. It was sponsored by our very own late Rep. Jo-Ann Davis (R-VA-1st). (Rep. Bobby Scott also voted against this bill, so at least he's consistent.)

Also noteworthy was H. Res. 630 from the 109th Congress, expressing a sense to protect all holidays for all religions. It was killed in commitee.

I found no other references to any bills recognizing Christmas in the 101st through 108th Congress. Congress is apparently only recently sticking its nose into religious holidays.

Why is Congress wasting time on this inane talk radio fodder instead of working on important things like the alternative minimum tax?