After Coons brought up the First Amendment, which reads in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,” O’Donnell shot back: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?”

O’Donnell’s campaign pushed back after the debate claiming the candidate “was not questioning the separation of church and state as subsequently established by the courts.”

“She simply made the point that the phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution,” O’Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran said in a statement.

Here in Pennsylvania, we have an extreme candidate running for the US Senate, but in this election of extreme crazies, all over the place, Pat Toomey almost looks banal. Unlike Christine O’Donnell, he is a pretty smart guy, and that may be why his brand of extreme conservatism  isn’t getting much scrutiny. The crazies are easier copy for the media to write and pander. But he is no less dangerous. Toomey is a Wall Street boy, and I believe was one of the derivatives guys, which is what led to the housing crisis and the need to bail out the banks. He’s all for privatizing social security, and no regulation.

But perhaps, more dangerous than smart Toomey alone, is the connection of smart Wall Street profiteers with Tea Bagging crazy types like O’Donnell, and her gaffe about the Constitution deserves a bit more attention. Either, she just isn’t that aware that the Constitution also contains all of the amendments, and her campaign’s attempt to back out of the gaffe, was just the best shot they had. When you paint yourself into a corner, there isn’t much room to move, and so whatever attempt you make will come off as stupid. Or, she, (and others?) are advocating for a re-rendering of our founding documents, which would be thoroughly scary. The ability to amend the Constitution was built into the document on purpose for a real reason.

So, imagine a smart conservative, like Toomey, and how Wall Street, Big Oil, and foreign governments can benefit from folks like him if he is backed up and supported by those who are totally on the fringe when it comes to the most basic tenets of our democracy.

This re-rendering of our founding documents, along with the appropriation of events like the Boston Tea Party, reminds me of the way the far right religious crazies make up their own way of reading the Holy Bible such that it supports their positions alone. Like the crazies who think the KJV was the original and only acceptable version of the text.

Recent polls show Joe Sestak pulling ahead of Toomey, however, it appears that now, Rove’s PAC is pouring as much as a million dollars into PA to try and get Toomey elected. We have a choice. A politician who is behind the issues important to real Pennsylvanians, including progressives and the LGBT community like Joe SEstak, or can can turn over the state the Wall Street profiteering and Pat Toomey. If you want to see LGBT rights have any chance of progress, it is essential that you get out and vote for Joe Sestak.

Christine O’Donnell unsure on separation of church and state – The Hill’s Ballot Box.