As Sen. John McCain recently remarked, “elections have consequences.” President Barack Obama signed the “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act” into law on Thursday, fulfilling a campaign promise and handing the gay rights community one of its most sought-after achievements.

The controversy over President Barack Obama’s speech to America’s school children scheduled for Tuesday morning continues to incite controversy. On the surface, this seems incredible. Why would a speech calling for students to remain in school and set personal goals for themselves incite any controversy at all? Is this just another eruption of the Culture War?

Americans attempting to reconcile President Clinton’s sex scandals with his membership in a Baptist church received a little assistance from the November 2 1998 issue of Newsweek magazine. The newsmagazine presented an analysis of the President as “Bill the Baptist.” It goes a long way toward explaining the President - and the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Rep. Jim McDermott is a man on a mission. The congressman represents Washington state’s 7th district, and he is known as one of the most liberal members of the U. S. House of Representatives. His crusading efforts for the liberal cause include advocacy of national health insurance, defense of partial-birth abortion, and support for gay rights-including homosexual marriages.

In one of the strangest political reverses in history, the 1998 elections have been turned into a referendum on the Religious Right and the Republican Congress. Democratic leaders, on cue from the White House, have successfully turned the tables on conservatives by portraying President Clinton as the victim of a moralistic witch hunt.

Just as the skies of Baghdad were illuminated by detonating cruise missles and America braced itself for the impeachment of the President, high drama has turned to melodrama and farce. Speaker-elect Bob Livingston’s forced admission of adultery has underlined the lack of moral credibility which evidently poses no barrier to high office in American government. Americans have every right to ask: Is there no one in Washington who can keep his pants on?

Jimmy Carter’s flamboyant departure from the Southern Baptist Convention drew the headlines away from the presidential election—if just for a moment. George Bush and Al Gore took a temporary back seat to America’s most hyperactive ex-president as Carter railed against the SBC and announced that he is no longer identifying with America’s largest evangelical denomination.