Unfortunately not smarter than he looks

It seems like only yesterday when Mark Tapscott (with a little help from his friends) was the last man standing trying to prove that the OU Bomber, Joel Henry Hinrichs was some kind of Islamofootballgamehater . Even after a suicide note was found and it was disclosed that Hinrichs was a prototypical loner who had suffered from depression since he was ten, Tapcott couldn't seem to shake the notion that the government under George Bush was covering up for a possible terrorist. Probably because Hinrich's roommate was a Pakistani, and you know what those people are like.

Today Tapscott, ever the cynical seen-it-all world weary journalist, reported that Christmas is dead in Oklahoma!:

Oklahoma attorney general Drew Edmondson drew national scorn earlier this year when he arrested Paul Jacob of the Sam Adams Alliance and Citizens in Charge, and two colleagues on trumped-up charges that they violated a discredited state law requiring all circulators of initiative petititons (sic) in Sooner Land to be residents.

Now the Okie Napoleon is banning Christmas!

I am not making this up (because I am from Oklahoma and this guy is an embarrassment).

Well I don't know about you, but that's good enough for me.

Unfortunately it's not good enough for reality:

Well, I will say this for Drew Edmondson, he can display a little sense of humor. In response to the furor incited by the Liberty Counsel news release earlier today, Edmondson issued the following statement denying that he ever told anybody they couldn't say "Merry Christmas."

Edmondson's statement follows here in its entirety. You can find his official web site here:

"Attorney General Drew Edmondson didn’t give a second thought to a caller from Texas who called his office this morning to wish him a merry Christmas. His executive assistant returned the man’s well wishes and hung up the phone. In fact, no one in the attorney general’s office thought it at all strange to receive Christmas greetings until the calls started pouring in – by the dozens.

"The problem seemingly started after a group calling themselves the 'Liberty Counsel' issued a press release stating that an administrator had ordered employees at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) in Weatherford to refrain from using the word Christmas in oral or written form. According to the press release, the action was taken after the university received legal advice to that effect from Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

“'Some of the callers were quite upset,' Edmondson said. 'The idea that a state official would ban Christmas just days before such a holy day obviously struck a chord with a number of people.'

The problem, however, is that no such advice has been issued. The callers were getting their information off of Internet blogs, and they were taking it to heart...

You know, blogs just like the one Mark writes. Although you would never know it from his post where he blames it on the Liberty Counsel news release that he uncritically reproduced because... well, he's from Oklahoma and that other guy is a complete embarrassment so it must be true. Nevertheless, Mark concludes:

But this story is far from complete. Stay tuned. And Merry Christmas!

And, sure enough, there is:

1. LIBERTY COUNSEL issues a news release claiming that: “Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), has issued a disturbing policy which requires all employees to refrain from using the word 'Christmas' in oral or written form. This directive was given by the university upon legal advice of the Oklahoma Attorney General, W.A. Drew Edmondson.” The release quoted Matt Staver, Liberty Counsel's head honcho and dean of the Liberty University School of Law, and noted that a demand letter had been sent to SWOSU officials.

2. Figuring the head of an accredited law school would not have issued a news release without having confirmed its contents beforehand, I posted on the issue here on Tapscott's Copy Desk, quoting the release in full and noting that Edmondson is the same guy who charged the "Oklahoma Three" with violating a state law requiring initiative petition circulators to be Oklahoma residents. I called Edmondson the "Okie Napoleon.

Okay. Let's stop right here. It was Liberty University School of Law. This Liberty University School of Law.

The Liberty School of Law offers no courses in religion as such, and most of its classes are rigorous, practical and conventional. Like law students everywhere, students at Liberty spend much of their time reading and discussing judicial decisions. But where mainstream law professors tend to ask questions about judges' fidelity to precedent and the U.S. Constitution, Liberty professors often analyze decisions in terms of biblical principles.

"If our graduates wind up in the government," Falwell said, "they'll be social and political conservatives. If they wind up as judges, they'll be presiding under the Bible."

Many of the dozen students who chatted with a reporter over two days at the school, representing a fifth of the school's first and only class, said they were drawn to its emphasis on fundamental and enduring truths. "We study the law that's written on the heart, the things that no one can deny," Brian Fraser said.

Oy.

Tapscott continues:

6. Oklahoma being justly known as the "Buckle of the Bible Belt," those orders offended a whole bunch of people at SWOSU. Many of them showed up for work today wearing buttons saying "Merry Christmas." This is what you call speaking truth to the PC powers-that-be. 6A. It always surprises me when there aren't more people willing to suggest in vivid terms where the PC Nazis - who can't tolerate anybody anywhere uttering words like "Christmas" in public - should take their petty tyrannies. When somebody does stand up, as lots of people at SWOSU have, that's news.

7. Now at the end of the day, where are we? Well, a couple of observations. First, for me, my first call after reading the Liberty news release should have been to Edmondson. After all, I am the guy who has stenciled on his forehead: "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out."

But he didn't and he doesn't and so he has to admit that he was wrong.

Or maybe not:

Maybe that somebody mis-understood something that was said to them by the AG or his staff. Or maybe that somebody simply took it upon themselves and informally advised SWOSU managers to spread the word among the troops. That somebody ought to come forward and clear up the confusion.

If they do and it turns out Edmondson had absolutely nothing to do with anything here, I will promptly retract the assertion in my original post that he was "banning Christmas" or had "issued an advisory opinion" to that effect.

But "Okie Napoleon" stays. Even if he's not the Grinch who banned Christmas, he's more than earned the sobriquet.

And if somebody doesn't come forward, Tapscott will be forced to stand by his story because his information comes from a higher source...although Liberty University School of Law is only considered a higher source if you go to, say, Regent University School of Law