It is de rigueur among liberals whose quota schemes for everything from Democratic Party convention delegates to law school admissions has fostered much enmity between blacks and whites over the years to accuse conservatives who take exception to this retrograde racial spoils system of being "divisive."

Now, GOP Senate aides have borrowed a chapter from the liberal playbook and accused social conservatives of "divisive" rhetoric because they want a Supreme Court nominee who might be hostile to the Roe vs. Wade fiat which shattered a growing consensus on abortion and ignited a cultural war that rages to this day.

The New York Times reports today that Republican Senate leaders want religious conservatives to "steer clear of divisive language."

"Barbara Ledeen of the Senate Republican Conference" is reportedly one of the Senate aides pushing this Party line.

Ledeen sure knows how to avoid the politics of division. She is quite the coalition builder. According to JewishWorldReview editor-in-chief Benjamin Jolkovsky, Ledeen in late 2003 and early 2004 played a central role in the steadfast alliance between religious conservatives and a radical Islamic group to oppose the legalization of homosexual matrimony

Even as Rabbi Marc Gellman resigned from the advisory board of the Alliance for Marriage because it included the Islamic Society of North America, other members including Rabbi Daniel Lapin and Father Richard John Neuhaus refused to budge, with the full support, it seems, of Barbara Ledeen.

The AFM finally announced the "withdrawal" of ISNA from the advisory board only after JewishWorldReview.com reported that the group was under Congressional investigation for alleged terrorist-related activities. The coalition, which Ledeen pushed, profoundly embarrassed the anti-gay marriage movement, and leaves it vulnerable to further embarrassment.

In light of Ledeen's moral turpitude and atrocious political judgment, why should social conservatives take her latest machinations seriously?

Evan Gahr EvanGahr@aol.com has written for the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Washington Jewish Week and many other publications.