Dennis Prager, please call George Santayana!
Invoking the name of George Washington, who, Prager says, brought his own Bible to be sworn in to office, Dennis Prager refuses to retreat from his errors of history, and insists that Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison should be prevented from bringing his own scripture to Ellison’s swearing-in.
Prager is simply wrong on the history, both the tradition and the law. He claims there is some grand tradition of Members of Congress swearing on a Bible. That is not so. When corrected, he claims it is important anyway. When it is pointed out that what he wants is illegal, Prager claims cultural imperative as the reason to vitiate the First Amendment.
It would be a teapot tempest, except for Prager’s breaking the teapot — he has real newspapers carrying his column, and he keeps insisting on being wrong about history, he insists on bogus history.
Flunk him, let him advance to the 9th grade when he can master the material and pass the test, without a tantrum.
Other commentary:
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- Minnesota Monitor (with accurate history on ceremonies with no Bible at all)
- Civil War Memory (a very good, targeted history blog at all times)
- Snopes.com debunks Prager.
- Earlier commentary at this blog
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 