Christmas Humbugs Strike Back

The humbugs strike back on Christmas: that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

As you most likely know, there is a very small minority of Americans who want Christmas out of the public square, but they've made big inroads into America's most revered tradition.

However, Christmas is making a come back. Some companies who used to avoid saying "Merry Christmas" have reversed themselves. And all over the country, lawsuits are being filed to keep Christmas on public display.

That's not playing well in the secular progressive movement, which wants to diminish Christmas and all vestiges of Christian power. The SPs realize that to get gay marriage, legalized drugs, euthanasia, and other parts of their agenda passed, they need to marginalize religious forces. That is what is behind the assault on Christmas in the USA.

Over the weekend, some liberal newspapers stepped up to the plate. The Baltimore Sun said, "Groups such as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State say Christmas is under no threat from them or anyone else."

Well, that's reassuring! Thank you, Baltimore Sun!

The Richmond Times Dispatch editorialized, "To hear some voices — Bill O'Reilly's, for instance — Christmas lies under siege. To refer to Christmas vacation as 'winter break' in no way demeans the occasion."

Of course not, Richmond Times. Not calling Christmas vacation Christmas vacation doesn't demean it at all.

But the absolute best comes from the most enthusiastic secular newspaper in the country, The New York Times, our pals. Editorial writer Adam Cohen, who met a — never met a secular cause he didn't like writes, "The Christmas that Mr. O'Reilly and his allies are promoting -- one closely aligned by retailers, with a smackdown attitude toward nonobservers fits their campaign to make America more like a theocracy, with Christian displays on public property and Christian prayer in public schools."

Of course, Mr. Cohen has no idea what he's talking about. I don't have a smackdown attitude toward nonobservers. They can do what they want. I don't care. I don't want a theocracy. And I don't want Christian prayers in public schools.

But Mr. Cohen is not interested in the truth. He wants to demonize. He wants Americans to believe this whole Christmas campaign is to promote Christianity.

What "Talking Points" is really promoting is respect, respect for a holiday that's celebrated by 95 percent of Americans. It's insane to diminish Christmas. It's also wrong.

Most Americans love this federal holiday and they don't want it tarnished by nutty far left fanatics. Get that, Adam?

More than 100,000 of you voted in our billoreilly.com poll, which asks, will you shop at stores that do not say `Merry Christmas'? 81 percent said no. Nineteen percent said yes.

So the secular progressives are going to lose the fight. But as I said, they're not happy about it. And they'll do what they always, attack.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

CBS has commissioned a new sitcom pilot called "Al in the Family." And the star is our pal Al Sharpton. So let's try to help him out here. Who should play his wife? How about Vanessa Williams? Al would like that.

How about Meathead. Who's going to play Meathead? Howard Dean would be a good choice. He and Al were at odds during the Democratic primaries, remember?

And Gloria, well, Madonna has to get that part.

Can't you just see that cast? Even I would watch that program. "Al in the Family." That would be ridiculous.