'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 7, 2005; A01



What's missing from the White House Christmas card? Christmas.

This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."

Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings.

"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."

Religious conservatives are miffed because they have been pressuring stores to advertise Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials" and urging schools to let students out for Christmas vacation rather than for "winter break." They celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) insisted that the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce.

Then along comes a generic season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House lawn.

"Certainly President and Mrs. Bush, because of their faith, celebrate Christmas," said Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary. "Their cards in recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths."

That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. "I think it's more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas cards," said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman.

But the White House's explanation does not satisfy the groups -- which have grown in number in recent years -- that believe there is, in the words of the Heritage Foundation, a "war on Christmas" involving an "ever-stronger push toward a neutered 'holiday' season so that non-Christians won't be even the slightest bit offended."

One of the generals on the pro-Christmas side is Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. "Sometimes it's hard to tell whether this is sinister -- it's the purging of Christ from Christmas -- or whether it's just political correctness run amok," he said. "I think in the case of the White House, it's just political correctness."

Wildmon does not give retailers the same benefit of the doubt. This year, he has called for a consumer boycott of Target stores because the chain issued a holiday advertising circular that did not mention Christmas. Last year, he aimed a similar boycott at Macy's Inc., which averted a repeat this December by proclaiming "Merry Christmas" in its advertising and in-store displays.

"It bothers me that the White House card leaves off any reference to Jesus, while we've got Ramadan celebrations in the White House," Wildmon said. "What's going on there?"

At the Catholic League, Donohue had just announced a boycott of the Lands' End catalogue when he received his White House holiday card. True, he said, the Bushes included a verse from Psalm 28, but Psalms are in the Old Testament and do not mention Jesus' birth.

"They'd better address this, because they're no better than the retailers who have lost the will to say 'Merry Christmas,' " he said.

Donohue said that Wal-Mart, facing a threatened boycott, added a Christmas page to its Web site and fired a customer relations employee who wrote a letter linking Christmas to "Siberian shamanism." He was not mollified by a letter from Lands' End saying it "adopted the 'holiday' terminology as a way to comply with one of the basic freedoms granted to all Americans: freedom of religion."

"Ninety-six percent of Americans celebrate Christmas," Donohue said. "Spare me the diversity lecture."

Diversity has been a hallmark of White House greeting cards for some time, according to Mary Evans Seeley of Tampa, Fla., author of "Season's Greetings From the White House." The last presidential Christmas card that mentioned Christmas was in 1992. It was sent by George H.W. and Barbara Bush, parents of the current president.

Seeley said the first president to send out true Christmas cards, as opposed to signed photographs or handwritten letters, was Franklin D. Roosevelt. "Merry Christmas From the President and Mrs. Roosevelt," said his first annual card, in 1933.

Like many modern touches, the generic New Year's card was introduced to the White House by John and Jacqueline Kennedy. In 1962, they had Hallmark print 2,000 cards, of which 1,800 cards said "The President and Mrs. Kennedy Wish You a Blessed Christmas" and 200 said "With Best Wishes for a Happy New Year."

Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson continued that tradition for a couple of years, but it required keeping track of Christian and non-Christian recipients. Beginning in 1966, they wished everyone a "Joyous Christmas," and no president has attempted the two-card trick since.

Seeley dates the politicization of the White House Christmas card to Richard M. Nixon, who increased the number of recipients tenfold, to 40,000, in his first year. The numbers since have snowballed, hitting 125,000 under Jimmy Carter, topping 400,000 under Bill Clinton and rising to more than a million under the current Bushes, with each president's political party paying the bill.

The wording, meanwhile, has often flip-flopped. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter put "Merry Christmas" in their 1977 card and then switched to "Holiday Season" for the next three years. Ronald and Nancy Reagan, similarly, began with a "Joyous Christmas" in 1981 and 1982 but doled out generic holiday wishes from 1983 to 1988. The elder President Bush stayed in the "Merry Christmas" spirit all four years, and the Clintons opted for inclusive greetings for all of their eight years.

The current Bush has straddled the divide, offering generic greetings along with an Old Testament verse. To some religious conservatives, that makes all the difference.

"There's a verse from Scripture in it. I don't mind that at all, as long as we don't try to pretend we're not a nation under God," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601900_pf.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some U.S. conservative Christians who received Christmas cards from the White House this month are grumbling that something was missing _ Christmas.

As in every December since President George W. Bush took office, he sent out cards with a generic message, wishing 1.4 million supporters a happy "holiday season."

Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com, told The Washington Post. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."

Other conservatives on the Bushes' list accused the first couple of giving in to a national push for more secular celebrations.

The cover of the cards, which were paid for by the Republican National Committee, show the presidential pets _ two dogs and cat _ playing in the snow on the White House lawn.

A spokeswoman for Laura Bush said while the first couple celebrates Christmas themselves, they wanted an inclusive greeting to be respectful of other traditions.

"Their cards in recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths," Susan Whitson said.

Last week Dennis Hastert, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, insisted that a tree on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building should be called the Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce.

Should any of his card receivers be surprised? With all his sins, and his hands bloodied with innocent blood, I'd be surprised if he even dares face anything that reminds this world of Christ's birth and His reason for being born.

darn those liberals they even control Bush. I thought he was our puppet but look at what you did now they think we are against Christmas. Why did we ever start this christmas crap when it would turn against us? Poor Silly Republicans.

This is really just a silly, ironic story. Every year at this time, the religious right trots out this delusional "Christmas is being persecuted" stuff, which just simply isn't true. And now their hero, the protector of all things godly, has done the same thing as Wal-Mart!

Here's a LTE I submitted today in response to one printed addressing the "War on Christmas."

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...showtopic=44498

Happy holidays, everybody! :poinsettia:

The more they bicker, the more they portray Christmas as the time to start worshipping and idolizing materialistic thing. C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia had a nice way of putting his message to children... the four siblings in one of his stories learn that Santa's gifts are never what they are supposed to expect and wished. Christ is more concerned as to how we can develop our skills to serve Him, not expect frivolous cards, etc. That James Dobson is becoming to look like, and sound like, and act like Karl Rove - two identical peas from the same pod!

You aren't going to like this but Disney is trying to get the Christains to think of his books as Christian related. They are claiming the Lion is Jesus and its the same as Passion of the Christ. CNN was talking about it earlier today how disney has had groups going to church. I want to see the movie but it worries me that disney might try to bastardize the movie. Pardon my french

Jason, C. S. Lewis was a prominent Christian theologian, so it's not just Disney saying this. He wrote it as a parable. I read all the books when I was in high school, about a million years ago, and I surely did interpret them this way. I think this is a widely held interpretation.

It can also, however, be seen as a more generalized battle of good (Aslan) vs. evil (the white witch).

Yes but by preverting I mean going for the fundie views. Isn't there part of it where in the last deal they say he accepts all religions?

I don't remember, it's been so long. But I was pretty much the same in my beliefs back then as I am, now (confirmed agnostic) and I kept on reading the darn books, so you may very well be right.

I'm going to go see it this friday either way so I'll let you know my feeling unless you see it before me lol. My dad and I usually go to the movies of course he pays but its our little bonding moments where we can at least enjoy something together. This week is that movie. I've seen some that he likes too and didn't really care for. I think it will be a good one just as long as disney didn't mess it up. That is the only thing I worry about because disney does have a bad rep on that stuff. They ripped off The Lion King from a japanese anime. The anime had it as a white lion.

The Right-Wing Christian whackos are starting to show their true colors. The phrase "Happy Holidays" indicates a recognition that there are about 4 different holidays going on at the same time of year, and rather than recognizing only a chosen ONE of those holidays, it recognizes that ALL of them are valid. And, hey Bible-thumpers, Christmas IS ONE OF THEM!!! What's really upsetting these whack-jobs is the fact that someone has the unmitigated gall to put Christmas on equal footing with all those other "made-up" December holidays. So what they're REALLY bent out of shape about is that THEIR chosen holiday from THEIR chosen religion isn't the ONLY one that's recognized as being valid in this country once known as a "melting pot." Very tolerant. Very Jesus-like. This whole "my religion is the only true religion" garbage is exactly the kind of thinking that started the Crusades and resulted in MILLIONS of deaths.

I'm telling you, I'm glad the religious whackos have all sided with the Republicans. They can have 'em. When the backlash against their whackoism hits (and it's already starting to), the Right-Wing Cons who gave them a voice will go down with the ship.

I would like to thank the christian right for showing me where to shop this year. If they boycot Target I am shoping there for almost everthing.

I agree with you on this. It is pretty much a certainty that at some point the religious right is going to go too far, and Americans will smack them back into silence in their churches and out of political life.

When this will be, and what issue it will be, remain to be seen. Unfortunately, it can take American voters a long time to wake up to things.

Here's a snip from Common Dreams:

I fail to understand why these same Bible totin’, Bible quotin’ people won’t stop for a minute to consider their demands for Christmas to be put back into the season when the bigger picture seems so lost on them. They keep making these religious demands for Christianity to be taught as science in the guise of Intelligent Design, for religious documents to be displayed in public buildings and for other blatantly Christian symbols to be part of everything from city seals to courthouses. Do they for one minute think that by doing this, that society will suddenly experience mass conversion to Christianity, thereby becoming upstanding and moral in the way they imagine? Have any of them ever opened their Bibles to see what hypocrites and Pharisees they have become? I may be a Unitarian Universalist now, but I was raised Roman Catholic, know the Bible and I see first hand that the message of the Christ has been lost on far too many who claim to be so-called “Christians”.

To wit: This idea that God favors the rich because of their industrious hard work that made them wealthy is nowhere to be found in the Bible. The Bible I know warns against excessive accumulation of wealth and material goods, saying that it is easier for a camel to thread the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven. Isaiah 10 says, "Woe to you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, who turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that the widows may be your spoil and that you may make the orphan your prey". Hmmm, seems to me that those who chose to look the other way and neglect those who suffered so terribly during Hurricane Katrina need to stop for a minute and think about their negligence in allowing so many to die and suffer needlessly. Of course, Isaiah is Old Testament, so if you want a New Testament example, the perfect one is Matthew 25: 45, which reads, “ ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

So it seems to me that rather than waste tons of money and energy on worrying about whether we call this time of year “Christmas” or just the “Holidays”, I would suggest instead that these same people who are getting their knickers in a twist over that whole issue go to some social service agency, sign up to volunteer and spend a day in a soup kitchen doling out meals to the homeless, or sort clothing that goes out to the needy, or spend time in a nursing home visiting some lonely elderly people whose family might live too far away to visit regularly, or go to a prison and talk to some of the prisoners and make them feel a bit of dignity despite their incarceration. Social service agencies have experienced massive budget cutbacks in these cruel times we live in that seem to so favor the well heeled, and as a result, more and more people are falling through the cracks of “the system”. If people truly want to put the “Christ” back in Christmas, remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pay heed to the words of Matthew 25: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

WWJD?

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1207-35.htm

There isn't much of a "flap" the Christmas cards do wish "Happy Holidays" but also offer a prayer.

Good posts. Hey, Chopp'in- good to have you around.

I was thinking many of these thoughts tonight when I took my dog for a walk. There is a lovely Jewish family with two children down the block. Everyone else on that end of the block has MATCHING Christmas decorations... little Christmas trees strung along every lot on the street-
except the one house. This is bad enough, but now the guy who started the "let's all decorate obnoxiously & the same", has added religious Christmas music on an outdoor speaker at his house. He lives directly next door to the nice non-Christian family with the two kids.

Am I wrong to find this offensive ?

It ain't us who are making the flap, Mac. I think most all of us would consider the whole thing nonsense.

Go see it... in fact C.S. Lewis was anti-war. As a religious man, he thought wars cause unnecessary killing. The direction of this movie is great. The 4 kids really came through as bickering nations and behaving childishly. Going into Narnia is a form of escape for the children to search for the truth... learning the skills of communication, humiliation, and self sacrifice - more important, learning to understand one another. Azlan, personifying Christ, willingly sacrificed himself to save the children (Christ's crucification for the saving of the world). The White Which represents Satan, in his attempt to tempt one of the siblings... in other words, tempting one nation to corrupt others to bring them all to her sides. I like the metaphor portayed by the Father Christmas figure and his act. The children, delighted to receive his gifts, became disappointed to find them to be nothing they had expected. The gifts symbolized tools (given individual talents) they'd need to develop to fight off Satan. Like C.S. Lewis' concept and hope for nations, nations need to communicate and learn from each other, and unite. Their unaminous enemy is Satan... each nation having to develop its own special method to defeat Satan... the temptor! And when all nations can defeat Satan, then, only then peace would rest on the world.

Everything in this film contradicts what the Christian fanatics are trying to teach today's children. They really distort Christ's teachings. They should be exposed and stopped. They betray Christ.

I would love to watch how the Christian fanatics distort C.S. Lewis' and this film's version. Not forgetting C.S. Lewis wrote the book, from which this film has been`adapted, during World War II.

I recommend this film for all families. It leaves room for table discussions during the holiday celebrations.

P.S. Another film I'd recommend for all adults: Syriana. Very brilliantly executed. A true thought provoking film for those with investigative minds. There are 4 separate scenarios to introduce audiences to the type of people and the type of professions that would willlingly go to barren desserts with only oil to candy-ete them. As their lives intersect, just watch how oil greed can disrrupt their individual life, fate and destiny. Not a film for the lazy thinkers who can't see beyond their noses.

Blame fox for it lol

No way!

Here is next years WH card.

Is William A. Donohue or Dobson that looks like he could be Karl Rove's twin? I know that both makes very biting remarks.

Donohue look more like Rove than Dobson.

December 08, 2005

Chickens Of Madness Insanely Come Home To Roost In The Monkey House

First lady Laura Bush showed a home video of White House holiday life _ from the first dogs' point of view _ to a group of patients, their families and staff at Children's National Medical Center on Wednesday…

After scolding Barney for playing hide and seek with Miss Beazley's gifts, President Bush chides a contrite Miss Beazley, saying, "I understand you've been a media hound."

He patches up the dogs' differences by telling them, "You have to remember the true meaning of the holiday season."

White House holiday life? George "Jesus Christ Almighty" Bush remembering the true meaning of the "holiday season"? With dogs?

What's the deal with this secular, Christmas hating Yale elitist?

But, wait, it gets worse!

What's missing from the White House Christmas card? Christmas.

This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."

Religious conservatives are miffed because they have been pressuring stores to advertise Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials" and urging schools to let students out for Christmas vacation rather than for "winter break." They celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) insisted that the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce.

Then along comes a generic season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House lawn.

Actually, the card shows Bill Frist vivisecting the cat while Rick Santorum frolicks naked with the dogs. All around them, hundred dollar bills swirl like snowflakes in a blizzard.

But the card does wish everyone a happy "holiday season". Showing how much Bush and his liberal elitist White House hates Christmas.

Like Bill O'Reilly, selling his FOX "Holiday Ornaments", while battling valiantly against the forces of Soros and evil, anti-Christmas secularism, which, again, appears to be spear-headed by George W. Bush.

I could rant. But this "War On Christmas" defies any rant. It's so "expletive deleted" stupid, if you started mocking it, today, you wouldn't even be halfway done by the time God, Almighty blew the sun out of the sky once and for all.

It really should be the final--and this time we're serious!--knife in the heart of modern conservatism. I mean, if the record setting deficits of the last three fiscally conservative presidents weren't enough, if the expansive ginormous government of the last three "small government" conservative presidents weren't enough, if the total lack of accountability and personal responsibility from the last three conservative presidents weren't enough...

...and we won't even mention the entire philandering, profiteering, and prison bound conservative leadership in Congress...

...then this really ought to do it. I mean, it really should.

The War On Christmas???

There's no War On Christmas, you "expletive deleted"ing morons. Not by Soros. Not by the ACLU. Not by your major department stores.

None. Not now. Not ever. None.

The only War that's ever been waged on Christmas has been waged by Christians:

The Puritans considered Christmas un-Christian, and hoped to keep it out of America. They could not find Dec. 25 in the Bible, their sole source of religious guidance, and insisted that the date derived from Saturnalia, the Roman heathens' wintertime celebration. On their first Dec. 25 in the New World, in 1620, the Puritans worked on building projects and ostentatiously ignored the holiday. From 1659 to 1681 Massachusetts went further, making celebrating Christmas "by forbearing of labor, feasting or in any other way" a crime.

The concern that Christmas distracted from religious piety continued even after Puritanism waned. In 1827, an Episcopal bishop lamented that the Devil had stolen Christmas "and converted it into a day of worldly festivity, shooting and swearing." Throughout the 1800's, many religious leaders were still trying to hold the line. As late as 1855, New York newspapers reported that Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist churches were closed on Dec. 25 because "they do not accept the day as a Holy One." On the eve of the Civil War, Christmas was recognized in just 18 states.

Christmas gained popularity when it was transformed into a domestic celebration, after the publication of Clement Clarke Moore's "Visit from St. Nicholas" and Thomas Nast's Harper's Weekly drawings, which created the image of a white-bearded Santa who gave gifts to children. The new emphasis lessened religious leaders' worries that the holiday would be given over to drinking and swearing, but it introduced another concern: commercialism. By the 1920's, the retail industry had adopted Christmas as its own, sponsoring annual ceremonies to kick off the "Christmas shopping season."

Religious leaders objected strongly. The Christmas that emerged had an inherent tension: merchants tried to make it about buying, while clergymen tried to keep commerce out. A 1931 Times roundup of Christmas sermons reported a common theme: "the suggestion that Christmas could not survive if Christ were thrust into the background by materialism." A 1953 Methodist sermon broadcast on NBC - typical of countless such sermons - lamented that Christmas had become a "profit-seeking period." This ethic found popular expression in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." In the 1965 TV special, Charlie Brown ignores Lucy's advice to "get the biggest aluminum tree you can find" and her assertion that Christmas is "a big commercial racket," and finds a more spiritual way to observe the day.

And even if that weren't the truth, even if the obscene commercialization of the supposedly holiest day of the Christian year weren't embarrassing enough to the Christian right, you'd still think that having out of control, insane bullshitters like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and whoever else rant and rave about sinister conspiracies to attack Christmas would finally make even the most stalwart Clinton loathing individual shoot his TV set.

During "The Factor".

I mean, even if you're a right wing nut, enough is enough.

How stupid do these people think you are, Republicans? What kind of morons do they take you for? A War On Christmas??? These total charlatans are trying to convince you that there's some sort of holy significance between Walmart saying "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas"?

It's too much. Really. Even for right wing lunatics. Some things are just too stupid. And this is one of them.

Rubes, wake up! These people think you're morons and, by waging the War For Christmas, you're convincing them they're right. They're not defending you. They're laughing at you. They hate you. They can't stop laughing at how stupid you are and how easy it is to manipulate you.

Terrorism lost it's terror. And now they're trying to convince you there are evil elfs in Santa's workshop.

All the while selling "Holiday Ornaments" and sending out "Happy Holiday" cards and making videos about the true spirit of the "holiday" season.

It's funny. I mean, it's laughably funny, but it's also depressing and annoying. It's depressing that so many Americans are so dumb and so gullible. And it's annoying to have to hear crazy "expletive deleted" like this every time Republicans run the gubment.

On the other hand, it is kind of fun to watch Bush get attacked by the same wild weasels he let loose on the rest of us. It's kind of fun to watch Bush and the modern Gee Oh Pee squirm and wince and show their irritation and regret at empowering the stupidest, craziest, most out of control mental cases in our country.

Sure, it might "expletive deleted" up Bush's holidays. But it is making my Christmas, my liberal, secular, humanistic, agnostic Christmas kind of merry.

http://bottleofblog.typepad.com/bottleofbl...ter_bush_f.html

I would like to put forward another theory. The Bush family has been known for quite some time to be beholding to Master Moon, in fact, one of the brothers is touring with Moon as we speak. Master Moon believes that Jesus was a failure for not getting married and having children among other things and that Moon is the true Messiah. Many of the mega churches affiliated with Moon are not celebrating Christmas, so it would not be farfetched to assume the Bush connection as well.

Please explain?

I love this part of the blog spot above.

BILL O'REILLY, CALL YOUR OFFICE I: Tell me something: aren't evangelicals in the forefront of demanding that the Ten Commandments be observed? So why are they not honoring the Sabbath - on Christmas day?

BILL O'REILLY, CALL YOUR OFFICE II: The war against Christmas continues ... thanks to News Corporation, the owners of Fox News (and of the Sunday Times of London, where I'm a columnist). Here's the invite to their "Holiday" party. Now, how long do you think it will take Bill O'Reilly to attack his own boss as a liberal heathen? Or the president? Or evangelical churches?

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?di...405619170197286

You have to go to the site to click on the link to take you to the Fox invitation.

TOO FUNNY !!!


I'm going to call Hannity today and bring his up ... He should know his Puppet Leader W. is leading the charge to stir the drumbeat of the WAR ON CHRISTMAS !!!

W = Seasons Greetings !!!

:hanukkah: :tree: :xmashat: :globe: :elf: :xmassign:

Ho Ho Ho

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512100005

Donohue makes rounds attacking Bush holiday card; is asked, WWJD?
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president William A. Donohue took to the airwaves December 7 and 8, criticizing the White House holiday card for excluding the word "Christmas." He described the omission as a "dumbing down" of the holiday, and charged President Bush with "pulling a Clinton" by "caving in to the forces of political correctness." Donohue appeared in segments on the December 7 broadcasts of ABC's World News Tonight and MSNBC's Scarborough Country. On December 8, he was interviewed live on CNN's American Morning by anchors Miles O'Brien and Carol Costello. As anchors or commentators on all three networks noted, White House holiday cards have not included the word 'Christmas' during the terms of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. It was not included in the final six years of former President Ronald Reagan's term. This year's card does not mark a departure from the practices of recent previous administrations.

Donohue also indicated that his indictment of the White House holiday card stemmed from his desire to maintain "leverage" against retailers who similarly choose to employ non-Christian holiday greetings in advertisements or store displays. On American Morning, O'Brien pressed Donohue, "What if Jesus got this card, what would he do? Would he be angry about it? He'd be OK with it, wouldn't he?" Donohue responded, "Well, maybe he would, but I've never met him." O'Brien subsequently asked twice, "WWJD?"

From the December 7 broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight which featured anchor Bob Woodruff and ABC News correspondent John Donvan:

WOODRUFF: Finally tonight -- every year around this time, about a million and a half people get a card from the White House. And even in those kind of numbers, a lot of people enjoy the gesture from the president and Mrs. Bush. Well, this year, some of the president's most energetic supporters were less than thrilled with what they got in the mail. Here's ABC's John Donvan.

DONVAN: This most popular president among conservative Christians. He lights the tree. He discusses the true meaning of Christmas.

PRESIDENT BUSH [clip]: For over two millennia, Christmas has carried the message that God is with us.

DONVAN: But the card he sent out this year, that was not Christian enough, better make that "Christmassy" enough, for some: family pets; a nice gold seal inside; some Old Testament. But "Best Wishes for the Holiday Season," that is not "Merry Christmas," which infuriated William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

DONOHUE [clip]: At a time when a lot of Christians today are very upset about the way our society is dumbing down Christmas, they certainly don't want to see the president of the United States chiming in. We know him as a man of courage. So why is he caving in to the forces of political correctness?

DONVAN: It's that secular "Happy Holidays" thing that Donohue's and other groups can't stand. In recent years, they've threatened boycotts of stores like Macy's and Targets for failing to mention Christmas by name.

DONOHUE [clip]: Prior to Clinton, none of the presidents had a problem saying "Merry Christmas" at Christmastime. Now Bush is pulling a Clinton. I expected more from this guy.

DONVAN: Well, that's not quite right. Both Presidents Carter and Reagan sometimes sent cards that never said "Christmas." By the way, President Bush almost never explicitly says the words "Jesus" or "Christ" out loud in public. A rare exception, in this debate, when asked to name his favorite philosopher.

BUSH [clip]: Jesus Christ. Because he changed my heart.

DONVAN: Conservative Christians like William Donohue, obviously, would like to see more of that. In fact, today I asked him, "What if we elect a Jewish president? He or she should send out cards every year that say 'Merry Christmas'?" "Absolutely," was his answer. John Donvan, ABC News, Washington.

WOODRUFF: The White House released a statement late today saying that the holiday card is similar to what they've sent for the last five years and they went to people of many faiths.

From the December 7 broadcast of MSNBC's Scarborough Country which featured host Joe Scarborough and radio host Bill Press:

SCARBOROUGH: Welcome back. The controversy over Christmas continues. I just can't believe it, but it does. The latest flash point: the White House. This year's Christmas card is not a Christmas card at all. It's actually a holiday card. And some evangelical leaders out there are not happy. With me to talk about it, Jennifer Giroux. She's the founder of Women Influencing the Nation. She's running a website called OperationJustSayMerryChristmas.com. We also have Bill Donohue. He's the president of the Catholic League. And Bill Press, author of the new book How the Republicans Stole Christmas (Doubleday, October 2005). Well, William Donohue, people like Bill Press would say, this is a large country. It's a diverse country. Shouldn't the president of the United States represent everybody when he sends out holiday cards, and not just evangelical Christians?

DONOHUE: No. He had a Hanukkah party yesterday in the White House, and that's fine with me. And you know what? I have been invited to St. Patrick's Day get-together, and I guess he excluded everybody who is not Irish. Too bad for them. That's our day. Look, everybody in this country -- you have Gay Pride Week. That means straight guys like me are excluded. Too bad for me. Look, it's a Christmas card. Why can't you say 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year' in a Christmas card? I am not going to be a hypocrite about this. If I am going after some of the retailers, I am not going to give W. a pass, even though I think he is basically a good guy.

[...]

SCARBOROUGH: Bill Press, though, what's the big deal, though, if the president does send out a card that says 'Merry Christmas,' just like George Bush 41 did, and just like presidents have been doing for quite some time?

PRESS: Some presidents have, and other presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton at some point and the first President Bush, I believe at some point, did send out 'Happy Holiday' cards.

[...]

DONOHUE: Look, in Kansas, they wanted to put on -- in Shawnee, Kansas, they wanted to put on a depiction of a nativity scene, and they said, "well, you can't, because we are not allowed to have Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph there. So, you can just have some animals in the background, like they did in Memphis, Tennessee." You've got friendship trees. You've got peace trees. You have union trees. Look, why are people so sensitive? As a matter of fact, from FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt], up until Bush's father, every president had at least one Christmas card where they said, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." My question is this: Where is the evidence that the 15 percent of the population which is not Catholic -- or not Christian, I should say -- were in a rage over this? There's no evidence about this. As a matter of fact, I think it's really damnable, because you are suggesting that Jews and Muslims are a bunch of bigots who suffer apoplexy every time they hear the word Christmas. That is simply wrong. The bigotry is coming from the left, as usual.

PRESS: There's no bigotry from the -- there's no bigotry from the -- we are talking about the president of the United States. He is hardly a member of the left. The president -- listen, for one time, on national television, I want to defend George W. Bush. I think it's very keeping with the season that he is embracing all Americans. He is being very inclusive. And he is saying, "no matter what your faith is, we are all Americans, let's all celebrate a holiday season." I have got to tell you, I think -- I don't want to get personal here -- but I think anybody's faith is awfully thin if they are -- their Christianity is so thin that it's thrown off by somebody saying "Happy Holiday."

From the December 8 broadcast of CNN's American Morning which featured hosts Miles O'Brien and Costello:

COSTELLO: Let's talk about another controversy going on -- the White House Christmas card.

O'BRIEN: Well, but it's not a Christmas card, that's the problem.

COSTELLO: Oh yeah, it's a holiday card.

O'BRIEN: Holiday card. See, it doesn't mention Christmas. And so there's this whole thing -- it has -- it's interesting. There it is, there's Barney and -- what's the other one? -- the two Scottish terriers. I forget their names -- Beasley -- Beasley and whatever. Beasley and Barney. Beasley and Barney. OK. Outside -- the White House, very pretty thing. You open up the card and there is a passage from the Old Testament. The pre-Christmas testament. And then a happy holiday season greeting, and this is in keeping with what the Bush White House has done thus far during its tenure, and what the Clinton White House did and apparently six out of eight Reagan holiday cards were, you know, non-religious. People this year, because of all this discussion about Christmas, are upset about it.

COSTELLO: Oh, yeah. It's become quite the issue. Quite the explosive issue. We're gonna talk to someone from the Catholic League about this because he's really angry.

[...]

O'BRIEN: It is the holiday season, and I say that h-word with some trepidation, because you say that these days and people get upset with you. That's how things are going in this season of concern about what's happening to Christmas. And enter into all that along with all the other concerns about Wal-Mart and whether they're say -- doing things to exclude Christmas, the White House -- I would say Christmas card, but holiday card, which is distinctly well, it's Old Testament, put it that way. Joining me now is Bill Donohue. He's president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. He got this card in the mail -- not very happy about it. Why not?

DONOHUE: Well, when I first got it, I wasn't too unhappy, quite frankly, cause I thought this -- this kind of generic Christmas card is probably something all presidents did. Then I found out later in the day -- I got a phone call from Alan Cooperman from The Washington Post and said I was wrong on that, that every president from FDR up until Bush one [President George H.W. Bush] had at least one Christmas card where they mention 'Merry Christmas.' It began under Clinton, they decided to neuter it. So I began to wonder, why is W not following his father' precedent, as opposed to Clinton's. That made me a little bit angry, and after all we went after Wal-Mart, I'm not gonna be a phony about this and say that a president whom I've met and that I like -- I'm not gonna be be a phony about it and give him a pass. So I think he should put out a Christmas card after all, is it too much to ask people to say "Merry Christmas" at Christmastime in a Christmas card?

O'BRIEN: Well, maybe the concern is, there are people of other faiths and the White House is representative of all Americans who practice all kinds of religions.

DONOHUE: I don't know of any evidence whatsoever that there was a protest by any segment of the American population -- of those 15 percent of Americans who are not Christian, when they got a Christmas card from W's father, from Reagan, from [former President Jimmy] Carter, and everybody else going back to FDR. The assumption is that somehow these non-Christians are bigots, they get upset with a 'Merry Christmas' card at Christmastime. If somebody mistakenly gave me a 'Happy Hanukkah' card I might laugh at it, I certainly wouldn't feel insulted.

COSTELLO: Oh come on though, I mean, is this really hurting Christmas, is this really diminish--I mean is this really such a big deal?

DONOHUE: On one hand, no. However, when you put it together with everything else that's happening in our society, where you have nativity scenes that are banned but you have menorahs that are okay, and you get a president who's in there -- in office -- because traditional Catholics and evangelical Protestants put him there -- if he's gonna be the leader and he starts to dumb down Christmas, how can I then have any leverage against retailers who are trying to dumb it down at the same time?

COSTELLO: So, to heck with all the rest of the people, he's gotta just, you know, his backers, he's gotta please them, but nobody else in the country?

DONOHUE: No, I think that, you know, I'm Irish and I'm a veteran and if you're not Irish and you're not a veteran too bad for you on St. Patrick's Day and Veteran's Day. I am straight and I don't get celebrated during Gay Pride week. Too bad for me. What have we come to in this country? We can't celebrate real --

O'BRIEN: Okay, let me ask you this, I'm going to ask you a quick question, Bill. What if Jesus got this card, what would he do? Would he be angry about it? He'd be okay with it, wouldn't he?

DONOHUE: Well, maybe he would, but I've never met him.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know what I mean.

DONOHUE: No, but oh, come on --

O'BRIEN: No, but you follow his precepts: WWJD? He wouldn't be angry about this. He'd say, it's OK --

DONOHUE: Well, I'm not gonna be in a position of criticizing Jesus, but I will criticize the president because I think that he should have followed the lead of his father -- you're getting me in a very tough situation, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, I think that's a legitimate question. You're talking -- you know, if it's a Christian holiday and you as a Christian are demanding it, you have to ask, what would the person who invented Christianity do about it, right?

DONOHUE: Why do we have to dumb down and neuter Christmas? The assumption is if you say "Merry Christmas" to a non-Christian, they're gonna get angry? I don't believe it. Yes, there are some bigots, but I don't think most Jews and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists and others and including atheists are a bunch of bigots who get upset with "Merry Christmas." They know a Christmas card when they see it, they expect people to say 'Merry Christmas,' including the president.

COSTELLO: Well, I just have a final question. If we had a Jewish president, would the Jewish president --

DONOHUE: Of course he would send it out because --

COSTELLO: -- he would send out Christmas cards?

DONOHUE: It's not about him, it's about the fact that this is a recognition of a merry Christmas. If we -- look I mean -- what is the big deal here? People send me St. Patrick's Day cards who are Italian. I don't get upset about that and they're not angry because they send it to me. I mean, our sensitivities have gone too crazy here.


COSTELLO: Everybody celebrates St. Patrick's Day. We could argue about this --

O'BRIEN: And, and, and everybody celebrates Christmas in a sense because there is --

DONOHUE: That's right.

O'BRIEN: -- it's become a very secular, commercial --

DONOHUE: So why can't they say Christmas?

O'BRIEN: Well, I --

DONOHUE: What's wrong with "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays"? Or "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year"?

O'BRIEN: That sounds -- that sounds very [inaudible]. 'Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Chanukah, Peaceful Kwanzaa,' do it all, just list it all.

DONOHUE: No, no, no --

O'BRIEN: No, you don't like that one either? (laughs)

DONOHUE: No, no, I don't. I don't want it dumbed down and generic, I want 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.' That's what I want.

O'BRIEN: That's what you want. Alright, Bill Donohue.

DONOHUE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: WWJD?

I found the card quite appropriate...

Fox was the channel drumming this all up that the liberals were out to attack Christmas. This has all been a republican distraction tactic that backfired on them.

How nice...the Holiday Card is ...Blue...what a thoughtful touch!

I got into it with a fellow employee over this stupid 'War on Christmas' thing.
I think it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Nothing more than
something for Limbaugh and his drug addicted mind and brainwashed followers
to freak out about.