Sen. Sam Brownback is praised lavishly today by a liberal columnist from the New York Times.Go back and read that last sentence again.”Sure, Mr. Brownback is to the right of Attila the Hun, and I disagree with him on just about every major issue,” writes Nicholas D. Kristoff in today’s Op-Ed page. “But ’tis the season for brotherly love, so let me point to reasons for hope. Members of the Christian right, exemplified by Mr. Brownback, are the new internationalists, increasingly engaged in humanitarian causes abroad — thus creating opportunities for common ground between left and right on issues we all care about.”Kristoff points to Brownback’s efforts to call attention to human rights crises in Uganda, Sudan and North Korea as proof that he and other conservatives aren’t all bad from a liberal point of view.”I find Mr. Brownback perhaps the most intriguing man in Washington — so wrong on so much, and yet such a leader on humanitarian issues. He is also working with liberals like Ted Kennedy to press for immigration reform, prison reform, increased funds for AIDS and malaria, construction of an African-American history museum and even an apology to American Indians.”Kristoff also notes: “Liberals traditionally were the bleeding hearts, while conservatives regarded foreign aid, in the words of Jesse Helms, as ‘money down a rat hole.’ That’s changing.”Sam Brownback links From this Christmas onward: “As the Feast of the Nativity approached, it may have been a providential hand that parted the dark cloud enveloping the death of Bobbie Joe Stinnett and let through a ray of light: The survival of Bobbie Jo’s baby, Victoria Jo, focused national attention on the undeniable humanity of what abortion advocates would prefer to call the ‘fetus,'” Terrence Jeffrey writes at TownHall.com, a conservative Web site. “Pondering the tragedy, Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, sees cause for hope. ‘I look at this case that happened in Skidmore, Missouri, and Melvern, Kansas, and I am just aghast at it,’ Browback told me. ‘Scott and Lacy Peterson, that trial. You really are seeing a confluence of things confronting the public to deal with the issue of the humanity of the child.'” RU-486 lawsuit is parents’ latest step: “Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers plan in January to reintroduce ‘Holly’s Law,’ a bill that would suspend FDA approval of RU-486 until the Government Accountability Office scrutinizes the process by which the drug came to U.S. markets in 2000,” reports The Contra Costa Times. “To my knowledge, it will mirror legislation introduced last session, and new members of the Senate will bring even more support for the legislation,” said Aaron Groote, a spokesman for Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican who sponsored the initial bill in the Senate. How to contact As always, you can find information to contact members of the Kansas congressional delegation here.