!Today’s Washington Post has a lengthy profile of Sen. Sam Brownback and his 2008 presidential aspirations. It’s much friendlier than the Rolling Stone piece a few months back, though it covers much of the same ground.With echoes of President Bush’s 2000 election campaign, the Post suggests that Brownback isn’t just a Christian conservative – he’s a _compassionate_ Christian conservative.The Post says: “Because of his emphasis on compassion, Brownback does not fit the stereotype of the angry Christian conservative.”It adds: “Brownback has teamed up with some of the most liberal members of the Senate to help victims of sex trafficking, and suffering Sudanese. He quotes Bono on the struggles of the poor and encourages college students to take their spring breaks in Africa. He has worked for women’s rights in Afghanistan and for North Korean refugees. When the issue of illegal immigration blew up in the Senate earlier this year, Brownback embraced President Bush’s plan for comprehensive reform, infuriating some conservatives who see it as too lenient. He has pushed for an African American history museum on the Mall, saying he became committed after a ‘divine intervention’ came to him during prayer.”But the Post seems to downplay Brownback’s presidential chances, but suggests he could still have a big impact on the GOP race in 2008:”And now, at 49, he’s considering a run for president. Across the country, not many people know who Sam Brownback is. His fundraising has been lackluster, though it’s still early. Even if he doesn’t get close to winning, though, his support in the conservative Christian community may affect what other candidates are talking about.”‘One of his major contributions would be to anchor the moral issues in the Republican Party,’ says Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister and president of the conservative National Clergy Council. ‘He in a way could hold the evangelical and the traditional Catholic vote hostage if the party began to waver on those issues.'”The Libby Copeland piece also contains the following highlights:¢ On Brownback’s conversion to Catholicism: “He won’t talk much about this aspect of his religious life. ‘It’s kind of a divisive issue,’ he says, perhaps conscious of his many evangelical supporters. ‘People divide along churches instead of trying to look at how you pull together. Like, okay, this church is better than that church. You can find the Lord in a lot of places if you’re willing to look for Him.'”¢ “He practices prayer when he finds himself in heated situations, as he did recently during a meeting on a constitutional amendment he supports, which would ban same-sex marriage. (Marriage, he says, is ‘a man and a woman bonded together for life and grandparents surrounding ’em.’) ‘Instead of getting angry at somebody for opposing you on something, you’re just praying for them,’ he says. ‘You just pray blessings on them, blessings on their family.'”¢ “During visits to Israel, Brownback used to study the Torah with Ariel Sharon, calling it ‘each of us feeding our souls.’ Lately he has been reading the Koran. He says Islam’s holy book talks a lot about weighing people’s good deeds against their bad deeds, and this has made him appreciate Christianity more.”¢ On the presidency: “It’s one of the most humbling things on Earth,” Brownback says, his voice soft. “Look at the nature and the difficulty of that job and the greatness of this country and the need to be humble and wise to serve. Plus it’s just, it’s like, pride was the first sin and humility’s the first grace . . .”There’s much more there.Other links today:Sam Brownback links(Salon.com commentary) Who’s afraid of the big bad gay marriage amendment? Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, a 2008 presidential contender, led the charge for a constitutional amendment on the Senate floor Monday, dominating the debate with a handful of blue-and-white charts that he said showed the need for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He had line graphs, bar graphs and circle graphs. He spoke about French law and Dutch sociology. He went on about the benefits of two-parent families. “It’s important that a child be raised between a loving couple,” Brownback declared, a phrase that seemed, at first, to be an argument in favor of gay marriage. “Developmental problems are less common in two parent families.” He said that welfare encourages out-of-wedlock births and called for more research on marriage. But the Republican senator made no real mention of men who love men or women who love women.(BP News commentary) Children at risk when marriage redefined, constitutional amendment supporters say: “W]e know from all the social data, in all societies, at all times, that the best place to raise children is [within] the union of a man and a woman,” Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., said. “… You can raise good children in other settings, but the best — the optimal setting — is in the union between a man and a woman, bonded together for life…. That’s something we’ve got social data on, but we also know that in our hearts.” A procedural vote on the amendment, S.J. Res. 1, now is scheduled for Wednesday.[(Yahoo.com commentary) THE SENTATOR WHO CRIED ‘BIGOT’: The “B” word is also fueling new fears about the ultimate consequences of gay marriage. As Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said on the floor of the Senate: “Same-sex marriage proponents argue that sexual orientation is like race, and that opponents of same-sex marriage are therefore like bigots who oppose interracial marriage. Once same-sex marriage becomes law, that understanding is likely to be controlling.” Brownback pointed to a litany of potential negative consequences for traditional faiths: “So in states with same-sex marriage, religiously affiliated schools, adoption agencies, psychological clinics, social workers, marital counselors, etc. will be forced to choose between violating their own deeply held beliefs and giving up government contracts, tax-exempt status, or even being denied the right to operate at all. … It’s already happening, as we’ve seen in Massachusetts with Boston’s Catholic Charities being forced out of the adoption business entirely rather than violate church teaching on marriage and family.”(Wall Street Journal) Battle Over Foreign-Aid Spending Heats Up: Sen. Sam Brownback (R., Kan.), a member of the Appropriations Committee, is drafting legislation that would require the administration to spend 50% of aid to Africa on such items as water wells, immunizations and teacher training. Mr. Brownback says he became disenchanted with how the administration is delivering foreign aid during a December trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. “It was like you were just taking a lot of money and scattering it around, and there was nothing real at the end of the day,” says Mr. Brownback, who is part of a growing pro-aid movement among American Christian conservatives.How to contact As always, you can find information to contact members of the Kansas congressional delegation here.