|
(Continued from page 35)
seat in Indiana are in question after high-profile stumbles on rape and abortion.
• Democrats presently control the Senate with 53 votes, including two independents who usually vote with them. By any measure, Republicans should hold more seats if it had not been for losses two years ago in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, where tea party-backed candidates stormed to wins in GOP primaries but fell short in the general election.
• The biggest flameout of 2010 came in Delaware, where longtime Rep. Mike Castle had been considered a sure bet to take over a longtime Democratic seat despite the state's strong Democratic lean. But Castle was upended in the GOP primary by tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell, who in turn got crushed by 17 points in the general election by Chris Coons.
• In Colorado, tea partyer Ken Buck defeated GOP establishment favorite Jane Norton in the primary, only to lose by 2 points to appointed Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. And in Nevada, gaffe-prone tea party candidate Sharron Angle lost to Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, who entered the race with high unfavorable ratings and would probably have been an underdog to a more mainstream Republican candidate.
• ___
As Egyptians affirm their faith on hajj, questions over how much faith should be in politics
• MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Now that she has finished the hajj and is returning home to Egypt, Magda Bagnied says her family will no doubt try to convince her to put on the headscarf to demonstrate her religiosity after a pilgrimage meant to cleanse her of sin and bring her closer to God.
• She fully expects that from her parents. But she doesn't want that kind of pressure from her government or leaders.
• "Leave religion to the people," said Bagnied, a media professor at Ahram Canadian University, in Cairo's suburbs.
• The annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites offers Muslims a chance to reaffirm their faith and root themselves more firmly in their beliefs. It comes at a time when several Arab nations are facing a similar issue on a political level after uprisings that toppled longtime leaders and brought Islamists to greater power: The question of how much a government should be rooted in Islam.
• Egypt in particular is struggling with that question. Elections since the fall last year of Hosni Mubarak elevated Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim (Continued on page 37)
|
|
