"EXTREMISTS ON BOTH SIDES"? I DON'T THINK SO, STEVE

I didn't see this coming and I should have: While people on the left are angry at the fact that Rick Warren will be the invocation at Barack Obama's inaugural, there's also anger among religious conservatives opposed to abortion. David Brody of Pat Robertson's CBN quotes e-mails he's received:

How could around 54% of Catholics, 96% of African Americans, many who claim to be professing Bible Christians, @ 100% of Jewish Voters, who apparently have forgotten about the Holocaust and probably 50% or more of all kinds of other professing Bible Christians vote for the President Elect in light of his pro-abortion agenda? How? The same reason Dr Warren is going to pray at the inauguration. There is no real moral outrage in our Nation about Abortion.

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This is terrible; this man call's himself a Christian????Barack H. Obama is the most PRO-DEATH president America has ever elected!!!!!

Hmmm ... who's trying to send a message of defiance to his base, as a way of trying to win the approval of those who are naturally resistant to him? Obama? Warren?

Or both?

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Meanwhile, Steve Benen has a guess about what's coming next:

We can now expect the inevitable onslaught of reports indicating that "extremists on both sides" have expressed concerns about Warren's role at the inauguration.

Steve may be right -- but I don't think so. This anger in the anti-abortion movement might be mentioned in passing, but the story as it is (Lefties and gays bash Obama for Warren's homophobia!) is just too delicious for the press to forgo. As it is, the press has ignored anger about Warren's other controversial positions (in an earlier post I mentioned his anti-atheist and anti-Muslim bigotry and his saber-rattling; I should also have mentioned his likening of abortion to the Holocaust and the social gospel to Marxism). It's much easier and sexier to portray this as a simple spat: Obama and Warren versus the enraged gay mafia. Play the story that way, if you're in the mainstream media, and you're giving the agenda of your gay friends visibility -- but you're also feeding the heartlanders some titillation (and outrage). That's a fun, easy way to capture eyeballs. Actually figuring out nuances on the evangelical right -- that's hard.

So I think the story's going to stay exactly what it is now, additional facts notwithstanding.

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UPDATE: Well, I did see an ABC report tonight (not available online) that took exactly the approach Steve said thr press would take. So maybe I'm wrong. We'll see who else follows suit.