Saint Brownback?

In one of the more obscure news items to come out of the National Review, Reporter John Miller reports on an equally obscure Tuesday morning prayer-group taking place in the Capitol.

A meeting that took place five years ago!

Miller writes,

Within a couple of years, of course, one Clinton was out of office and another was in — Hillary Rodham Clinton became one of Brownback’s Senate colleagues in 2001. She also started to attend the Tuesday-morning prayer group. Brownback figured that she would be there on the day he was supposed to speak, and indeed she was. He used the occasion to clear his mind. "I confessed it to the group,” says Brownback. “I apologized for my hate."

Today, Brownback is all about the love — not just for the Clintons, but for everyone. As he mulls a long-shot bid for the White House in 2008, he is trying to reinvent the politics of compassionate conservatism for the post-Bush era…

Given that Brownback asked forgiveness of Clinton back when she joined the Senate in 2001, Miller cannot objectively accuse Brownback of posturing to re-invent compassionate conservatism.

Perhaps what Miller meant is that it's rare to see a public figure act according to his faith in such a public way. It is difficult for people with large egos to seek forgiveness of anyone especially a political enemy. Consider also that the United States Senate contains some of the largest egos in Washington.

For a man like Brownback the move was far more humbling than it was politically beneficial.