AF Academy Evangelism Is Becoming Campaign Issue

This week's Forward reports that the controversy over religious activity by evangelical Christian officers at the U.S. Air Force Academy is emerging for both sides as a 2006 campaign issue. Wisconsin Republican challenger Nick Reid is criticizing Democratic incumbent Rep. David Obey who proposed a bill that would require the Air Force to report to Congress on the steps it is taking to investigate and ameliorate the conditions at the Academy. On the other side, the National Jewish Democratic Council has taken out advertisements in Jewish newspapers in Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania criticizing Republican members of Congress who have voted to defeat Obey's proposal. New Mexico lawyer Mikey Weinstein, who sued the Academy and whose sons were among the cadets who complained about anti-Jewish comments, is talking to other veterans about forming a political action committee around the issue of religious coercion in the military. He is also attempting to defeat his congresswoman, Republican Rep. Heather Wilson, for ignoring his complaints about the Academy.