By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
As the main organizer of today's White House healthcare summit, Obama chief domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes has been all over the news today. The cable networks carried her summit-opening speech, and a profile piece is running every couple hours on CNN.
One angle I haven't seen explored: the Baptist Barnes's important role helping the Democrats "get religion" since 2004.
As executive vice president of the Democrat-allied Center for American Progress before landing in the Obama White House, she helped launch the organization's Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative in 2004. It was one of the first attempts on the left to wrestle back some of the faith-and-politics conversation from the religious right.
When the now influential progressive group Faith in Public Life got off the ground in 2006, Barnes's support helped bring Center for American Progress aboard as Faith in Public Life's financial sponsor before it was granted nonprofit status. "She played a huge role in helping the moderate and progressive faith community by bringing leaders together to figure out how to strengthen its voice," says Faith in Public Life Program and Communications Director Katie Barge. "She's been a friend to people of faith who are advancing a different kind of witness in politics, and her commitment to this work is clearly rooted in her faith."
In the White House, Barnes has given the Domestic Policy Council wide latitude in working with faith groups to forge policy, attending some of those meetings herself.
While the news media haven't delved deeply into Barnes's "faithy" side, I noticed this line in CNN's report today:
Right now, she is working seven days a week. Most days start first thing in the morning and run until 9 to 10 p.m. A deeply religious woman, she does make time to go to church each week.
The conservative Catholic League, meanwhile, registered some religious-tinged opposition to her appointment as White House domestic policy adviser last year while acknowledging her role in the "religious left."
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ann parker of IL 4:31PM July 20, 2009
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