Lapin went on: "Today, after a 30- or 40-year epidemic of leftism that has swept its sordid stain across America, we've become much more feminized and we are attracted to the masculine strength and brutality of Islam. This is the girl in the high school being attracted to the bad, tough guy and that's really what's happening. There is no other way that I know of to explain this utterly irrational -- and as soon as I said to myself that it's irrational, I said, where else do you see irrational behavior? When people are sexually attracted you see irrational behavior. On a spiritual level, the feminized American left, show business, politicians, particularly academia, all the people who love Islam, when Christianity and Judaism are exactly the reverse."

Lapin's Longtime Service to the Religious Right

For those unfamiliar with someone who used to be one the Religious Right's go-to Rabbis, here's some background.

Lapin is an Orthodox Rabbi who immigrated to the United States from South Africa in 1973. Along with conservative film critic Michael Medved, Lapin founded the Pacific Jewish Center, a popular Orthodox synagogue in Venice, California. He and his family relocated to Washington State in 1991 to develop an organization called Toward Tradition. He currently heads up a group called the American Alliance of Jews & Christians, a "partnering of Jews and Christians to strengthen America and our allies."

He has had a multi-dimensional career: writing a number of books, hosting a radio talk show, and being a much sought after speaker at conferences and events organized by the Religious Right. According to Wikipedia (citing World magazine), "Lapin currently hosts a daily television program with his wife Susan and provides spiritual advice to people through his website.”

A June 2005 Washington Post profile noted that Lapin is "finding support in the Torah for what turns out to be the current Republican platform: lower taxes, decreased regulation, pro-traditional family policies."

The Abramoff Connection

One of the details about Lapin's life that you don't find on his website is his longtime friendship and working relationship with former uber-lobbyist and convicted felon, Jack Abramoff, who in March of 2006 was sentenced to nearly six years in prison. At the time, the Seattle Times reported the Seattle Times reported that "Abramoff admitted in his own guilty plea in January that he funneled money through [Lapin's] Mercer Island religious foundation as part of an attempt to influence" Tony Rudy, Rep. Tom DeLay's former deputy chief of staff.

Lapin said that Toward Tradition "took $50,000 from two Abramoff clients and, at Abramoff's suggestion, used it to hire Lisa Rudy, to organize a Washington, D.C., conference for the group." The Seattle Times also reported that "Lapin said he and his board had no idea the money was part of Abramoff's scheme to influence Congress and, in this case, stop legislation to raise postal rates and ban online lotteries."

The Seattle Weekly reported that "New Senate documents show Seattle radio host Rabbi Daniel Lapin was more than just a friend and fellow religious conservative to embattled D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff ...Lapin was also on the payroll of Abramoff's D.C. charity, Capital Athletic Foundation [CAF]. According to Abramoff's e-mails, CAF was sometimes used as a money conduit to avoid paying higher income taxes."

Back in the Saddle

Now, he's back with a bang, or with at least a reiteration of remarks he made last year on his weekly radio program. According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, "Lapin said that unlike conservatism, `liberalism is incredibly feminine' and as a result `loves [the] hard masculinity' found in Islam."

"If there is one thing that Islam has proven itself to be, certainly in recent years and even longer ago than that, it is very masculine, it is violent, it is aggressive, it is dominating and it is very firm and very confident and very sure of itself, all of these very masculine characteristics," Lapin said.

"I believe that liberalism is drawn to it, I think liberals want to be seduced by Islam, I think liberals lay themselves down before masculine strength," he said, continuing with the sexual analogy. "There is a reason that it is biologically impossible for a woman to rape a man, it can't be done. And I do believe that a good deal of liberalism's supine nature with respect to Islam, liberalism's docility in the face of Islam, has to do with a deep desire to yield to strength."

Whatever else Lapin is attempting with his impersonation of someone who thinks he knows something about human sexuality and liberals, he has achieved something, becoming the subject of a crop of headlines: The New York Daily News went with "Liberals `have fallen in love with the masculinity of Islam: conservative Rabbi"; Raw Story's headline read "Right-wing rabbi: `Effeminate' liberals are sexually attracted to `the masculine strength and brutality of Islam'"; and, Salon's story was headlined "Effeminate" liberals are sexually attracted to "masculine brutality of Islam," according to right-wing rabbi."

Whether Lapin has spouted off enough to regain the Religious Right's interest is anybody's guess. Stay tuned!