Just because the formerly feverish homo hate that swept the nation a few election cycles past has gone flacid in recent years doesn’t mean the GOP can’t find new and creative ways to weave frothy bigotry into electoral gold.

One of 11 ballot initiatives in the state this November, State Question 755, better known as the “Save Our State” constitutional amendment, would prevent courts from using international or Sharia law. The question made it to the ballot by passing the state Senate 41-2 and the House 82-10. In addition to potentially rallying the conservative base to the polls, the initiative, which bans something that is nearly impossible statutorily, is worth watching because the GOP may employ it in swing states two years down the line.

The Ideas Man is, naturally, out in front of this one:

At the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. in September, Newt Gingrich positioned himself perhaps to the right of Sarah Palin in a potential bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination by saying, “I am opposed to any efforts to impose Sharia in the United States, and we should have a federal law that says under no circumstances in any jurisdiction in the United States will Sharia [law] be used in any court to apply to any judgment made about American law.”

Marc Ambinder’s slavish devotion to the he said/she said paradign is on full display, but even Ambinder seems to at least provide his readers with a clue:

Those opposed to the ballot initiative believe it is a preemptive strike against a non-threat. They call the law xenophobic. They even cite the fact that even the amendment’s sponsors and strongest supporters cannot statutorily cite a case in which Oklahoma courts have applied Sharia law in any ruling. Yet supporters of the amendment, borrowing George W. Bush’s “with us or against us” formulation, speciously claim that those who don’t support the amendment are actually for Sharia law.

I understand that Pam Geller is becoming an increasingly popular media personality – and not just on the right (with 60 Minutes and the NY Times giving her valuable real estate).  This will surely redound to the benefit of all.