Meet Dan Patrick.

(Pictured: Texas Senator Dan Patrick (R-Houston), brave non-bigoted boycotter of Islam.)

I usually try to ignore my state legislature because it just frightens and depresses me, but every now and then it's good for a laugh.

We've got a Republican state senator named Dan Patrick, who's really just a third-rate Rush Limbaugh from Houston. Patrick created a minor stir last week when he walked out on the first Muslim cleric to deliver a prayer before the Texas Senate.

How did the media-savvy radio personality steal the spotlight? Patrick was the only senator to share with other members his strong objections to the imam, who delivered the invocation at the invitation of Sen. Florence Shapiro, who is Jewish. According to news reports, Patrick also suggested to members that the imam – Yusuf Kavakci of the Dallas Central Mosque – shared the views of a radical Muslim sect (Wahhabism), although Kavakci has publicly rejected those views. And Patrick was the only member to make a personal privilege speech at the end of the day's session, noting that the Islamic prayer he had boycotted that morning was an "extraordinary moment." He went on to say, "We are a nation that is so tolerant of others that we bend over backward to allow others to pray as they wish. … We are a nation that allows a Muslim to come in with a Quran, but we are a nation that doesn't allow a Christian to take a Bible to school." (We wanted to ask Patrick what federal or state law prohibits Christians from carrying Bibles in school, but at press time, he had not responded to calls to his office seeking comment.)

Patrick, miffed that his little stunt got him some critical press, writes (badly):

I am not anti Muslim [sic] or anti Islam [sic]. I was not trying to be disrepectful [sic]. I did have some concerns, but I skipped the prayer simply because as a Christian, praying to another God [sic] would violate the first commandment.

Embarrassingly, Patrick seems to be totally ignorant of the fact that Muslims are praying to the same god. And I'm pretty sure Sen. Shapiro doesn't need any lectures about the Decalogue. It kind of applies to her as well, even though she's not a Christian.

Unbelievable.

Uh, Dan? If a Jewish woman and the Pope can pray with Muslims, you can too.