Tom Cotton did a fine thing when he repudiated an attack on Sen.

Mark Pryor’s faith.

Letting your party’s out-of-state hatchet wielders whack your opponent and then nobly shunning the attack is an old stunt. I get that. But Cotton’s response was stronger than that. It also reached the core of an important issue.

Pryor is a Democrat. He’s running for re-election against Cotton, a GOP congressman. Pryor aired a TV ad. In it, he called the Bible his “compass,” his “North Star.” “It gives me comfort and guidance to do what’s best for Arkansas.”

Both Republicans and Democrats gagged. Cotton repudiated remarks from a Republican - which were very mild compared to, for instance, the editorial Thursday from the liberalleaning Arkansas Times:

“How far will Mark Pryor go to show that he’s not really a Democrat, or not much of one? Call Barack Obama a Muslim? Leave his hat on in Nancy Pelosi’s off ce? Demand reversal of Brown v. Board of Education?”

Wow. Using the Bible in a TV commercial compares to being a birther who’s against integration. Gosh, where could Republicans get thisnotion that Democrats are godless and the Bible is all theirs? But I digress.

Brad Dayspring works for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Hark, he said. Pryor’s ad might not exactly match something Pryor said in April 2012: “The Bible is really not a rulebook for political issues. Everybody can see it dift erently.”

Dayspring cackled. “So is the Bible Mark Pryor’s compass, providing the ‘comfort and guidance to do what’s best for Arkansas?’ Or is it really not a good rule book for political issues and decisions made in the Senate? Guess it depends on which Mark Pryor that you ask.”

Now, I can point out something here. There’s a lot of difterence between a guide and a comfort versus a rulebook. It’s about the same difterence as there is between the North Star and a navigational chart upon which you plot a ship’scourse. But I digress.

So here’s the comment from Cotton’s campaign that I give him great credit for: “That is an incredibly bizarre and oft ensive email from the NRSC’s press secretary. We should all agree that America is better oft when all our public offcials in both parties have the humility to seek guidance from God.” Cotton campaign spokesman David Ray said that.

It’s one thing to have a D.C. hack attack your opponent and then say, “I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that anyone would say such a thing.” It’s another to call the attack “incredibly bizarre and oft ensive.” If that was all political theater, give credit to Cotton for showing real fl air.

The more important point, though, is this: Cotton is the conservative’s conservative. Democrats portray him as a right wing zealot. He holds up farm legislation and harms Arkansas in the process out of sheer fervor, they say. Yet he - Tom Cotton - said “all our public off cials in both parties” should seek guidance from God. He - Tom Cotton - has publicly declared that a Democrat can have sincere Christian faith, seek God’s guidance, and still be a Democrat.

If you think Republicans are in God’s chosen party, your Senate candidate with impeccable conservative bona fi des respectfully disagrees with you.

Here’s something else notable. Cotton, thesupposed hand-picked puppet of out-of-state ideologues, just told the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee where to get oft .

Gosh, could Tom Cotton have a mind of his own, a conscience, a spine and teeth with which he just bit the hand that feeds him? Can Mark Pryor be a man of sincere Christian faith, able to represent constituents who profess the same faith? And might the senator, in today’s toxic partisan climate, need to remind voters of this just because he’s a Democrat?

It’s a long time until November 2014. I’m grateful for every touch of class and sincerity we get.

We just got a bit of both.

!!!

On a totally dift erent topic, I took the Fayetteville Library Board to serious task last week for approving a raise for the director. I said the staft should have been considered for a raise first, among other things.

I meant full-time staft , but a reasonable person could think I meant to include my teenage daughter who works at the library parttime. The thought should have occurred to me that arguing for raises for other people at the library was a conflict of interest, and I apologize.

DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 14 on 12/15/2013