GOV. Eddie Calvo may have introduced a new element into the give and take of politics and public policy this week. He’s asking everyone to pray for Sen. Ben Pangelinan.

This all started when the Democratic senator, who chairs the 31st Guam Legislature Finance and Budget Committee, called on Calvo and Chairman of the Guam Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees Lee Webber to stop picking on TakeCare insurance company.

He cited a supplemental audit of GMH, which, he contends, confirmed what he pointed out when the cancellation of the TakeCare contract with GMH occurred several weeks ago. The senator charged that TakeCare was “unfairly targeted” by the GMH Board.

Pangelinan called the cancellation “convenient timing” since it came at a time when the insurance company was negotiating with the Federal government for coverage of Federal employees. “This stunt by the governor’s appointees,” he said in a news release yesterday, “appears to be an affront to deliberately, but indirectly, affect the outcome” of those negotiations.

“The governor,” he continued, “stood by and watched silently while the actions of his appointed Board of Trustees damaged the reputation of a private business over a three-month period and instilled fear and doubt in the customers of TakeCare without a valid reason.”

To which Gov. Calvo responded: “Sen. Pangelinan unfortunately may not understand this issue. We actually resolved this with TakeCare months ago.” Then he said the senator’s comments appear to be just another “malicious attack” on the administration, but one that’s unusually negative – even by the budget chairman’s standards.

“I think people are tired of all this negativity,” Calvo said. “I’m praying for Sen. Pangelinan that he can be more positive and I ask everyone to pray for him as well. I feel bad for him.”

That certainly takes our public policy debate to a new level. Or does it? We know of someone who prays every day that Barack Obama will be a one-term President. For all we know, prayers go up consistently on Guam, aimed at correcting the perceived weaknesses and peccadilloes of our various public officials. The power of prayer might well be at work around here all the time, but this is the first time we’ve heard of a governor asking people to pray for one of his political enemies.

It reminds us of an old church hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus,” one line of which goes: “Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer.”

Amen.