Saturday, June 19, 2004

No Communion for Santorum

He did support a pro-choice politician (Specter) against a pro-life one (Toomey).

But, surprise surprise - yet another article in the liberal New York Times about Catholic politicians and abortion rights which miraculously manages to not mention a single pro-choice Republican.

Confessore wonders why Bush is pushing this even though Catholic and Protestant views on abortion are pretty similar across the board.

Why, then, does the White House keep pushing the issue of John Kerry and the bishops? Good question. I suspect it has a lot to do with keeping Kerry off-balance and in an awkward position on a touchy subject. But clearly the Bush administration believes that having bishops and priests denounce Kerry from the pulpit would help them with some segment of voters. I wonder if they are correct.


I don't think that's it. I think it's that a clueless and hostile media will continue to push the idea that Kerry, alone in the world, is betraying his religion. Even those who aren't Catholic, and even those who aren't particularly religious, will get the message that Kerry doesn't live up to his professed beliefs.

It has nothing to do with increasing the Catholic vote for Bush -- if anything, I'd guess it'll lose Bush a few of those votes. It's about painting a general picture of an amoral man with no core beliefs.

In other words, it's just like every other Republican presidential campaign.