"Abortion is the civil rights issue of our times,"
Stephen Dillard was on Chris Matthew's Hardball to talk about his group Catholics Against Rudy along with E.J. Dionne.
You can see a video of Part I and Part II.
As you would expect Chris Matthew took the single issue approach asking Stephen Dillard about the war in Iraq, capital punishment, etc in the normal moral equivalence lump that is so often used. Democrats are always talking about nuance except when it comes to abortion, just war theory, and capital punishment and then everything is black and white.
It was also pretty funny when Chris Matthews said that the hierarchy is populated by a lot of Republicans. Yeah I guess that really explains the bishop's tepid voting guide and their taking several years to comment when the Democratic Party turned hard-core abortion rights. Though it is always rather dumb to try to divide up the bishops into Democrats and Republicans and giving that as their primary rationale for the way they act. Though I think historically the Bishops mostly have been quite sympathetic to the Democratic Party since there was such a long alliance between the two groups.
E.J. Dionne was fairly good and even mentioned Ramesh Ponnuru's excellent column on Rudolf Giuliani made available today. Though he did wonder if the the Bishops would "intervene" the same way they did with John Kerry. Well I don't remember much intervening, but no doubt the same Bishops who did say they would not allow Kerry to receive Communion would be the same ones who would act the same towards Rudy.
After Stephen's appearance I got a lot of searches to my site looking for Catholics Against Rudy (the website won't appear till July 4th) and a bunch of comments on a previous post. I did have to go through and delete a bunch of them since their were rather vulgar and mostly anti-Catholic. Considering Chris Matthew's audience I am not exactly surprised.
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I remember reading that about 75% of Catholic clergy in the US are Democrats, but unfortunately I don't remember where I read it! However, it struck me that this statistic explains a great deal. It is difficult to denounce friends and associates, "our" people. I think that many bishops just want to give the Dems a break, but they may not scruple to denounce Republicans! This may be fun to watch.
It's sad that murder of the unborn is considered a "single issue".
I wasn't around at the time, but were segregationists using this same argument that disqualifying a person who was for racism and segregation was being a "single issue voter"?
Well I don't remember much intervening, but no doubt the same Bishops who did say they would not allow Kerry to receive Communion would be the same ones who would act the same towards Rudy.
I hope they do just to avoid the appearance of partisanship, but strictly speaking it might not be necessary. Unlike Kerry, I've never heard of Rudy publicly receiving communion. For that matter I really have no idea whether he practices his faith at all.
George W. Bush has spent like a drunken sailor on social programs, prescription drugs for the elderly, and amnesty to immigrants. Yet liberals hate him with a passion because of Iraq (which has caused less deaths than abortion in a month) and nobody calls them "single issue"
Can Rudy even receive Communion? Doesn't he have to have gotten an annulment from wife #2 and regularized his marriage to #3 to even be remotely eligible?
Chris Matthews knows quite well that many Bishops in the US will definitely oppose Rudy. He is also well aware that most of them cannot be defined as "Republicans". Certainly, Archbishop Chaput is no Republican--he is a Catholic, and one of my favorite Bishops in the US. A red hat would sure look good on him! Steven Dillard, you did a great job! Rudy is off the table for me--I will not vote for anyone who is pro-abortion, pro-torture, etc. I doubt his chances for the nomination anyway. I can't see his abrasive style playing well in the Midwest or the South.