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Random commentary and senseless acts of blogging.
The first Republican president once said, "While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. Blog critics Gryffindor House Slytherin House Ravenclaw House House Elves Beth Jacob Prisoners of Azkaban Muggles
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Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Tapped has a nice dismissal of the smear that Democrats are anti-Catholic for blocking extreme right judicial nominees who happen to be Catholic. The truth is that the Democrats haven't blocked a single nominee who believed in the Catholic doctrine on human life since Bush took office, and they never will. That's because an orthodox Catholic would be against capital punishment, and such a nominee will not reach the Senate while Bush is in office. So if there is religious discrimination here, it's coming from Bush.
But there is no religious discrimination. Many Catholics have chosen to take a position which supports church teaching on abortion and often also opposing gay rights, while rejecting most other church teachings on social justice, starting but by no means ending with opposition to the death penalty. Since this doesn't reflect Catholic religious teaching, it should be seen as what it is, fundamentally a political position, which may be influenced by religious ideas. George Bush agrees with this political position and has gone to this group, rather than orthodox Catholics whom he does not agree with, for his judicial nominations. There is nothing wrong with Bush picking judges because they profess an ideology he supports, and nothing wrong with Democrats opposing choices on the same grounds. What's wrong is smearing opponents with a charge of bigotry when you know it's false. |
