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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (48272)	6/2/2004 2:19:32 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794210

New Yorker long think-piece on Chalabi is a doozy. Salman Pak? Fabricated. Atta meeting in Prague? Fabricated. Saddam's nuclear program? Fabricated. By Jane Mayer, name doesn't ring a bell. newyorker.com

To: Ilaine who wrote (48272)	6/2/2004 2:20:17 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794210

Kerry's Catholicism: Checked at the door By James P. Gannon - USA Today When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, I was a college senior at Marquette University, a Catholic Jesuit college in Milwaukee. I had just turned 21, eligible to vote for the first time. As a young Catholic, I was proud that a man who shared my faith could run for the highest office in the land, so I looked forward to casting my first presidential vote for JFK. I had heard my father's stories about Al Smith, the Democratic nominee for president in 1928, who had lost to Herbert Hoover in a campaign marked by widespread anti-Catholic bigotry aimed at Smith's religious heritage. My father was bitter about Smith's defeat and never voted Democratic again. Kennedy's victory in 1960 over Vice President Nixon seemed to smash the political barrier to the Oval Office for Catholics, and we rejoiced. The fact that Kennedy virtually had to promise to keep his religious beliefs in a lockbox for four years, to overcome fears that the pope would be calling the shots, was a concession we could understand and forgive. Now, 44 years later, another Catholic is about to become the Democratic nominee for president. I wish I could be as proud and enthusiastic about that as I was in 1960. Instead, I am embarrassed. Given his beliefs and his voting record, I wish John Kerry professed another religious faith or none at all. I would rather have an agnostic or an atheist in the White House than a person who proclaims himself a Catholic but tosses overboard those parts of Catholic doctrine that are politically inconvenient. Abortion, for one The liberal Massachusetts senator has consistently disregarded the church's teaching on the sacredness of human life by voting against any restriction on abortion, even the termination of a nearly completed pregnancy known as partial-birth abortion. He not only has voted to support abortion rights at every opportunity, but he also has proudly proclaimed his stance in speeches to Democratic pro-choice groups such as NARAL. Kerry is not in the least way embarrassed by his pro-abortion stance. I am, and I believe many Catholics are, too. I realize that many Catholics disagree with the church's teaching on abortion, homosexuality, capital punishment and other issues. Polls show American Catholics are about as deeply divided on the issue of abortion as is the general public. Exit polls taken in the 2000 election showed Catholic voters split 50% in favor of pro-choice Democrat Al Gore to 47% for pro-life Republican George W. Bush. Clearly, the pope and bishops do not dictate how U.S. Catholics vote. But Kerry's rise to the pinnacle of American politics, with his well-advertised Catholic label, raises the stakes in this struggle for the hearts and minds of Catholic voters. Can American bishops ignore the fact that his voting record on basic moral issues defies church teaching? Can Catholics who embrace the church's teaching accept as our leader a man who so easily abandons Catholic beliefs? Kerry is carrying our flag, but he is dragging it on the ground. Kerry rationalizes his position on abortion with the well-worn excuse used for years by Catholic politicians who find their faith's teaching inconvenient. He professes to be personally opposed to abortion as an article of faith but says it is not appropriate for a member of Congress to legislate personal religious beliefs. This position is tired and intellectually dishonest. As he has done on so many issues, Kerry is trying to have it both ways on abortion — consistently voting as a reliable supporter of the powerful abortion-rights lobby of the Democratic Party while professing a personal belief that is consistent with his faith and supposedly comforting to Catholic voters. Gay marriage He does the same kind of waffling on another issue important to the Catholic faith — the controversy over same-sex marriages. Kerry has said he opposes gay marriages, but when given an opportunity to cast a vote to support that claim, he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which Congress approved by large margins and was signed by Democratic President Clinton. As a Catholic who takes the church's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage seriously, I wonder how Kerry can toss aside these "personal beliefs" so easily. Kerry seems to wear his Catholicism like a sports coat that he puts on for Sunday Mass but takes off when going to work. I don't trust a man whose supposedly deep inner convictions can be checked in the cloakroom of the Senate chamber, or cast aside at the door of the Oval Office. Kerry does not find it inappropriate to vote in accord with Catholic teaching on other issues. He is generally opposed to capital punishment, as is the church. If it is inappropriate to vote his faith-based view on abortion, why is it appropriate to vote as the pope would on the death penalty? How about the church's social teaching on subjects such as every worker's right to a living wage? Would Kerry hesitate to vote for a raise in the minimum wage because someone might think he's voting his religious belief? Not on your life. Kerry is consistent in voting in line with liberal Democratic orthodoxy: against abortion restrictions, against restrictions on gay marriage, against capital punishment and for social-welfare legislation such as the minimum wage. This is his true religion, based on his voting record. John Kennedy didn't face this dilemma. He lived and died before Roe vs. Wade, before the idea of gay marriage, before the Democratic Party became a hostile environment for devout Catholics who won't check their beliefs at the door. John Kerry has made his choice on these matters. He is not one of us. I wish he would stop pretending that he is. James P. Gannon, a retired journalist, is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the former editor of The Des Moines Register. He lives in Virginia. Find this article at: usatoday.com