Ray Flynn in 2000: “Don’t vote for anyone who doesn’t strongly have a pro-life position.”

Ray Flynn in 2008: “I supported George Bush in 2000 for president but I’m supporting Hillary Clinton in this election because I strongly believe that she would be best for the country.”

Ray Flynn, 2000: Abortion is “the most compelling issue of the day.”

Ray Flynn, 2008: “I disagree with Senator Clinton on the abortion issue, obviously. I’m strongly pro-life. But in the final analysis I support the person who is best for the country.”

Ray Flynn, 2000: “We’ve been compromising away our beliefs. … We need to be better Catholics rather than just better Democrats. American Catholics have to draw a line in the sand.”

Ray Flynn, 2008: “On the issues that are really important to Catholics—health care, children, and families—Clinton has a long record of experience. If it weren’t for the abortion issue I think she would have received an even greater of percentage of Catholics voting for her.”

And so…  we have Clinton’s Vatican Ambassador endorsing Clinton. Though, he quickly adds that he is supporting Hillary over Obama in the primary and that he hasn’t made up his mind on who to support in the general election. Yet, Flynn offers: “I would say Catholics would go with Senator Clinton over Senator McCain, because on a whole range of social and economic issues, people feel very comfortable with Senator Clinton. Catholics are working class people. They’re struggling with economy and with jobs and education for their kids.”

Profile in courage, that Ray Flynn.

[N.B. The quotes from 2000 come from an article I wrote for the National Catholic Register. The article is not online.] 

Given all the concerns over whether John McCain is fully committed to the pro-life issue, it helps to remind ourselves from time to time what the alternative might be. Nat Henthoff, a self professed “non-religious pro-lifer” takes Obama to task for his radical pro-abortion record:

But on abortion, Obama is an extremist. He has opposed the Supreme Court decision that finally upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act against that form of infanticide. Most startlingly, for a professed humanist, Obama — in the Illinois Senate — also voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I have reported on several of those cases when, before the abortion was completed, an alive infant was suddenly in the room. It was disposed of as a horrified nurse who was not necessarily pro-life followed the doctors’ orders to put the baby in a pail or otherwise get rid of the child.

His complete editorial appeared Tuesday in the Sacramento Bee here

Katha Pollitt, columnist for The Nation writing in today’s Chicago Tribune argues that the Pope and the Catholic Church are the real enslavers of women. Looking back at the recent visit of the Holy Father, Pollitt wonders:

“Where were the tough questions about the church’s absolute ban on contraception, condoms, divorce and abortion—even to save a woman’s life? If it was up to Benedict, we might be more stylish than the plural wives of the FLDS, but we’d be trapped in marriage and have 15 children just like them. In the United States the Catholic Church has lost some of its moral authority—thank you, pedophile priests—but it has more temporal power than you might think.

…FLDS men have many wives and the pope has none, which goes to show there’s more than one way to keep women pregnant and in their place.”

Pollitt suggests that the Church’s consistent teachings on love and marriage are responsible for ‘millions of lives’ in Africa for opposing contraception and condoms in the fight against AIDS. But the larger premise of her article, and for that matter, the underlying assumption of the entire pro-abortion movement is that motherhood is a curse.

Never mind that women are naturally and exclusively the member of the human species endowed with the role of carrying and bearing the gift that is a new human life. Never mind that 30 years of abortion and birth control have produced an entire generation of women who now suffer from depression, thoughts of suicide, infertility, breast cancer, and other threats to their health. Never mind that the cultural legacy of our abortion culture has produced more divorce, single-parent families, and male neglect of their responsibilities as fathers, while women have been reduced to sexual playthings, urged in both dress and disposition to tantalize men, and satisfy their sexual urges without any commitment to permanence in marriage or children.

The thought that the Pope and the Church might actually teach what they do because they want to liberate women, is unthinkable. The possibility that men and society ought to respect women for what they are, and that laws ought to affirm the dignity of women, particularly in their natural roles as mothers, is anathema to so called ‘feminists’ like Pollitt.

How dare the Pope, or the Catholic Church, suggest that perhaps, just maybe, there is a better way.

Media outlets like the Washington Post noted that Rudy Guiliani received Communion at the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium. Cardinal Egan issued a response yesterday:

The Catholic Church clearly teaches that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God. Throughout my years as Archbishop of New York, I have repeated this teaching in sermons, articles, addresses, and interviews without hesitation or compromise of any kind. Thus it was that I had an understanding with Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, when I became Archbishop of New York and he was serving as Mayor of New York, that he was not to receive the Eucharist because of his well-known support of abortion. I deeply regret that Mr. Giuliani received the Eucharist during the Papal visit here in New York, and I will be seeking a meeting with him to insist that he abide by our understanding.

Cardinal Egan is to be commended for properly instructing the Catholic faithful. Rudy Giuliani’s desire for privacy is a joke, of course. He’s a public figure and he received Communion at the most public Mass of all.

By the way, it’s not just his support for abortion laws that is the problem. Though, that certainly is outrageous. Rudy never got an annulment from his marriage to Donna Hanover. So his civil marriage to Judie Nathan is not valid to the Church. Even if he became pro-life today, he still would be ineligible to receive Communion. In the eyes of the Church, he’s committing adultery.

A reader writes re: today’s Chicago Tribune story on the prospect of a Obama-Clinton ticket for McCain -

“This story provides some interesting analysis, especially this part:

‘April Quinnipiac University polls in the key Electoral College battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania found that in an Obama-McCain contest, a fifth to more than a quarter of white Democrats said they would defect to Republican McCain…’

I had often thought that the worst news for McCain would be a unified democratic ticket. As it turns out, that might not be the case.”

Ex-Catholic and current evangelical Rep. Tom Tancredo said Pope Benedict’s comments about welcoming the immigrant “may have less to do with spreading the gospel than they do about recruiting new members of the church.”

Mark Shea doesn’t just answer this point, he barbeques Tancredo.

Yes, Tancredo has highlights the problems of the immigration system. Yes, he was saying it when no one was listening. Yes, if it weren’t for his doggedness, reform of the system might have been totally ignored.

But, let’s be honest: More than just occasionally Tancredo is off his rocker.

Michigan Democrat Dale Kildee says whether its Obama or Hillary, they’ll win the Catholic vote.

Brian, here’s the video that sparked the Planned Parenthood protest:

Students for Life along with the National Black Pro-Life Union and other pro-life activists held a big protest today outside Planned Parenthood in Washington D.C. urging Congress to end the taxpayer funding of abortion groups. The protest was especially relevant given the recently released phone call recordings of Planned Parenthood representatives eagerly accepting donations from callers who requested that their contributions be used for abortions on “black babies.”

African-American pastors joined with Students for Life and other pro-life organizations for a press conference to ask Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood for accepting donations targeted specifically to abort black babies. Day Gardner, Rev. Clenerd Childress, Rev. Jesse Lee Jackson and Dr. Lillie Epps spoke at the press conference and released a letter to all presidential candidates asking them to refund money from PP and not to accept further donations because of the organizations’ racist tendencies.

More photos here

I almost let the day go by without sending kudos to Saint Fidelis, who’s martyrdom we celebrate today!

AmericanPapist has a major photo scoop. For a Methodist, Hillary Clinton is wearing something undeniably Catholic in nature. (I also think her shamrock scarf on St. Patrick’s Day was a stroke of genius.) Seems to have paid off. She won almost 70% of Catholic votes in Pennsylvania.

A debate has kicked up in National Review’s blog, The Corner, over whether military bases should sell Playboy and Penthouse magazines. Penthouse, it seems, used to be banned, but under its new management and editorial direction, it has been allowed back.

The legislator pushing for the removal of the magazine, Rep. Broun, has made some poor arguments, saying that soldier pay is tax-payer dollars. (Ah, no! When the check leaves the Treasury, it becomes the soldier’s property!)

The poor argument gave libertarian Andrew Stuttaford the green light to roll his eyes and call this another example of the GOP “embrace of the nanny state.” Stuttaford always gets bent out of shape the most when he discusses cultural conservatism. He can’t possibly conceive why anyone would object to the sale of photographs of naked women. Even though we now have a co-ed military and many husbands are thousands of miles away from their wives. (Mind you, this isn’t a discussion of whether the soldiers should be allowed to have porn, just whether the bases should sell it.)

Another commentator, Lisa Schiffren, said: ”[A] discussion of porn in society is good thing. Except in my lifetime society has discussed it endlessly, mostly at the behest of the feminists — with whom I agree on this, and it has only gotten much much worse.”

While feminists made the loudest stink about pornography back in the 1960s and 1970s, they have largely abandoned this fight and left only Christian conservatives arguing against further cultural acceptance of pornography. Today, only radical feminists remain opposed to pornography. Today, “mainline” feminists either no longer object to pornography or they consider it a woman’s freedom of expression.

Liz Hoskings wrote an article for Feminists for Life, explaining that there might just be a reason why feminists changed their mind: “Feminists have … capitulated to the values of the libertarian playboy, which view women as sexual objects to be used and discarded. It is no coincidence that the Playboy Foundation has been one of the biggest financers of the ‘pro-choice’ movement.”

On the Huffington Post, I found an article from Good Magazine that profiled Playboy’s CEO, Christine Hefner (Hugh’s daughter). The article notes that Christine calls herself a feminist, naturally, and that she was a co-founder of Emily’s List, a PAC dedicated to only one purpose – raising money for women who support abortion 100%.

Sounds like George Orwell: Pictures of naked women are everywhere. We are free! We are empowered!

In the name of opposing authoritarianism, we must prevent Republicans from speaking!Or, so apparently, goes the logic of the Students for a Democratic Society and other anarchist groups. They’ve embarked on a campaign to disrupt and “shut down” the Republican National Convention to be held in Saint Paul, Minnesota, this September.

The City of Saint Paul, to their credit, takes the First Amendment and threats against it seriously: The Police Department has already purchased 234 tasers. 

Iowa Right to Life was able to convince members of the Iowa House to cut off $750,000 of funding to Planned Parenthood in the state’s budget. The victory might be temporary, as it appears that the money will later be restored in conference committee.

But Iowa Right to Life and the Iowa legislators are to be commended for trying to cut off money for a business that crushes the skulls of little babies.

If, as we are repeatedly told, abortion is a private choice between a woman and her doctor, then why, pray tell, are we taxpayers ordered to pay for it?

CNN exit polls confirmed that Sen. Obama continues to struggle mightily with Catholic voters.  Results showed that among Catholics who attend church weekly, Hillary trounced Obama 74% to 26%.  Among Catholics who attend less often, the margin was still significant – 65% to 35%.  Interestingly, among Protestants who attend church weekly, PA Democratic primary voters were deadlocked 50-50.

What does this tell us?  Is Hillary more “Catholic” than Obama?  Hardly.  Their voting records and proposed policies vary little.  Both are pro-abortion, hostile to traditional marriage (though Obama has gone further than Hillary on this), and both support spending millions of taxpayer dollars on embryo-destructive research.  Both would spend taxpayer dollars on abortion internationally and domestically propose health insurance programs that would cover abortion.  If the presumption is that Democratic Catholic voters are opposed to the Iraq War, it would seem Obama would be their man.  Evidently, not so.

Some have suggested that the “Catholic” category is artificial given that many Hispanics are Catholic and blacks non-Catholic, and that religious affiliation is merely a by-product of other motivations for supporting either of the candidates.  Exit polls don’t reveal everything, but the clear implication is that many Catholics continue to have a very difficult time voting for Obama.  Even in Pennsylvania with the Catholic cloak of Sen. Casey.

Hillary’s argument that Obama is the weaker candidate for the general election has been the subject of much debate.  I have heard good arguments on both sides, but as far as Catholics go, the evidence is certainly in her favor.

Former House Speaker Newt Ginrich wrote glowingly on the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in his weekly e-mail newsletter today.  His wife may be a Catholic (he reports that she sang in the Basilica choir), though I don’t believe Newt is himself.  He spoke of the “largest White House welcome in history” and of his fortunate opportunity to attend both the Mass at Nationals Park and later at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Of his reflections on the papal visit, the following struck me as especially insightful:

“…my impression of the Pope has grown far beyond the original reports of his intellectual strength and his dedication to rebuilding faith and reason (in contrast to the secular dictatorship of rationality which he had experienced in Nazi Germany and had seen in the Soviet tyranny). The leader we saw was the embodiment of leadership and conviction whose presence made an enormous impact on those who experienced it. The pope is clearly not going to be simply an interim leader between Pope John Paul II and some future younger leader. Pope Benedict XVI is going to be an historic force for the reassertion of faith and reason in the lives of Catholics and people of all faiths.”

His weekly e-mail is worth receiving.  Sign up here

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rick Santorum urges conservatives to get behind John McCain’s campaign:

The most important social issue is life. Yes, I often wished McCain would have joined me on the Senate floor in debating Barbara Boxer on issues like the partial-birth-abortion ban. In the end, with the exception of embryonic stem-cell funding, he always voted for life and stood for the culture of life. In short, he’s been a reliable vote on life issues, which are critical to conservatives.

Santorum, who tried to stop McCain from getting the nomination, is not without a little levity in the article. He noted that Reagan said anyone who agreed with you 80% of the time was your friend, not your enemy. Says Santorum: “McCain is close enough to 80 percent for government work.”

The real problem with abortion today is that there just isn’t comedy about it. Or, at least that’s what Damon Wayans must think. He’s got a YouTube video called “Abortion Man.”  The caped crusader in this sketch comes to the rescue of a man who’s fathered a child. The superhero’s solution? Punch the baby right out of the woman’s body. Violence towards women and killing a baby… what you’re not laughing?

I used to get disgusted and outraged at the incessant desire of comics and rock stars to “push the envelope.” It’s accepted as unchallenged wisdom that the only contribution to art these days is to find the next Most Offensive Thing. But after awhile, your audience just yawns — even the grandmas you so love to offend.

I mean, isn’t it pathetic that we have to be reminded how trendsetting the singer Madonna is? So we see a 50-year-old singer wearing leather on a CD cover and we’re told, “Wow, she’s re-invented herself again.” 

Snore.

Brian Saint-Paul at InsideCatholic.com says the polling data out of Pennsylvania shows that Obama’s comment about people clinging to guns and religion hasn’t hurt him much:

Obama’s elitism, at least insofar as it was “revealed” with his comment about rural voters, is less a problem than his inexperience. In fact, the poll numbers in Pennsylvania remained largely unchanged in the wake of his God n’ Guns gaffe (as of this morning, Hillary leads by an average of 6.1% — she led by 10 points a week ago). 

But remember, Hillary’s voters have another choice in November: They can vote for John McCain. Hillary is doing a better job of winning over Catholic and blue-collar voters. They tend to vote Democratic across the board, except when it comes to the presidency. Reagan and Bush won many of them to their camps. No doubt, many of them will vote for Obama, but if perhaps 20% of them support John McCain, then Barack Obama will have a tough time winning 270 electoral votes.

We’ll have a better idea of this after the Pa. primary today, of course. But Byron York, at NRO, interviewed supporters of Obama and Clinton. He found that Obama’s supporters universally would support Hillary is she were the nominee, but that a significant portion of Hillary supporters would break away for McCain.

The rationale? Well, Coburn thinks the death penalty is appropriate sentence for abortionists, should the practice become illegal. In Obama’s mind, this means Coburn is similiar to William Ayers, a member of the terrorist organization called the Weather Underground, which bombed the Pentagon in the 1970s.

Call it irony or fate or coincidence, but the New York Times published a glowing article about William Ayers in which he made no apologies for bombing the Pentagon: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

What’s the irony, you say? Well, the article appeared in newspapers delivered to New Yorkers on the morning of September 11, 2001, the same day of course that the Twin Towers and yes, the Pentagon, were bombed.

“Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,” Ayers wrote in his book about the May 1972 bombing. “Even though I didn’t actually bomb the Pentagon — we bombed it, in the sense that Weathermen organized it and claimed it.”

It’s one thing to say that Senator Coburn’s thoughts were intemperate. But it’s totally unfair to compare him to a terorist.