Note to Biden Advance Team: Rethink any birthplace Sunday stopovers.

From Biden’s birthplace bishop back in 2005 according to The Times Tribune:

“I will not tolerate any politician who claims to be a faithful Catholic who is not genuinely pro-life.”

“No Catholic politician who supports the culture of death should approach Holy Communion,”

“I will be truly vigilant on this point.”

From Culture 11 titled ‘The Top Eleven Things Hillary Clinton Did Upon Hearing Sarah Palin Got the Veep Nod’ -

11) Initially, too busy braving sniper fire to notice.

10) Ordered fur-lined pantsuit for on-site opposition research.

9) Traded in Michelle Obama voodoo doll.

Shorted Lieberman on InTrade.

7) Canceled “Hillary ‘12″ signs, ordered “Hillary ‘16″ signs.

6) Started clinging to guns, religion.

5) Took solace in the fact that she still owns www.firstwomanpresident.net.

4) Called Oprah.

3) Told Bill that watching old Miss Alaska footage did so violate their agreement.

2) Went hunting with a bottle of whiskey, as she always does when needing to unwind.

1) “Found her voice.”

From Nat Hentoff in May:

She would be a decided asset: an independent Republican governor, a woman, a defender of life against the creeping culture of death and a fresh face in national politics. She was described in “the Almanac of National Politics” as “an avid hunter and fisher with a killer smile who wears designer glasses and heels, and hair like modern sculpture.”

[snip]

And her presence could highlight Mr. Obama’s extremist abortion views on whether certain lives are worth living — even a child born after a botched abortion.

Fox News confirms.

Catholics are celebrating.  A statement from Fidelis coming soon.

Carl Anderson says Obama’s response to the question of when life begins as being “above my paygrade” was totally disengenous.

Mr. Obama understands the issue as well as anyone in America – and better than most. While he was a student at Harvard Law School, he did research for Lawrence Tribe, when the well-known law professor was writing “Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes.”(Mr. Tribe thanks him warmly, by name, in the book.)

Read the rest of the op-ed in the Washington Times.

By the way, check out HeadlineBistro.com, a wonderful news site started by the Knights for Catholics.

National Review’s editors have a solid idea for John McCain:

If McCain stood for a large expansion of the tax credit for children, and made that expanded credit apply against payroll taxes, he could deliver serious relief to many overtaxed middle-class families. The financial sacrifices that parents make contribute to the future health of Social Security and Medicare, and ought to be counted against their taxes to support those programs. It is a matter both of fairness and efficiency. An expanded child credit would also put money in families’ pocketbooks at a time when the chief economic concern they have is not the housing crisis or unemployment but rather rising prices. And it would make it much harder to paint McCain as offering “a third Bush term” on the economy.

Cutting taxes and saving babies. It’s a one-two punch that will Reagan Democrats worried about Obama’s liberalism and lack of experience into McCain’s camp.

Kathryn Lopez at NRO calls it the “Chaput Effect.”

Politico.com is reporting that the announcement to be made tomorrow and that McCain will notify his running mate of the pick today.

But the McCain Camp will have to work hard to keep the secret tight-lipped until at least midnight or risk the wrath of the Obama Media.

Mr. Libertarian gave last-minute support to the King of Pork? Young is leading by about 145 votes and if he wins by the slimist of margins, we’ll have Ron Paul to thank! Pathetic!

There’s rumbling over at MSDNC MSNBC.

Tim Pawlenty, considered near the top of McCain’s short list, says he would be “surprised” if John McCain picked a pro-abortion running mate.

“John McCain has said he wants a senior team in his administration that reflects his values, his priorities,” Pawlenty said on MSNBC. “He’s solidly pro-life. So I think he’s going to have a team that reflects that.”

Pawlenty said it would be “hard on the Republican Party,” if McCain chose a running mate who is “pro-choice or somebody who was … still caucusing with the Democratic Party.”

As for Pawlenty’s own record on life? It’s outstanding. From LifeNews.com:

Pawlenty dubs himself as “a strong and vocal supporter of pro-life issues,” and he has crafted a pro-life record both as governor and as Republican leader of the state House of Representatives before that.

With judicial appointments remaining one of the top pro-life issues, Pawlenty named Eric Magnuson, an attorney who has worked with pro-life groups, the Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Pawlenty spoke at the 2007 March for Life conducted by Minnesota Citizens Concerns for Life.

At the event, he minced no words when it comes to the pro-life position he takes.

“We are gathered here to say that there is no liberty greater than the right to life. We’re here to affirm that we need to extend that right to the most vulnerable among us, and that is the unborn,” he said.

(Full disclosure time: A native of Minnesota, I worked in 2002 to help elect Tim Pawlenty governor, but did not work for his administration. Even though I have no blog posts to prove this, back in 2002, I thought Pawlenty would make the ideal VP candidate for the Republicans in 2008.)

Blue-collar (Catholic) Democrats in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, who voted for Hillary out of concerns over Obama, are moving into the McCain camp. And McCain’s decision to talk-up abortion is the major reason why.

A new Gallup poll finds pro-life Democrats are abandoning Barack Obama now that more evidence has been presented that Obama takes a hardcore pro-abortion position. The drop in his support from pro-life Democrats also comes as John McCain has been more active promoting his pro-life views.

Keep it comin’ Mack!

Democrats for Life noted that support for abortion brings in money, but not votes for the Democrats.

LifeNews.com reports:

Emily’s List raised $52.3 million for female candidates who support abortion in the 2004 elections, yet, the states where Emily’s List ran an extensive Voter Mobilization Project, none of their Senate candidates won.

“Our Party gets a lot of money from pro-choice Democrats. But as this analysis shows, it is not converted into votes for a pro-choice presidential candidate,” says Kristen Day, executive director of the group.

“The choice for our Party is not about abortion, but the choice to either have money or have votes. Obama needs to decide which is it going to be?”

Obama won’t drop his support for abortion. But he also won’t talk about it much at all. He desperately needs the votes of blue-collar Catholics Democrats in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. (Hello, that’s why he picked Joe Biden!)

There’s a clear message here: Democrats know they need to downplay the issue of abortion. I wonder why? It would suggest that John McCain might gain by bringing the issue forward more often.

Professor Rick Garnett has today’s must-read post. Here’s a taste:

What is at stake in the abortion debate — and, as someone who has known and admired Doug Kmiec for years, I am sorry that he seems to be forgetting this — is not only reducing the number of abortions and helping women considering abortion to find their way to a different choice (though, of course, such reductions and help are important, and one wishes that Democrats for Life had more influence); it as about repairing the damage done to our political community, and to our constitutional order, by a decision that declared that the Constitution itself disables citizens from protecting in law the most vulnerable among us.

There’s buzz about McCain considering fellow Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) as a running mate.

Here’s all you need to know about why this would be a bad idea:

“To express the sense of the Senate concerning the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.”

Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Nay

“Nay” is exactly what McCain should say to the idea of a pro-abortion vice president.

New York’s Cardinal Egan has just released a statement in response to the Pelosi interview last Sunday.

Egan’s comments follow statements issued by Washington Archbishop Wuerl (here), and the statement by Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.

As previously noted, Archbishop Chaput responded too.

Here is Cardinal Egan:

Statement on Remarks by Speaker Pelosi

August 26, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2008

STATEMENT OF HIS EMINENCE, EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN CONCERNING REMARKS
MADE BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that
the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of
America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom
Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to
say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not
only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in
this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and
action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No
one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to
know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously
are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In
simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to
live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is
bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons.
They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at
all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to
defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human
being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason
should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of
the name.

Edward Cardinal Egan

Archbishop of New York

August 26, 2008

Via Gallup:

The latest update includes two days of interviewing following Obama’s selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate, and neither day showed an improved performance for Obama. Thus, Obama does not appear to have gotten the same type of immediate “vice presidential bounce” as have presidential candidates in recent years.

During his weekly radio address.

It is great to hear McCain speak at length about parental consent, partial birth abortion, and the born alive infant protection bills.  Most importantly, McCain called the life issue: “one of the central moral and legal questions of our time.”

Oh boy (or girl!), what are we to do with our fellow Catholic Nancy Pelosi?  Does she really think we are that dumb?  I have gone back and forth between concluding that she really doesn’t understand the issue and her faith, and the more likely explanation that she got caught trying to craft another nonsensical argument to cover her unwavering support for abortion.  Here she is on Meet The Press from Sunday when asked when life begins:

“As an ardent practicing Catholic, uh, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time.  And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition, and, uh, Senator — uh, I’m — Senator — Uh, St. Augustin’ (sic) said at three months.  We don’t know.  The point is is that it shouldn’t have an impact on a woman’s right to choose.

Denver’s Archbishop Chaput and Auxiliary James Conley have released a statement.

Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air is excellent:

Membership in the Catholic Church is voluntary.  If people do not want to follow its doctrines, they should find another faith community that reflects their values — and at the least, they should learn what the Church teaches on abortion and life before mischaracterizing it on national television.  Pelosi is either a fool or a liar, or perhaps both.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh, a non-Catholic, summed up the issue quite well:

Now, look, don’t misunderstand me on this, folks.  You’ve got a lot of liberal politicians who, for their own purposes, from Mario Cuomo to John Kerry to any number of them, will twist the Catholic Church’s doctrine abortion to fit their own personal desires to attach firmly the Democrat political policy dogma and this sort of thing.  The way Cuomo did it, he did it at Notre Dame University, he went to Notre Dame University, and he said, “Of course I understand the sanctity of life, I’m pro-life and so forth, but I cannot impose my political will, my religious views on people.  I cannot impose my religious views on the rest of the country.”  Yet he was perfectly comfortable imposing his tax views on the rest of the country and every other view he had.  But it was just a cop-out to allow him to remain pure to Democrat policy.  But neither Cuomo nor Kerry nor any of the others has ever come along and spoken for the Catholic Church like Pelosi did yesterday on Meet the Depressed.  That’s the arrogance and hubris.  I don’t care whether she said the Catholic Church’s doctors or doctrines, some people say she might have been saying “doctrines,” doesn’t matter.  She was speaking for the Catholic Church, and that’s brazen.  This is going to come back to bite.  The, quote, unquote, third most powerful woman in the United States of America telling the world what the Catholic Church’s official position on life is, the church cannot let this stand.

It was only a matter of time:

Douglas Kmiec, a former Reagan administration official and a Catholic who is supporting Obama, portrayed Biden as a Catholic not just by belief but by culture, someone who can connect with people at a gut level.

“You can’t find a more regular guy than Joe Biden,” said Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University. “He would be the kind of guy you would expect to find in the parish hall, in the neighborhood. That kind of personality, when combined with the kind of reflective Christianity Barack Obama has demonstrated, is a winning combination.”

Kmiec argues the Obama campaign is “ultimately premised upon Catholic social teaching” like care for working families and the poor and foreign policy premised on peace over war. Democratic efforts to tackle social and economic factors that contribute to abortion hold more promise, Kmiec said, than Republican efforts to criminalize it.

Ah yes, Obama and Biden are quite the dynamic duo. Obama’s “reflective Christianity” leads him to oppose legislation that would provide basic medical care to children who survive botched abortions, and Biden is vocal champion of Roe v. Wade. It’s easy to see why a “conservative” Catholic like Kmiec would sing the praises of this “dream ticket.”

NARAL should be pleased with the choice of Biden, given their grades over the past four years. He did receive a 36% percent score in 2003, most likely because of his vote on the ban on partial birth abortion.  But his most recent record leaves no doubt:

2007: 75%

2006: 100%

2005: 100%

2004: 100%