Childe Dubya to the Papal Throne Came

Talking Points Memo

Josh is musing quite pointedly on Bush's recent request of the Pope to encourage "more explicit activism" in pursuing common causes between the Church and the Republican agenda.

The question of whether pro-choice politicians (particularly Democrats, it would seem, and particularly one named John Kerry) should be denied communion has been roiling the country's Catholic bishops. And starting today, June 14th, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will gather in Englewood, Colorado and one key item on their agenda will be to arrive at some guidelines or uniform decision on this issue of denying communion to Catholic politicians.

As Josh reminds us, though Bush would love a crackdown on issues like stem cell research and abortion, other Church positions on issues like war and the death penalty could open up Republican candidates to friendly fire.

So Deal Hudson, a principal Bush ally in the Catholic Church, has explained the best possible take: deny communion to Kerry alone.

Thank you, Josh. Friends and neighbors, this is why the Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, erected a wall of separation between church and state in this country. It's a wall Bush has been yearning to tear down his entire tenure as President, and this naked appeal for the use of "the Euchrist as a political sancion" is fundamentally unamerican. What greater instrument of fear could Bush use than the specter of endangering his political opponent's relationship with his God?

It's precisely "kingmaker" moves like this that the First Amendment was enacted to prevent. And I can't understand the reason why Bush would do this - prostrating himself before the Pope isn't going to play well back at Bob Jones University.

George Walker Bush just doesn't understand how we do things here in America. You can't wrap yourself in the flag here in America and then piss on it in Vatican City. In a presidency full of autocratic assaults on our constitutional government, this moment stands head and shoulders above the rest. It's one of the most disgraceful moments I've ever witnessed in American politics.

I'm sensing the need for a new top ten list - George Bush's Most Shameless Acts as President. I'm afraid, though, that we don't know the half of what this man and his gang of incompetent criminals has done to America. The floor is open for nominations.

(By the way, the post is an oblique reference to the release of Stephen King's sixth Dark Tower novel. Just so ya know...)