Missed: Evansville bishop to boycott GOP leader's visit

Democrats aren't the only ones who get boycotted by American bishops:

A Roman Catholic bishop will boycott an anti-abortion group’s annual dinner next month because of abortion comments by keynote speaker and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele in a magazine interview.

Evansville Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger decided not to attend Vanderburgh County Right to Life’s annual dinner, which will also feature Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on April 16 because of Steele’s comments published online by GQ two weeks ago, diocese spokesman Paul Leingang said Tuesday.

Gettelfinger, the spiritual leader of about 90,000 Catholics in southwestern Indiana, has attended the Right to Life dinner each year for at least a decade, Leingang said. (Indy Star)

So what do you think of that?

Breaking: RNC head Steele says abortion is a "choice"

In an interview with GQ, Michael Steele, the new head of the Republican National Committee says abortion is a choice.

This is very dissapointing news, if it turns out to accurately portray his view on abortion:

How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your Catholic faith but by the fact that you were adopted?
Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that—I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it… Uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.

Explain that.
The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.

Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.

You do?
Yeah. Absolutely.

Are you saying you don’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade?
I think Roe v. Wade—as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.

Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?
The states should make that choice. That’s what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.

Do pro-choicers have a place in the Republican Party?
Absolutely!

As a Catholic, Mr. Steele should know better.

More from CMR and Politico.

Photo: GQ.

update: Steele, under fire, walks back 'choice' remark (read to the bottom for Tony Perkins comment)

Jindal is preparing for a 2012 run

Mark my words, Bobby Jindal's increasing national presence is a preparation for a Presidential run in 2012. If others have not said this before, you heard it here first. Oh, and I should also mention he's Catholic.

Get ready.

Breaking: Pro-life, devout Catholic named new RNC chair!

I'm hearing that it happened just minutes ago: Former Maryland Lt. Gov. (and former state party chairman) Michael Steele has been elected as the new chair of the Republican National Committee.

So who is he?!

CollegeNews tells us:

"Steele is a staunch social conservative: devoutly Catholic, pro-life, anti-embryonic stem cell research, etc."

Sounds like my kind of guy!

And no Kmiec-style justifications needed to support him.

update: WaPo blog:

The Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele as its first African American chairman today in Washington, a decision that came after an excruciating series of ballots that displayed a level of drama rarely seen in national politics.

On the sixth and final ballot Steele bested South Carolina Republican party Chairman Katon Dawson 91 to 77.

"It's time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them," Steele said after his victory. "This is our opportunity. I cannot do this by myself."

update 2: I love seeing outcomes so surprising that the media doesn't quite know how to handle it. Associated Press finally has a short breaking news update out the door.

Remember - you read it on AmP first!

update 3: FoxNews has his biography:

"He spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood, but ultimately chose a career in law instead."

I'm impressed.

Abortion Politics Didn’t Doom the Republican Party

So says Ross Douthat in the New York Times:

"An iron law of recent American politics dictates that any Republican setback at the polls will be quickly pinned on the pro-life movement .... [but] why should abortion opponents, of all conservative factions, take the blame for the financial meltdown, or the bungled occupation of Iraq, or the handling of Hurricane Katrina?"

I agree with his analysis, and appreciate his awareness that Roe stands squarely in the way of all progress towards ever significantly and permanently reducing abortions (look at the last thought which I have underlined):

"no ... compromise is possible so long as Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey remain on the books. These decisions are monuments to pro-choice absolutism, and for pro-lifers to accept them means accepting that no serious legal restrictions on abortion will ever be possible — no matter what the polls say, and no matter how many hearts and minds pro-lifers change.

... Facing a hostile governing majority, pro-lifers can and should talk more about the possibility of compromise: They should explain, more often and more cogently, that if Americans want laws that better reflect their muddled sentiments on abortion, it is pro-choice maximalism, not the pro-life movement, that’s really standing in the way."

The best way forward? Douthat says:

"So long as the Supreme Court remains closely divided, and a post-Roe world remains in reach, the movement’s basic political task must remain the same. Not because pro-lifers are absolutists who reject compromise, but because any real compromise will always depend on overturning Roe. Giving up on this goal would mean giving up the movement’s very purpose, while gaining nothing in return."

Douthat is essentially making the same points that the US Bishops have made. Moreover, he is not trying to give political advice to the GOP, he is demonstrating that the best way to bring public policy more in accord with the views of the majority of American people on the issue of abortion is to abandon the abortion absolutism of the past thirty years and, you guess it, bring in some much-needed change.

In this case, that change is repealing Roe.

Defendin' Palin

George Marlin does his best over at The Catholic Thing:

Governor Sarah Palin is driving liberal and conservative members of the eastern establishment bonkers.

Because Palin is a working mother of five, didn’t abort her Down syndrome child, is the main bread winner in her family, gave a terrific acceptance speech, held Biden’s feet to the fire in the vice presidential debate, attracts large crowds at campaign rallies, and is good-looking – liberal feminists are frothing at the mouth.

In their quest to destroy Palin, these self-appointed guardians of the women’s rights movement have discarded all the rules of civility and fair play.

You know it's bad....

.... when GOPers are already planning the 2012 comeback.

And heeeeeeere's Bobby!

Video: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

It may generate some heated debate, but this video has become very popular (6ook+ views) and makes the case that the current economic woes can be directly tied to democrat-mandated programs under the Carter and Clinton administrations which forced banks to issue faulty loans to people who could not repay them.

The video, while clearly partisan, does not contradict, for instance, the situation described by this 1999 New York Times article.

A root question about this economic downturn must be "what caused it"? Right now, democrat-proposed legislation to force the availability of "affordable home loans" to those who could not repay them seems high on the list of likely causes. Not the exclusive cause, mind you, but an important one.

Okay, have at it....

"Why the Democratic Abortion Strategy is Worse"

For a very even-handed treatment of the question, read Mark Stricherz in America magazine.

Ph/t: Margaret Cabaniss of Inside Catholic.

Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin {updated}

{updated most recently @ 11:45pm - see below}

As always, excellent observations.

Highlights from what she has to say about Sarah Palin:

Because [Palin] jumbles up so many cultural categories, because she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way, because she is a woman who in style, history, moxie and femininity is exactly like a normal American feminist and not an Abstract Theory feminist; because she wears makeup and heels and eats mooseburgers and is Alaska Tough, as Time magazine put it; because she is conservative, and pro-2nd Amendment and pro-life; and because conservatives can smell this sort of thing -- who is really one of them and who is not -- and will fight to the death for one of their beleaguered own; because of all of this she is a real and present danger to the American left, and to the Obama candidacy.

She could become a transformative political presence.

So they are going to have to kill her, and kill her quick.

And it's going to be brutal. It's already getting there.

And also:

I'll tell you how powerful Mrs. Palin already is: she reignited the culture wars just by showing up. She scrambled the battle lines, too. The crustiest old Republican men are shouting "Sexism!" when she's slammed. Pro-woman Democrats are saying she must be a bad mother to be all ambitious with kids in the house.

update: well this is a shocker... (via AmP reader mark:)

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan: “It’s over… They went for this, excuse me, political bull**** about narratives. Every time Republicans do that… they blow it.”

Source.

I'm out the door right now and don't have time to immediately comment. AmP reader Mary:

Peggy Noonan has updated her WSJ article to explain her unfortunate epithet, which was made about "political narrative" and not about Gov. Palin. She believes that she was 'mugged'. Considering the speed with which the MSNBC video clip went viral and the way liberal bloggers are now skewing the context of her remarks, she's probably right. She's not the only victim, though.

Curious.

update 2: Matthew Balan notes the accelerated timeline at NewsBusters.