Huffington Post Laugher: "McCain's Catholic Committee Full Of Controversial Figures"

(Hat tip: Kathryn Jean Lopez and Ramesh Ponnuru)

According to this nonsensical Huffington Post piece, John McCain's Catholic advisory committee is chock full of people just like Pastor Wright and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. I mean, there are people on there that actually believe in such outlandish stuff as "marriage protection" and holding Cardinal Mahony accountable for his role in "The Scandal":

... John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, also has religious figures associated with his campaign that could pose problems for his electoral hopes. And they extend beyond the two infamous endorsers who have received the most attention: Pastor John Hagee -- who once called the Catholic Church the "great whore" -- and Reverend Rod Parsley -- who accused the government of enabling "black genocide" through legalizing abortion.

McCain's own "Catholics For McCain National Steering Committee" includes several figures that, while not personally connected to the senator (a la Wright to Obama), nevertheless create thorny issues for his candidacy.

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Frank Keating, the former Oklahoma governor, serves as one of two Catholics For McCain Co-Chairs. In June 2003, Keating was forced to resign from a Catholic Church review board after he suggested that the bishops were engaging in Mafia-like activities in their efforts to obstruct investigations into the child sexual abuse scandal. "To act like La Cosa Nostra and hide and suppress, I think, is very unhealthy," he told the Los Angeles Times. The comments earned him some plaudits among critics (and there were many) of the church. But they were also viewed as unnecessarily antagonistic. Keating refused to apologize. [ED.: The same people who will invoke "Anderson's Law" (or whatever you want to call it) at the drop of a hat in order to try to cower the Church into silence on subjects like abortion and same-sex "marriage", suddenly have qualms about Gov. Keating taking Cardinal Mahony to task for being less than forthcoming. That takes some chutzpah.]

Another member of McCain's Catholic Steering Committee -- Martin Gillespie, formerly the Republican National Committee's Catholic Outreach director -- called the Democrats the party of "drug legalizers." [ED.: I can think of much worse things to call the Democrat Party, and they would all fit.]

And yet another, Robert Destro, built a career battling any and all efforts to legitimize same-sex marriages. [ED.: Horrors! You mean he has worked to promote the teachings of the Church with respect to the family?] A controversial [ED.: There's that word again. "Controversial" to whom? Or is this one of those times that we often see in the media where "controversial" merely means "conservative"?] appointee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission during the Reagan administration, Destro's Marriage Law Project has tirelessly pushed an anti-gay-marriage platform in numerous states. [ED.: Anti-gay marriage? What a bastard! Not "God damn America!"; how about "God damn Robert Destro!"? /sarcasm]

"Their role has been to try to give the veneer of scholarship and objectivity onto what is really an attack effort to cement discrimination against gay couples into the law," Evan Wolfson, executive director of New York-based Freedom to Marry, told the National Catholic Reporter. [ED.: Now there's a good source on what constitutes "mainstream" Catholic thinking.]

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"These are the usual suspects," said Chris Korzen, Executive Director of the liberal Catholics United and co-author of the forthcoming book, A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division. "In general terms, these are folks who have a history of putting partisan politics ahead of the teachings of their faith. [ED.: LOL! That's a good one! Oh, wait. Was he serious? Talk about projection.] It is more of the same, and if they were serious about being engaged Catholics they would be challenging McCain on the war and torture [ED.: Notice he doesn't mention ESCR] where McCain is not on the side of Catholic theology." [ED.: And if you were serious about being "engaged Catholics", you wouldn't be caught dead being quoted favorably in a piece pushing same-sex "marriage", wouldn't be supporting candidates who are radical proponents of both same-sex "marriage" and abortion on demand, and wouldn't be associated with a party for whom praising the Pope for "valuing each and every human life" is considered controversial - in other words where your side is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as Catholic theology.]

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)