Of "Neo-Caths" and "Sharia Catholicism"

Democrat political strategist Bob Shrum goes on the attack against the Bishops, proposing in their place an alternative "magisterium" - as promulgated by Pope Teddy the Swimmer and Pope Mario the Personally Opposed - to which American Catholics should be faithful:

Notre Dame’s decision to confer an honorary degree on President Obama has engendered resistance from a counter-reformation blessed by prominent members of the Catholic hierarchy. The fight against Obama is being advanced by a band of neo-Catholics who adhere to the radical notion that sectarian doctrine must be written into public policy.

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The bishops and their acolytes succeeded in battering pro-choice John Kerry in 2004, when a majority of Catholics joined the Rovian Republican base that narrowly delivered a second term to George W. Bush. Kerry, a faithful church attendee, declined to retract his support of the Constitutional guarantee of a woman’s right to choose. His position was consistent with the view, articulated more than twenty years ago, by two of the nation’s most prominent Catholic political leaders—Edward Kennedy and Mario Cuomo. They had argued —at Notre Dame and elsewhere—that in a free and pluralistic society, political leaders cannot impose their religious beliefs on a majority of citizens who disagree.

Matthew Archbold replies with a very nice takedown of the man who has never advised a winning presidential campaign.