PLAYING MARTYR
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John
Kerry and his campaign staff have done everything to
portray him as a solid, mainstream Roman Catholic, claiming that he
demands that his staff make time for his attendance to Sunday
services and that he is a weekly communicant.
That image of a practicing Irish Catholic is what Kerry has been
putting forward, harking to the time of John F. Kennedy, when
Catholics across the country voted to put one of their own in the
White House.
“Catholics are definitely a constituency we are courting,” says
a Kerry adviser in Washington. “Here we have a practicing Catholic,
who is in line with the majority of American practicing Catholics.
Rome may not be thrilled with the Senator’s position on some of the
social issues, but the pope doesn’t have a vote in this election.
But there are probably millions of pro-choice Catholics who do, and
Kerry is their man.”
The Kerry campaign was said to be surprised at the coverage
their candidate received for attending Mass while on vacation in
Idaho. “You saw conservatives all up in arms that he was receiving
communion, when most American Catholics do the same thing and live
a life very similar to the senator’s: divorced, pro-choice,
etcetera,” says the Kerry adviser. “It just highlights how out of
touch the right wing is with America, and we can play to that.”
To that end, according to other sources inside the Kerry camp,
aides are attempting to identify a Catholic diocese, and perhaps
even a specific priest and church, where Kerry could attend a Mass
with reporters present, and be turned away at the altar attempting
to receive communion.
Under Roman Catholic doctrine, a priest can withhold communion
from someone who is known to be either in a serious state of sin,
or who should otherwise be disqualified from receiving the
sacrament. It is a rule that is almost never invoked, and almost
certainly has never been used as a political ploy, either by the
church or a politician seeking some kind of photo opportunity.
In the past calls have been made to excommunicate liberal
politicians not in agreement with the Church’s teachings on
abortion, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, for
example, or more recently, Sen. Tom Daschle of
South Dakota. But neither man was officially sanctioned by his
respective bishop.
Kerry’s situation should be no different. But Kerry and his
staff are apparently willing to use the Catholic Church as a
political wedge, and hope that some politically conservative priest
will be willing to take the bait.
NEW DAY FOR CYNTHIA
Monday’s announcement that first-term Congresswoman Denise
Majette was running for the U.S. Senate took almost
everyone by surprise. Majette is a Democrat from Georgia whom
Republicans helped elect in 2002 by crossing over to vote for her
in the Democratic primary over Bush-bashing left-winger Rep.
Cynthia McKinney.
Majette, who previously had worked as a state judge, is not
widely known in the state and has no statewide fundraising base.
But Democrats have had a difficult time finding a challenger to
fill retiring Sen. Zell Miller’s seat, and few
political pundits expect the Democrats to hold on to it.
Majette’s announcement opens the door for McKinney to make
another run for her seat after losing to Majette in a primary that
focused on McKinney’s various conspiracy theories about the
president’s role in the September 11th attacks.
McKinney had also been talking about running for president as an
independent. Last we checked, Rev. Al Sharpton
hadn’t decided on a running mate.
