The head of the Catholic League is threatening to destroy John Edwards.

[madfloridian]

Some here are going along with that. He is saying they will join with Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Protestants to wage a war against John Edwards.

This is because John Edwards stood up for those he hired. I admire him very much for that.

First the head of the Catholic League says he...Donohue...is the only one to decide our debate. Really? Who gave him that power? How arrogant!

"Edwards said today that 'We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked.' I have news for him--the Catholic League--not Edwards--will decide what the debate will be about, and it won't be about the nation. It will be about the glaring double standard that colors the entire conversation about bigotry.

Donahue is threatening to destroy John Edwards. And some here are defending it. Some are not realizing that when the bloggers wrote they were private blogs. Donahue is threatening to destroy one of our candidates, and people here are going along with it. How dare he.

"We will launch a nationwide public relations blitz that will be conducted on the pages of the New York Times, as well as in Catholic newspapers and periodicals. It will be on-going, breaking like a wave, starting next week and continuing through 2007. It will be an education campaign, informing the public of what he did today. We will also reach out to our allies in the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities. They worked with us before on many issues, and are sure to do so again. What Edwards did today will not be forgotten."

This is extremely scary stuff. It is the stuff nightmare are made of. The president of the Catholic League has in effect said he will wage war against one of our most decent candidates.

I posted a link to the efforts of bloggers to fight back. My post is being ignored. Maybe that is too hard..to click a link and write the press.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/2/8/17574/09512

My husband and I are today donating to John Edwards' campaign. We need people to stand firm even if they lose by doing it. He did stand firm, and he will pay dearly for it from the religious right.

When our candidates don't reach out to the religious extremists, they are attacked by them. When they try to reach out, they are attacked by us.

None of the religious groups, Catholic League or not, has any right to destroy our candidates. We need to fight that stuff now.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Lest we forget J.F.K. was castigated for his religion ,ironic? not at all..

....Torqamadas Church too.

[madfloridian]

2. Here is the link to the full letter from the Catholic League.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/2/8/154647/9969

[saigon68]

15. He can go do an unnatural act on himself

Maybe the detestable "CRIME AGAINST NATURE"


lol

[citizen snips]

3. Bill Donohoe is a demagogue.

[JerseygirlCT]

14. A Catholic Pat Robertson

Absolutely.

And so NOT representative of American Catholics.

[rpannier]

25. He's working on it -- not there yet

He has to call for the assassination of a legally elected foreign leader to make the final step.

donohoe represents the EWTN-Catholics. Those people who sit transfixed on Mother Angelica and buy her idols and trinkets.

[JerseygirlCT]

27. Reminds me of a friend of my parents'

very conservative, apt to make bigoted jokes, often speaks before thinking...

The worst of Irish Catholicism in the US, truly. An embarrassment.

[IndianaGreen]

33. Donohue likes anal sex

and he spews shit every time he opens his mouth.

[nankerphelge]

4. Huffington post has a...

good take on it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-browner-hamlin/end-of-the-standoff-and-p_b_40739.html

[AX10]

7. Mr. Hamlin is correct.

We must stand united against these SOB's. The internet is our answer to talk radio. This is but another attempt to silence our side. The right wing does not want us to have a voice even though they do. This is war and we must declare war on these tyrants!

[saracat]

5. Donahue is a rat bastard! I would definitely do a dance if he were gone!

[AX10]

6. We must all stand to defend Mr. Edwards against this onslaught!

Bill Donohue is one of the worse bigots around.

[Mass]

8. Blogpac action on this issue.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=160954&mesg_id=160954

[nankerphelge]

9. Here's another one...

http://www.democracyinaction.com/dia/organizationsCOM/Blogpac/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1855

[flakey_foont]

10. What a dipshit!

I am quite proud of Edwards for not buckling to that ahole......

[venable]

12. badge of honor for Edwards n/t

[madfloridian]

11. Who's next? Edwards is only the first.

Here are two examples that show that the religious right is often quite wrong. Passion alone does not make someone right. Nor does it make them credible.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1034

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1046

[Bitwit1234]

13. Why do these people that SAY they are religious

try to create controversy so they can be the center of attention. See this guy is a died in the wool republican. Since he probably has tax exemptions he can't come right out and say he is a republican what he is doing is creating this flap so he can swiftboat Edwards and get away with it.

If he was really a religious person and if he really believed in the teachings of Jesus he would not be this crazed individual spewing his hate and vile on TV. Think about it. If you are religious you don't try to smear and slur people like the crop of so called religious nuts on TV today do.

[BayCityProgressive]

16. Wow

"We will launch a nationwide public relations blitz that will be conducted on the pages of the New York Times, as well as in Catholic newspapers and periodicals. It will be on-going, breaking like a wave, starting next week and continuing through 2007. It will be an education campaign, informing the public of what he did today. We will also reach out to our allies in the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities. They worked with us before on many issues, and are sure to do so again. What Edwards did today will not be forgotten"

The church was supposedly against the Iraq war too. To bad he didn't put that much energy into stopping that! Shows the true colors of the Catholic establishment.

[BayCityProgressive]

17. what did these girls say

that was so horrible?

[LisaL]

19. It's all out there. Why don't you go and read it?

Here is a thought. Maybe Edwards should have done it before he hired them.
Unless he was going for controversial.

[madfloridian]

21. That is the issue. It is not about what they said as private bloggers.

It is the fact that this group of Catholics are trying to silence the candidate they work for because they wrote something Donohue did not like.

I really did not like what they wrote, but I was not that offended....I just assumed it was their right. After all since the churches are joining together to control the country....I assume the bloggers had rights to be critical.

[LisaL]

18. Oh please

I am amazed Edwards hired these two in the first place. After reading the things Amanda posted, I find it difficult to understand why somebody would think she was suitable to be a blog mistress for a presidential campaign.

[madfloridian]

20. This makes another defending Donohue.

If you don't speak and say he should not threaten our candidates, then you are defending him.

[LisaL]

22. Who is not with us is against us?

Now, I've heard that before.

[madfloridian]

24. He is a Republican, he is threatening our candidate. You think it is ok.

I find that very scary.

I imagine this post will draw some real upset people soon...upset at me for saying the Catholic group does not have a right to do that.

I expect it very soon. Or maybe already.

[Riddler]

23. Too bad Donohue didn't get that upset when priests were raping minors.

Asshole hypocrite bastard. It's ass-hats like him that drove me from the catholic church I grew up in.

[madfloridian]

26. NRO and Fidelis group are also supporting Donohue.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTg1Mzk4YWI1NzU4OTdlOTdhYzMzMTQzYzc2NDA4YjE=

http://www.fidelis.org/gw3/articles-news/articles.php?CMSArticleID=763&CMSCategoryID=10

[madfloridian]

28. I bet if I ever got hired by a campaign....the Southern Baptists would demand my firing.

So I guess I am pretty understanding of the bloggers. I was not familiar with the Shakespeare blog, but I often read Pandagon. I enjoyed it a lot.

But I have done some righteous rants about the Southern Baptists. Al Mohler is one I have written about a lot. I knew him before he started saying one could not have sex for fun, and that birth control was an affront to God. Somebody hijacked the thoughts of the cute little kid I knew.

I have written about their support for the Iraq War, calling it a holy war. I have done a lot of that.

Betcha if I ever got hired...which I won't, they would all team up against me that way.

But every word I wrote was what I believed.

[northofdenali]

29. I've never met a smart priest.

Grew up in the very grueling '50s and early '60s in Catholic School. The nuns were lots more scary.

OK, DU'ers, let's kick ass. Catholics haven't been relevant since Kennedy until they found out a bunch of their supposed holy dudes were raping little kids.

No, I will NEVER trust another one. Even my brother is suspect.

[madfloridian]

30. And the bloggers helping this spread are now after Dean and the DNC

And its scary. I am not going to link to Michelle Malkin or Little Green Footballs, but do a search on Imam Husham Al-Husainy. He is the muslim that Howard Dean chose to close the DNC meeting with the prayer.

They are today continuing this issue, and News Hounds takes time to cover it so I don't have to watch Fox.

http://www.newshounds.us/2007/02/08/patriotic_fox_news_tries_to_make_bogus_connection_between_democrats_and_radical_islam.php

It is almost to the point that we dare not do anything without permission of the right wing Christians and bloggers who work with them to spread the word.

I read a post here at DU after the meeting. It said to the effect that they sure hoped the right wing wouldn't pick up on that guy leading the prayer. We have been so apologetic like that for too long.

I say good for Dean for doing that.

Step up, who's next for them to go after.

[madfloridian]

39. Here's the transcript of the Imam's prayer.

"We thank you god, to bless us among your creations. We thank you, god, to make us a great nation. We thank you, god toss send us your messages through our father Abraham, and Jesus and Mohammed, through you, god, we unite, so guide us to the right spot we wish for peace, equality and help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation. "

The right wing blogs are going crazy over this...this is what we face. And they are furious because Dean shook his hand.

It is the words oppression and occupation that are making them furious.

[w4rma]

31. Okay, folks. This time *we* have to defend Edwards, now. He stood up for us when we asked.

We have to return that favor with interest.

I think that the Edwards campaign was probably correct in their first assessment in firing them, myself. But, I may have misjudged our ability to defend against a well-moneyed zealous campaign like that.

I believe that they are grasping at straws and their smear campaign can be made to backfire on them.

[madfloridian]

32. I wonder if the New York Times is already aware of this? Will they do it?

Will they print the editorials or op eds? Without answer?

This is a huge machine. Big money.

[mtnsnake]

34. That's it. I will not be going to church next Christmas

I'm sick of getting talked into going once a year and mouthing the words to those awful songs anyway.

Catholicism. Ugh.

[madfloridian]

35. A poster has the board of directors of the Catholic League posted.

What an alarming bunch.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3102935

Board of Advisors

Brent Bozell III
Gerard Bradley
Linda Chavez
Robert Destro
Dinesh D’Souza
Laura Garcia
Robert George
Mary Ann Glendon
Dolores Grier
Alan Keyes
Stephen Krason
Lawrence Kudlow
Thomas Monaghan
Michael Novak
Kate O’Beirne
Thomas Reeves
Patrick Riley
Robert Royal
Russell Shaw
William Simon, Jr.
Paul Vitz
George Weigel

Thanks to KingofNewOrleans

[1932]

37. Yikes. That board needs to get itself to a nunery.

[struggle4progress]

40. And this sort of attack on Democratic candidates is typical of Donohue:

Remember Mara Vanderslice, Kerry’s Director of Religion Outreach?

Dec 26, 2006
Consultant Helps Democrats Embrace Faith, and Some in Party Are Not Pleased
Publisher: The New York Times
By: David D. Kirkpatrick

... Party strategists and nonpartisan pollsters credit the operative, Mara Vanderslice, and her 2-year-old consulting firm, Common Good Strategies, with helping a handful of Democratic candidates make deep inroads among white evangelical and churchgoing Roman Catholic voters in Kansas, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania ...

She was baptized by full immersion in Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., while working with Sojourners, an evangelical antipoverty group. She entered politics by working with a group advocating debt relief for the developing world, once participating in a rally organized by a coalition that included the AIDS activist group Act Up.

During the 2004 campaign, that tenuous relationship provided the grist for William Donohue, an outspoken conservative Catholic, to denounce her as "an ultra-leftist who consorts with anti-Catholic bigots," calling Act Up "anti-Catholic." ...

http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/homepage/article_print.cfm?id=5803

As a result of Donovan's attack, the Kerry campaign pushed her out.

Remember Brenda Peterson, the DNC's first religious advisor?

New Democratic religious liaison resigns under fire

Publisher: Associated Baptist Press
By: Robert Marus
First published: August 13, 2004

The Democratic Party's first-ever liaison to religious leaders resigned only two weeks after she started, under fire from a conservative Catholic group for her opposition to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Brenda Peterson, an ordained Disciples of Christ minister, resigned abruptly Aug. 4 as the Democratic National Committee's senior advisor for religious outreach.

Peterson resigned the same day stories in the conservative Washington Times and the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Press publicized charges that Peterson was anti-religious.

The charges were first leveled Aug. 2 by William Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. The group frequently has made headlines for criticizing politicians and groups it considers anti-Catholic ...

http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/news/article.cfm?id=1834

[madfloridian]

41. I knew about the Vanderslice thing, but not Peterson.

They seem to have no scruples at all.

[mnhtnbb]

36. Donohue is simply the 21st Century equivalent of the Grand Inquisitor.

How dare those women bloggers express their opinions, critical of the Catholic Church!

Let's burn those witches! And anybody who dares to support them!

[Arugula Latte]

38. I'm so sick of these religious nutcases.

:eyes:

[madfloridian]

42. A reminder...he said he would do it and he is...Donohue

He is going to hound the bloggers and demand they be fired.

It is not his decision, and once again people here in another thread are just plain going along with him.