James Taranto's missing a turn on Kerry's abortion somersaults. Mr. Personally Opposed is not only following a long line of Catholic Democrats, he's also giving ammunition to the hierarchy to deep six the newly filed heresy accusations on exactly this subject. Believing in the Catholic faith but not fully acting on those beliefs is something that everyone who is not a saint is guilty of at some time. In fact, fully acting on Catholic beliefs is a pretty good working definition of sainthood.
Kerry cannot take the absolutist pro-choice position without ensuring that heresy charges are going to be a real and ongoing story in this campaign. At the same time, there is no better way to cleave the Democrat party electoral coalition than to be a pro-life Democrat post-nomination and pre-convention so becoming functionally pro-life is a non-starter. So he ends up in the classic Democrat straddle personally opposed to abortion but functionally pro-choice.
At a certain point, the US bishops will no longer stand for it. The question is whether that point will come before this November.
Posted by TMLutas at July 6, 2004 07:03 PM