The Blog from the Core - Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Core: noun, the most important part of a thing, the essence; from the Latin cor, meaning heart.

		The Weblog at The View from the Core - Tuesday, August 03, 2004

MinnowCenter?

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCXLVI

Mauren Dowd~~ify~~ pokes fun at the Democratic National Convention with an extended Gilligan's Island analogy.

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So here's the race: the Skipper takes on the Sheriff.

(And, of course, the undercard in the fight: Bambi meets Godzilla.)

Talk about drowning in metaphor.

At least Teresa Heinz Kerry kept her subliminal message simple: She wore a ketchup-red suit to introduce the second senator in her life.

Her husband, as usual, went overboard. The Democratic convention, which was focus-group-dial-a- metered to death, needed a dose of dramamine. It was awash in allusions about Commander Kerry steering the ship of state — from the curved design of the metal and wood-paneled lectern, meant to evoke a ship's bridge; to the Massachusetts senator's arrival in Boston Harbor on the prow of a ferry, making like Washington crossing the Delaware; to the dramatic Vietnam Swift boat scenes in the biographical film; to Jim Rassman's iconic story of being saved when Lieutenant Kerry reached down and pulled him from the water over the bow, to the nominee's hokey salute and "reporting for duty."

Like the picture of Bill Clinton pumping J.F.K.'s hand at Boys Nation, there is a star-struck teenage Galahad picture of John Kerry with his idol on a Coast Guard yawl in Newport.

The convention center halls were adorned with more than 30 blown-up pictures of John Kerry in uniform. This signaled that the Navy lieutenant, who had requested a transfer to a Swift boat because he was inspired by J.F.K. and PT-109, is gunning for the flextime Texas National Guardsman.

"I learned a lot about these values on that gunboat patrolling the Mekong Delta with young Americans," Senator Kerry told the Democratic delegates in his acceptance speech, adding: "We were literally all in the same boat. That is the kind of America I will lead as president — an America where we are all in the same boat."

Ensign Kerry, Max Cleland exhorted the crowd, is "the next captain of our ship of state."

Bill Clinton got on board: "Since we're all in the same boat, we should choose a captain of our ship who is a brave, good man, who knows how to steer a vessel through troubled waters to the calm seas and the clear skies of our more perfect union."

John Edwards was a synchronized swimmer in the Kerry ocean of love: "In the heat of battle, they saw him decide in an instant to turn his boat around, drive it straight through an enemy position, and chase down the enemy to save his crew. Decisive. Strong. Aren't these the traits you want in a commander in chief?"

Even Alexandra Kerry echoed the aquatic heroic theme, telling of how her dad saved the family's pet hamster, Licorice, who was bubbling "down to a watery doom," after falling off a dock. He "hunched over the soggy hamster and began to administer C.P.R.," she said, denying rumors of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The Kerry campaign even tried to spin Teresa Kerry's "shove it" in a more nautical vein, claiming that the chatelaine of the Nantucket manse had meant to say, "shove off."

Mr. Kerry had to go the skipper route since W. had already laid claim to the West, making the cocky cowboy sheriff his motif, the dusty gorge at his Crawford ranch his milieu, and the Louis L'Amour "smoke 'em out" language his argot.

It doesn't seem to matter to his fans that he often doesn't come through on his gunslinging taunts; they feel reassured simply by the "High Noon" patois.

Mr. Bush's prized possession is Saddam's old pistol. He keeps it in the study off the Oval Office as a trophy of their desert duel in the sun.

At the White House press briefing on Friday, a reporter asked Scott McClellan: "But does the president have to present himself as not quite the, you know, kind of, trigger happy, tough, shoot him from the hip cowboy, and sort of fill out that image a little more?"

Mr. McClellan replied that the president was leading in a — yup, you guessed it — "strong and decisive" way.

Given that the Kerry convention featured a skipper brave and sure, a first mate who makes others comfortable, a millionaire called "Lovey" by her spouse, two pretty young Kerry castaways and a movie star (the ubiquitously annoying Ben Affleck), I suppose we should be grateful that Camp Kerry didn't introduce the nominee with the "Gilligan's Island" theme song.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip

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Maureen! Dowd!

See also these:

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 08/03/04 06:15:05 PM
Categorized as Historical & Literary & Religious.

Why USCCB is Called the Democratic Party at Prayer

"The Bishops' Questionable Questionnaire"

Thanks to Margaret for having forwarded the latest "CRISIS Magazine — e-Letter" from Deal Hudson, Jul. 30 (embedded ellipses in original):

You'll probably remember that a few weeks ago, I told you that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was working on its presidential questionnaire. If you recall, the form asks the two candidates where they stand on a number of issues important to Catholics.

I had noted that the Left-leaning USCCB might try to bury the pro-life questions in with a bunch of irrelevant issues... thereby hiding Senator John Kerry's extreme pro-abortion voting record. They did something similar with the 2000 presidential questionnaire (wherein, they actually let Al Gore get away with claiming to be "pro-life"!).

Unfortunately, it seems that the same thing is happening again this election. The questionnaires are with the candidates right now, but CRISIS has been able to get an early look at the document.

Here's what we discovered...

First, the questionnaire makes no distinction between life issues — clearly of primary importance to Catholics — and particular policies that the conference supports on issues as wide-ranging (and non-binding) as rural development, housing, and immigration.

The document has 41 questions, broken down into sections by topic. The largest single section of the questionnaire is on... immigration. Yes, immigration. That category gets a full six questions.

The next-largest section is education (five questions). Abortion gets a total of three questions (tied with aid to low income families).

In fact, in the entire questionnaire, only eight questions deal with life issues — including abortion, capital punishment, physician-assisted suicide, cloning, and embryo research. Amazingly enough, the section on broadcast communication had more questions than any of the life sections except abortion and capital punishment.

But there's more.

The structure of the questions is such that they only ask for a "support/oppose" response, which says nothing about the particular details of a candidate's position. Nowhere is there room for the candidate to explain, say, why he voted for partial-birth abortion (as Kerry did) or voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (another Kerry vote). In fact, neither are mentioned at all!

Of course, the conference did include this vital question:

"Will you support or oppose legislation to strengthen the reputation of broadcasters to ensure that they meet their public service broadcast license obligations?"

Look, it's not that I object to the questions per se. The problem is that they ignore the hierarchy in Catholic values and issues. Furthermore, this sweeping approach keeps the candidates — particularly Kerry, who is almost always on the wrong side of the life issues — from having to defend themselves or explain any of their choices.

Once again, the bishops conference has mixed up prudential issues (like the particular points of broadcast law) with hard moral absolutes (like the ban on abortion). In doing so, they've given ardently pro-abortion candidates political cover.

Hopefully, when they eventually release the results of the questionnaire, the conference will include some kind of commentary that assigns real weight to the life issues. Without that, this document is simply deceptive....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 08/03/04 05:37:44 PM
Categorized as Religious.

JibJab — This Land

Thanks to a fellow blogger for calling to our attention this hilarious animation. I laughed so much the first time I watched it, thereby missing so many things, I laughed just as much the second time.

P.S. Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 08/03/04 07:49:25 AM
Categorized as Political.

Democrats' New Religion-Outreach Director is Anti-"God" Female Minister

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCXLV

A press release from the Catholic League, yesterday.

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Terry McAuliffe says that the appointment of Rev. Peterson as the new Senior Advisor for Religious Outreach ‘reflects the DNC’s commitment to reaching all people of faith’; he also notes that she ‘will act as liaison to religious organizations.’ Upon learning of this appointment, we decided to find out who this woman is. And what we found will make people of every faith wonder whether McAuliffe and the DNC have totally lost their senses.

Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson was one of thirty-two clergy members to file an amicus curiae brief in behalf of Michael Newdow’s attempt to excise the words ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance. The brief shows infinitely more concern for the sensibilities of atheists like Newdow than it does for the 90 percent of Americans who believe in God. And this is the person the Democrats want to dispatch to meet with the heads of religious organizations? Are they out of their minds? Would they hire a gay basher to reach out to homosexuals?

The Democrats are now 0 for 2 in appointing senior religious liaison directors. The Kerry campaign first appointed Mara Vanderslice as the Director of Religious Outreach, but when we exposed her as a radical leftist who associates with anti-Catholics, the Kerry staff silenced her. Now they’ve stepped in it again by selecting Rev. Peterson.

The selections of Vanderslice and Peterson suggest that either no one bothers to vet candidates for religious outreach, or the elites making the choices are anti-religious. If the former is true, then this shows that the Democrats place no priority on appealing to people of faith. If the latter is true, then Kerry needs to bring in a big broom and clean house.

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See Catholic League questions Kerry's latest choice of religion advisor.

[Follow-up: Catholic League Torpedoes Democrats' Religion-Outreach Director.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 08/03/04 07:30:53 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.

Cor ad cor loquitur — J. H. Newman — “Heart speaks to heart”