THE TIMES WILL JUST BE ASTONISHED WHEN NOTHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS

This appeared yesterday in a New York Times blog post by Robert Mackey:

Papal 'Exhortation' May Cause Problems for Giuliani

In news that might make John Kerry feel more comfortable in his retirement from presidential politics, but could be disturbing to Rudolph W. Giuliani, The Associated Press reports today that:

Pope Benedict XVI, insisting that the faithful hold firm to Church teaching, told Catholic politicians Tuesday they must support the Vatican's nonnegotiable rejection of abortion and gay marriage. Benedict also rebuffed calls to let divorced Catholics who remarry receive communion.

...Before the 2004 presidential election, Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis made an issue of Mr. Kerry's support for legal abortion, saying that he would not allow the Democratic presidential nominee to receive communion because his position on the matter contradicted Catholic teaching....

Hey, Robert, you just stepped off the bus from Podunk, didn't you?

And I address that not just to Robert Mackey, but to every mainstream media savant who actually thinks the Catholic Church will put the same kind of pressure on Rudy as it did on Kerry (and on Geraldine Ferraro in '84).

The right-wingers of the American church long ago threw in their lot with the GOP, and they persist in ignoring the pro-choice and pro-gay rights stances of Republican Catholics such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Pataki, and Giuliani.

Now, you'd think this might change in this instance -- after all, pressure on Rudy during the GOP primaries could help an abortion opponent win the nomination -- but it won't happen, simply because the Church won't want to neutralize the issue for the general election in the event that Rudy does get nominated. The Church will just say nothing and hope Rudy's coattails elect abortion opponents down ballot, while counting on him to appoint Scalia clones as judges, as promised.

If an abortion opponent does win the nomination, however, and if someone on the Democratic ticket is a pro-choice Catholic (Bill Richardson?), the gloves will absolutely come off.