hail the bipartisan bishops

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 30, 2010

The US bishops lobbied long and hard on the health-care reform issue, to no avail. Now it's time for a post-mortem.

Conservative Republicans were never with the USCCB, since the bishops were enthusiastically in favor of the overall goals of Obamacare, which conservatives could not countenance.

 Liberal Democrats were never with the USCCB, since the liberal ideology requires unfettered access to abortion with public subsidies.

 So who was with the USCCB? Good question. After reiterating the bishops' reasons for opposing the final legislation, a USCCB statement issued by Cardinal Francis George addressed those allies:

 As bishops, we wish to recognize the principled actions of the pro-life Members of Congress from both parties, in the House and the Senate, who have worked courageously to create legislation that respects the principles outlined above. They have often been vilified and have worked against great odds.

When they bishops say that they want to "recognize" those legislators, in this case they must be saying that they'd like to see them. Because, you see, they're invisible.