US Catholic Bishops hire Palin operative as official spokeswoman

[geek tragedy]

http://theweek.com/article/index/243442/should-a-sarah-palin-adviser-speak-for-americas-catholic-bishops#

he U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced on Monday that it has hired Kim Daniels as spokeswoman for the USCCB president, currently Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York. Daniels, the USCCB announcement explains, is "an attorney whose practice has focused on religious liberty matters," and she "brings to the USCCB her experience as director of Catholic Voices USA, an organization of lay Catholics that works to bring the positive message of the Church across a broad range of issues to the public square."

The bishops left a few things off her résumé, says Grant Gallicho at Commonweal. Notably, the announcement "does not mention two of Daniels's previous employers: Sarah Palin and the Thomas More Law Center," a conservative legal organization at which Daniels fought for the right of pharmacists to refuse to dispense the morning-after pill. She spent nine years, from 2000 to 2009, at the Thomas More Law Center, established in 1998 by its president, Richard Thompson. Thompson and his center increasingly tend to "make news by making provocative comments about Islam."

The more eyebrow-raising job is Daniels' work as a paid adviser to Palin and her political group, SarahPAC. Daniels signed up to work with Palin after doing some legal work for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, at a time when "the former Alaska governor tried to remodel herself" after McCain's loss, says David Gibson at Religion News Service. Daniels was described as "Palin's personal domestic policy czar," and that association leaves an open question for the bishops about "whether Daniels will deflect controversies or become a lightning rod herself," says Gibson.

The spokeswoman for the Catholic Church in the United States is a Palinista.

In case anyone thought the Church in the US really gives a shit about poverty as opposed to oppressing anyone who isn't a straight man.

[Dawson Leery]

1. Yet another reason to celebrate everytime

a Catholic Church/School/Hospital closes.

[John1956PA]

2. One reason I left the Catholic church was the politics of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Back in 2006, I followed the policy points published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It dismayed me that those points supported a tort reform initiative which would place a limit of $250,000 which a given jury could award a tort victim as compensation for pain and suffering. Of course, that initiative is what the Republicans wanted in order to protect corporations whose actions injured tort claimants. Also, the U.S. Conference of Bishops published "Voter Guides" which emphasized the importance of voting for anti-choice candidates. I became convinced that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was, for all intents and purposes, an operative of the Republican Party.

[Dawson Leery]

3. USCCB is a defacto operative for the GOP.

[n2doc]

4. I hope Pope Francis does the right thing and 'retires' Dolan

and a few other conservanazi Bishops.