Biden, Pelosi take communion despite threatened backlash

From: Politico

Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both strong pro-choice advocates, took communion during the papal mass Tuesday in Rome, according to a pool report.

The move could potentially reignite a passionate debate about the propriety of participating in the ritual without fully abiding the Catholic Church's teachings.

Pope Francis has said he is clearly against the practice, particularly by pro-choice politicians.
"We must adhere to ‘eucharistic coherence’, that is, be conscious that they cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act with deeds or words against the commandments, particularly when abortion, euthanasia, and other grave crimes against life and family are encouraged," he wrote in 2007. "This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals."

Priests for Life, a U.S.-based Catholic anti-abortion organization, told the Huffington Post on Monday that there would be a "public uproar" if Biden and Pelosi took communion.

"Vice President Biden and Nancy Pelosi should certainly not receive Communion, either at the papal installation or anywhere else. Communion means ‘union,’ and they are not in union with the Church on the most fundamental moral issue of the right to life,” founder the Rev. Frank Pavone said. "Should they receive at this ceremony, there will be a public uproar, and rightly so."

A spokeswoman for Biden declined to comment. A spokesman for Pelosi did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

UPDATE (Wednesday 2 p.m.): Pavone emails this statement to POLITICO: “At a Mass during which our new Pope emphasized the duty public officials – and all the rest of us – have to protect the weakest among us, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have the audacity to receive Communion while publicly renouncing their responsibility to protect the weakest among us.

“Some Church leaders mistakenly think we are advocating the use of the Eucharist as a ‘weapon.’ In fact, we are defending the Eucharist from being used as a political tool. These politicians have no respect for what the Eucharist means: an integral, consistent union with Christ and with all our brothers and sisters. To receive Christ while rejecting the unborn is a slap in the face to both.”

USCCB Responds To Inaccurate Statement Of Fact On HHS Mandate Made During Vice Presidential Debate

FROM: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

October 12, 2012

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement, October 12. Full text follows:

Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:

"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact."

This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain "religious employers." That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to "Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital," or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.

HHS has proposed an additional "accommodation" for religious organizations like these, which HHS itself describes as "non-exempt." That proposal does not even potentially relieve these organizations from the obligation "to pay for contraception" and "to be a vehicle to get contraception." They will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients. They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.
 
USCCB continues to urge HHS, in the strongest possible terms, actually to eliminate the various infringements on religious freedom imposed by the mandate.

For more details, please see USCCB's regulatory comments filed on May 15 regarding the proposed "accommodation": www.usccb.org/about/general-counsel/rulemaking/upload/comments-on-advance-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-on-preventive-services-12-05-15.pdf
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Chris Wallace On Joe Biden

Biden Says Cities in China Are Better Than in America

Charles Krauthammer On Joe Biden

Biden On Iran: The United States Was The Problem

Yeah, Joe, IT WAS ALL OUR FAULT!!!!!!

Joe Biden Stands By Rape Reference to GOP

A Note To Congressional Republicans: Read Our Lips, No New Taxes

So, the political chattering class is aghast that Eric Cantor and Jon Kyl have walked out of the Biden negotiations on the debt ceiling. Unless this is posturing to us the conservative "wingnuts" they have done the right thing. It is at this time I want to remind everyone of a little history.

We all remember George H.W. Bush's "no new tax" pledge. We all remember him breaking the promise. Most objective observers on all sides concede his re election had he not broken that pledge. Why did he break it? Because of our debt and annual deficits. He was conned by the Democrats into believing they would cut spending if he agreed to the tax increases. He agreed and broke his pledge. The tax increases were on the front end of the five year budget he signed off on and the bulk of the proposed spending cuts were on the back end of the five year budget outlay.

The Democrats subsequent to this agreement used Bush's broken pledge to defeat him and elect Bill Clinton. They succeeded and then promptly reneged on the spending cuts. Game.Set.Match.SUCKER!!!!!!!!

The prospect of some kind of tax increase in any agreement has been looming for a while. Personally, I'm of the belief that every budget approved is littered however marginally with tax increases or fees so in the end most members have voted for increases even if nominal in size. The statement today by Max Baucus that there must be a one to one ratio on cuts and tax increases is blatantly political at the expense of potential fiscal insolvency. It's dramatically less than the unappealing "Deficit Commission" that proposed a 3-1 cut to increase ratio.
 
I am absolutely confident that Congressional Republicans will not vote for this absurd proposition. Boehner is correct that they don't have the votes. Even if I thought Boehner was sympathetic to the proposal it would be his end politically. Moreover, Democrats would do to any tax increasing Republicans what they did to Bush 41 and use it to defeat them in 2012 as a wedge to get back the majority. Does anyone think they would follow through on the promised spending cuts if they reemerged in the majority after running against pledge breaking Republicans? No cuts and more spending. One more giant step into oblivion.

The stakes are too high to get weak kneed in the wake of partisan Presidential politics. Obama is betting he get enough squishy Repubs who don't want to be blamed for a "default" will cave as the pressure mounts. Wait and see, but I've got a feeling they all know they're being played for sucker. Obama is playing with fire and we must keep our guys' feet to the fire. We can win this on the merits and achieve a public relations victory if we have the courage now as George Bush did not over twenty years ago. No new taxes.Not now.Not in a recession.Not when investors are afraid to invest.Not when the American people are willing to scale back Big Brother. To Congressional Republicans: Read our Lips, No New Taxes.

Biden compares GOP strategy on budget with blaming rape victims

From: American Thinker

Ah, civility. Quite a change from the way it used to be, don't you think.?

Why just yesterday, Vice President Biden, trying to be helpful as always, offered the thought that the Republican strategy on cutting the budget was like blaming a victim of rape for her misfortune.

CNN:

Vice President Joe Biden blasted Republicans during a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Friday, comparing their approach to the budget battle to the mentality of "blaming the victim" of a rape.

The remarks came as he appeared at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) event with former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican, who co-authored the Violence Against Women Act with him. Biden referenced the act in his comparison to Republicans, saying that before it was passed, "there was this attitude in our society of blaming the victim."

"When a woman got raped, blame her because she was wearing a skirt too short, she looked the wrong way or she wasn't home in time to make the dinner," Biden said at the DCCC event, according to a pool report. "We've gotten by that. But it's amazing how these Republicans, the right wing of this party - whose philosophy threw us into this god awful hole we're in, gave us the tremendous deficit we've inherited - that they're now using, now attempting to use, the very economic condition they have created to blame the victim - whether it's organized labor or ordinary middle-class working men and women. It's bizarre."

National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) spokeswoman Joanna Burgos responded to Biden's comments saying, "It's incredibly tasteless and offensive for the vice president to stoop to this level just to score political points. As much as Vice President Biden should retract this specific statement, he should apologize for comparing our country's dismal economic situation to such horrid acts as violence against women."

Don't hold your breath waiting for a retraction. The Democrats are just getting started. Before they're through, they'll paint the GOP as the party of starving your grandma, killing your kid, genocide against people of color, and meanies who want to take Big Bird off the TV (oh wait...they've already tried that one).

Maybe the Republicans should try this "civility" thing.