Keith Fimian, the Republican candidate for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, came under attack by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in a series of mailings and video clips; he was accused of “rolling back women’s rights,” and being “an officer of an organization that promotes a group so extreme they encourage women to be more submissive.” The organization DCCC referred to is Legatus, a Catholic group of CEOs founded to bring their faith-based values to the workplace; Fimian belongs to Legatus.
Pope John Paul II addressed Legatus saying, “The world needs genuine witness to Christian ethics in the field of business, and the Church asks you to fulfill this role publicly and with perseverance.” According to the DCCC, then, Pope John Paul II was extending his support to an organization that wants to rob women of their rights.
In its campaign, the DCCC said that Legatus “promotes groups supporting a radical agenda.” That is an outright lie. In fact, Legatus doesn’t promote any group. Like many organizations, it has a “Links” section on its website that lists various sister organizations; as is customary, Legatus makes it clear that it does not necessarily endorse everything said on these outlets. The DCCC knew this, but chose to lie anyway.
The website that the DCCC referred to in its attacks is a Christian group called e5 Men; the biblical reference to women cited in the DCCC’s ad was taken out of context so as to embarrass Fimian.
We issued two news releases defending Fimian and called attention to the despicable acts of the DCCC. In the September 10 Washington Post, Bill Donohue was quoted as accusing the DCCC of lying about Fimian and misleading the public on Legatus.
In our releases, we did not hold Gerald Connolly, Fimian’s Democratic opponent, responsible for the smears against Fimian, but we requested that he denounce the anti-Catholic bigotry that these ads sponsored. Connolly, a Catholic, failed to denounce them, even though he was the beneficiary of these attacks.
We called upon the head of the DCCC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to intervene and immediately stop these scurrilous ads. We noted that it would behoove her to put an end to all of the anti-Catholic efforts before everything blew up in the face of the Democratic Party.
