On July 31, the Catholic League issued a news release imploring Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Terry McAuliffe to “act quickly and decisively by removing Catholics for a Free Choice from the DNC’s links of interest” on its website (it was columnist Mark Shields who first broke the issue in late July). Over the past week, we have been stonewalled by the DNC repeatedly. Therefore, Catholic League president William Donohue today wrote to every Democrat in the House and Senate asking for assistance: we want them to persuade the DNC to drop Catholics for a Free Choice from its website.
Donohue addressed this subject today:
“The Democrats are playing with fire. As I said in my letter, the Catholic League previously fought then-Governor George W. Bush on his appearance at Bob Jones University and we also fought the Republicans on the House Chaplain issue. I went on the ‘Today’ show to accept Gov. Bush’s apology and, as everyone knows, we prevailed in the House Chaplain controversy by seeing to it that a Catholic priest was finally appointed to the post. Now I am telling the Democrats that ‘I pledge to you that I will do nothing less than fight the DNC just as hard over the listing of Catholics for a Free Choice.’
“There are dozens of abortion-rights organizations in the nation. Because the Catholic League is not a pro-life group, per se (we are certainly pro-life in our convictions), it would not make sense to fight Democrats or Republicans on this subject. But the issue here is anti-Catholicism and that falls smack in the bull’s-eye of the Catholic League’s mission.
“This could be a long Fall for the Democrats if they decide to string this one out. We are prepared to spend considerable resources informing the public of what the DNC considers its Catholic base to be. Mark Shields is right: it is both insensitive and ignorant of the DNC to associate itself with Catholics for a Free Choice.”
