Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe is calling on Republican leaders to “denounce” the recent statements made by Senator Trent Lott regarding the record of Senator Strom Thurmond.
Catholic League president William Donohue shot back today:
“There is no question that what Senator Trent Lott said was inexcusable. But it is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy to hear Terry McAuliffe lecture others on their need to denounce bigotry. This is the same man who refuses to break his ties with anti-Catholic bigotry: the DNC still maintains a link on its website to a professed anti-Catholic organization, Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC). As I have repeatedly said, it is the anti-Catholic words and deeds of CFFC president Frances Kissling that the Catholic League, along with the U.S. bishops, condemns.
“Our protest of Kissling’s Catholic bashing has triggered an avalanche of letters and phone calls from Catholics and non-Catholics alike directed at Terry McAuliffe. Yet he stubbornly refuses to break his association with her. Now he has the gall to demand that others condemn Senator Lott for his admittedly irresponsible comments. What Lott did was bad, but it was a one-shot deal for which he has apologized. What McAuliffe has done has now dragged on for six months and he shows no signs of remorse or changes in his conduct.
“What price Senator Lott will pay for his remarks, I do not know. But I know one thing—it is the firm position of the Catholic League that we will hound this issue of the DNC’s support for anti-Catholicism right up to and including the Democratic National Convention. We are busy on many fronts these days but we will not let go of this matter until someone gets McAuliffe to drop CFFC from its website altogether.”
