Lipinski Voted for Marcy Kaptur for Speaker: Good Choice! More.

                                            Good for Dan!

         My favorite Democratic congressman, Dan Lipinski [IL-3] voted for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) for Speaker over Nancy Pelosi but understandably given the leftish tinge of the media here, very little  was made of it. (As a matter of fact, for an immediate House Speaker to lose 19 members comes close to repudiation—but the media are mum about this).

      Dan is a courageous guy who stood up to all the pressure the White House and Mme. Pelosi could make and voted against ObamaCare. Moreover he was much smarter than Bart Stupak [D-MI] who sold out for a meaningless piece of paper to justify his vote for ObamaCare.

       The paper was an Obama “executive order” saying that abortions are not to be covered in the legislation—but, of course, they are…and executive orders are impotent when legislative intent is clear-- so Stupak was snookered on that one, for which he justifiably paid the price by declining to run for reelection because of the outburst in his pro-life district.   A pro-life Republican physician has taken his place.

         In contrast, Dan Lipinski took heat from both quarters…the Democratic Left represented by the White House and Speaker Pelosi who urged him to join other Blue Dog Democrats, accept the worthless piece of paper which they argued would give him cover for supporting ObamaCare…and from his more conservative  Blue Dog colleagues like Stupak who urged him to stick with them because of the paltry piece of paper.    He resisted both sides and won reelection by a comfortable margin of 69% in his  southwest side district composed of hard-working blue collar residents of bungalow belts. 

          It’s good to see that Dan didn’t rent out even in this largely ceremonial vote when pressure was undoubtedly put on him to “go along” and make nice-nice with Mme. Pelosi.

        His choice was superbly consonant for the Congressman Dan has become. He voted for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, 64.  She has   represented Toledo, Ohio and has for 14 terms,  being the longest serving woman in the House.  She’s pro-life all the way including anti-embryonic stem cell experimentation, is of Polish extraction, is single, never married, lives with her brother in the family’s original Toledo home, is Catholic, has a formidable pedigree in urban planning, a master’s degree.   Before going to Congress, she was an assistant to the late Msgr.  Geno Baroni who ran the National Center on Ethnic Affairs and served with him in the Carter White House. 

        She is a very articulate opponent of free trade and was asked, then virtually begged,  by Ross Perot to be his running-mate in 1992 whom she turned down.   Had he been able to land Marcy, Perot would have fared better in the election. His second choice was Vice Admiral  James
Stockdale, a much-decorated Vietnam ex-POW.   Unfortunately Stockdale shouldn’t have been dragooned into running because in the midst of a debate he is famous for saying, “I’ve run out of ammunition!”  

                                     The Foolish Mark Twain Bowdlerizing.

       To bowdlerize is to be fastidious for the most eccentric of reasons. Such as to attempt to paint bras on representations of unclothed women who appear on unearthed priceless ($1.2 million each)  Grecian vases from the late Archaic Age.

         Or to change the ethnic derivation of Shylock in Shakespeare’s  Merchant of Venice from Jew to Syrian lest by teaching the play we appear to be anti-Semitic.

       Or to introduce a city ordinance to put diapers on horses to draw fashionable tourist carriages downtown to spare citizens the sight of the animals defecating… as happened a few years ago (the ordinance was defeated which spared Chicago more shame).  Thereupon it is downright disgusting to note that a reputable publishing house has turned out a “modern” edition of Mark Twain’s enduring classic Huckleberry Finn with the original “n” words obliterated and changed to “slave.”

        I ask—are the sensibilities of the African American community so delicate that a classic piece of literature which was fundamental in changing attitudes of poor blacks, by the way, cannot be republished? My guess is that this is the work of phony guilt-ridden white liberals. Anyhow whomever is responsible, this bowdlerization is repugnant and absurd  political correctness run amok.

                          Catholic Liberals Urge Leftwing “Tea Party.”

      In this blog, I’ve been discussing the possible formation of a Catholic Tea Party to use the tools of publicity to infuse some steel in the spines of flabby bishops and priests to proclaim without bowdlerizing the vibrant truth of the Catholic Church.  Now the Catholic Left is urging the laity to pressure bishops to be more liberal than most of them are (hat tip to Jim Bowman for calling attention to an article covering this suggestion in The National Catholic Reporter).

     The article covered a panel before some 300 Catholics at a recent Woodstock forum in Philadelphia that “urged lay Catholics to grab the reins and set the course for the Church’s future.” Meaning a left-wing course.

       Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, formerly editor of America, called for laity to perform this task, pushing prelates to more “progressive” positions (although Tea Party as such was not mentioned).   He was joined in this sentiment by Delores R. Leckey, former longtime head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Secretariat for Laity, Family, Women and Youth” whom The Reporter describes as “a noted writer on spirituality.” Hmmm.   Leckey mourned the fact that pre-Vatican II laity’s “one duty” was “to allow themselves to be led like a docile flock to follow their pastors.”

       “Our bishops are scared,” she said. “You don’t act defensively like that unless you’re scared to death. Their defenses are high.  They weren’t high in the days right after the Council.”

      Intriguingly without meaning to, she makes our case for an authenticist Church Militant.