Kerry, Abortion, and Character/Leadership Capacity

In reading Professor Kaveny’s latest posting, courtesy of Michael Perry, one curious and oddly misdirected allegation stands out for me: “But one of the most disturbing features of the way the Catholic discussion of the presidential election has gone, in [Professor Kaveny’s] view, has been the occlusion of questions of political character and judgment. We seem to be looking solely at campaign platforms, not at the men themselves who will be our leaders. Questions of leadership capacity are entirely folded into analysis of a politician's stand on key issues. In [Professor’s Kaveny’s] view, that is a fatal mistake.”

With all due respect, one wonders where Professor Kaveny has been? What she finds to be utterly lacking instead has been the very axis of the debate as it has unfolded here and elsewhere on the internet and in the media. The central thrust of my own postings to the Mirror of Justice has been that Catholic apologists for Senator Kerry too often frame the question as whether one could vote for a generic pro-choice candidate if the alternative political choice is unpalatable (i.e., “looking solely at campaign platforms”). In doing so, I've contended, they assiduously ignore Senator Kerry’s own ugly record (i.e., looking “not at the men themselves who will be our leaders”). They fail to mention, other than by offhand generalities, his explicit statements endorsing abortion on demand and villifying the cause of life, his legislative votes promoting wider availability and funding for abortion, his enthusiastic political and social collaboration with abortionists, his eager acceptance of campaign money from the abortion industry, etc.

And not to suggest that my own postings at this particular site demand anyone’s attention or are worthy of response, others too have made the same case – consistently and repeatedly. Catholics of conscience, so many have said, at least ought to be forthright in identifying the calamity and taking a hard and searching look at Senator Kerry’s miserable record of placing the pro-abortion agenda and fealty to its promoters at the center of his political career, from the day of his maiden Senate speech some 19 years ago, in which he elevated Roe v. Wade to sacred status, to the initiation of his presidential campaign last year by attending first to his pro-abortion allies.

Who has contributed to “the occlusion of questions of political character and judgment”? Where in any of Professor Kaveny’s presentations, or those of the other Catholic apologists for Kerry that have been cited and linked on this site, is the acknowledgment that Senator Kerry has pledged to make support for Roe v. Wade a litmus test for appointments to the Surpeme Court? Where have they confessed that Senator Kerry regards the pro-life movement as the “forces of intolerance” who ought to be prosecuted vigorously under RICO and other statutes? Where do they admit that Senator Kerry has called for abortion to be made part of the “mainstream of medical practice” (and one need hardly speculate as to what that means for Catholic hospitals and physicians who refuse to cooperate with abortion as a matter of conscience)? Where do they candidly address Senator Kerry’s long and warm embrace of the abortionists and their lobby as his political and social inner-circle? Where do they respond to Senator Kerry's praise of the most notorious pro-abortion organization as a civil rights group? Where do they evaluate his ready acceptance of blood-money from the abortionists to fund his political campaigns?

When at any point in his decades in public office has Senator Kerry ever demonstrated political courage on any issue, whether it be the right-to-life question or otherwise, in a manner that suggests “leadership capacity”? Where in this sorry saga do the Kerry apologists find evidence of “political character and judgment” deserving of reward by elevation to the nation’s highest office?

One week, and dozens of Mirror of Justice postings ago, I posed this question: "Can a Catholic with a well-formed conscience and respect for innocent human life look into the sepulchre of John Kerry’s putrified record of accommodating death, all the while claiming communion with the Church, and then turn away to pull the lever next to his name in the polling booth?" With all due respect, the Catholic apologists for Kerry still are not willing to look before they pull.

Greg Sisk