WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A JUDAS KISS:

Catholic Democrats: Is Their Support for Obama Fraying? (Amy Sullivan, Apr. 10, 2009, TIME)

Barack Obama won the White House in November with the help of a majority of Catholic voters, but it didn't mean that Catholics, who in recent years had mostly sided with the GOP because of social issues, had any illusions about Obama's stance on such sensitive matters.

They fully expected that he would overturn the so-called Mexico City policy restricting family-planning funding overseas, reverse George W. Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research and move to rescind a last-minute Bush Administration "conscience clause" rule for medical providers, the latter of which he will probably do as early as next week. But they also presumed Obama would handle and communicate these weighty decisions with a delicate touch, and in that respect, the President has disappointed the crucial voting bloc. It's something Obama can ill afford, especially at time when his Administration is under constant fire from a determined group of conservative Catholics.

So they're perfectly willing to sell him their consciences but want him to ask nicer? And they wonder why no one takes the Christian Left seriously.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2009 3:57 PM