Rome must be smiling

Before she gets out of the prognostication business for good, your blogstress would like to note that while she missed on naming the actual pick for the Supreme Court, her hunch that Bush would go for a Roman Catholic did indeed play out. And it's a brilliant move. When righties are challenged, they like to accuse the challenger of being hostile to "people of faith." This is less effective when the person being challenged is Protestant, the U.S. being a Protestant-majority nation. But when applied to a Catholic, a fairly fresh wound is opened, for most American Catholics still transmit in our DNA the cultural memory of religious discrimination.

The nomination of the apparently fiercely anti-choice John Roberts to the Supreme Court will--and should--elicit fierce opposition from people who care about the lives of women. But senators who challenge Roberts on these views are likely to be tarred with the anti-Catholic smear. That's why it's imperative that Catholic senators take the lead in the hard questioning. And by no means should they vote to take this nomination to the floor. FYI, Democratic Catholics on the Senate Judiciary Committee are:

Joseph Biden (Del.)
Richard Durbin (Ill.)
Edward Kennedy (Mass.)
Patrick Leahy (Vt. - Ranking)

Click on their names and send them an e-mail.

Then look at the Web site for Feminists for Life, the organization for which the nominee's wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, once served as executive vice president.

For more, check out your Webwench's piece at The American Prospect Online.