The real deal: how a philosophy professor with a checkered past became the most influential Catholic layman in George W. Bush's Washington

National Catholic Reporter, August 27, 2004 by Joe Feuerherd

The essential finding of the survey was that regular Mass attendees were more likely to vote Republican than those who attended less often or not at all. Such Catholics, wrote Hudson of the frequent churchgoers, "were found to be moving out of the Democratic Party, where they had long been entrenched, and instead becoming the swing voters in any given election."

Hudson shopped the poll results around to that year's crop of Republican presidential candidates. Only Rove took an interest. Hudson was summoned to Austin and briefed then-governor George W. Bush on the findings.

"These Catholics are attracted to the ideas of compassionate conservatism: work permits for immigrants, protection of the unborn, tuition vouchers for schoolchildren," Hudson wrote later. "They want government out of Catholic institutions and evidence that the president is fighting the general moral decay they see in society. The answer is not to vacillate on these issues in the hopes of attracting greater numbers but to demonstrate that he will be a champion for life and those policies he already supports."

Bush and Rove liked both the message and the messenger.

Hudson was named to head the Republican National Committee's "Catholic Outreach" effort in the 2000 campaign.

With Crisis on sounder financial footing and George W. Bush and Karl Rove in the West Wing, Hudson found himself in a position of real influence. The perception that Hudson controls Catholic access to the White House is widespread, largely accurate, and the cause of considerable resentment within conservative Catholic circles.

When the new president wanted to meet with Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in early 2001, Hudson was asked to carry the invitation. Hudson was a vocal defender of the president's Iraq policy, his comments frequently juxtaposed with Pope John Paul II's statements of opposition to the war for reporters seeking the "Catholic take" on the march to war.

On Thursday mornings, Hudson participates in the White House's "Catholic call"--where a revolving door of Catholic conservatives provide telephonic feedback to Tim Goeglein, Rove's assistant, and help the White House strategize on such "Catholic issues" as Bush's faith-based initiative, education vouchers, judicial nominations, abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research. The one constant of the weekly call, in addition to Goeglein, is Hudson.

Hudson gets credit for sponsoring a host of presidential appointments --both substantive and ceremonial. Peter Schaumber, a Bush-appointed member of the National Labor Relations Board, was backed by Hudson. Hudson was a member of the U.S. delegation appointed to commemorate Pope John Paul II's 25th anniversary and former Crisis development director Ann Corkery was named a U.S. representative to the United Nations General Assembly.

On the church front, Hudson's public complaints last year that members of the U.S. bishops had met "secretly" with a group of "dissidents," led the committee members to agree to a meeting of Hudson-organized conservative Catholics. That group prodded the bishops to stop honoring pro-choice Catholics through appointments to church boards and commissions. Meeting in June 2004 in Denver, the full body of bishops put that commitment in writing.