Setting up shop at the GOP

Human Quest, Nov/Dec 2001 by Miller, Patti

THE INNER CIRCLE

Beyond the bishops' high-profile politicking with the president - and perhaps more importantly for the long-term shape and direction of US social policy - conservative Catholics are playing a crucial role in the inner circle of the Bush administration, both formally and informally as advisers on outreach and policy regarding the so-called Catholic vote.

Bush has named a slew of Catholics to highly visible roles within the White House and key agencies. Some have histories within the conservative movement and links to well-known conservative Catholics such as former Education Secretary and Book of Virtues author Bill Bennett, while others are party loyalists with links to important constituencies such as Hispanic Catholics. However, one potential nominee appears to have been put forth to placate a very special constituency: the Catholic hierarchy.

In May, women's rights and refugee groups were shocked to learn that Bush intended to nominate John Klink, who has served as an adviser to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations, as the head of the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Klink was a key player in the Vatican's obstructionist maneuvering at the International Conference on Population and Development - where the Vatican held up the consensus on the final report for days by insisting on linking the term "family planning"to abortion. Not only do many consider Klink's experience on refugee issues to be insufficient, but the Vatican delegations that Klink served on unequivocally condemned the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and modern methods of contraception.

Word that Klink, who served on the original RNC Catholic Task Force, was being considered over Secretary of State Colin Powell's choice of a career state department official fueled speculation that his potential nomination was a payback to the Catholic church.27

Another controversial Bush nomination Is that of John Negroponte to be ambassador to the UN. Negroponte served as the US ambassador to Honduras in the early 1980s when the government conducted a campaign of terror against its citizens that reportedly included abductions, torture and assassinations. Many human rights observers insist that the US knew about the abuses and ignored them, largely because Honduras was being used by the Reagan administration as a base for covert military operations against the Communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Negroponte reportedly orchestrated the US effort. During his tenure, US military aid to Honduras rose from $4 million to $77 million, while Negroponte continued to deny any knowledge of human rights abuses on the part of the Honduran government.28 Recently "declassified documents and interviews suggest that Negroponte consistently acted to protect the brutal actions of a military whose high command was bent on swiftly crushing any possibility of leftist revolt," a Los Angeles Times article concluded.29

On the domestic front, one of the most prominent players in the White House is the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which is being led by self-described "born again" Catholic John Dilulio. Dilulio, previously a professor of politics, religion and civil society at the University of Pennsylvania, came to national attention in 1996 when he co-authored a controversial book called Body Count with conservative Catholic and former Bush administration drug czar Bill Bennett. The book, which was widely criticized for hyping the problem of inner city crime, predicted a "rising tide of juvenile superpredators" and called for a dramatic increase in incarceration to combat the problem.