Setting up shop at the GOP

Human Quest, Nov/Dec 2001 by Miller, Patti

Also speaking at the April meeting were Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), two vocal congressional opponents of reproductive rights. The Republican National Committee declined to release a full listing of task force members, but according to press accounts members include Steve Wagner, who will remain as executive director, and Michael Steele, chair of the Maryland Republican Party. Ana Gamonol, director of Hispanic affairs for the Republican National Committee, is deputy director of the new division within the Republican Party that will house the Catholic outreach effort and outreach to the Hispanic, African American and Asian communities. The strategy of the Catholic Leadership Forum is to recruit Catholic "team leaders"to "participate in conference calls with policymakers, provide the e-mail addresses of 10 fellow Republicans, call local talk-radio programs, recruit additional `team leaders' and forward Republican e-mail to five of their friends."43

Many of the task force members participate in a weekly White House conference call on Catholic strategy. The Thursday conference call, hosted by Tim Goeglin of the White House Public Liaison Office, has a rotating roster of participants, but regulars include Hudson, Princeton University political scientist and natural law scholar Robert George, Rev. Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute - which promotes free-market capitalism from a Catholic perspective - and Steve Wagner. The Catholic conference call was reportedly one of the factors that helped sink the attorney general nomination of moderate Republican Gov. Marc Racicot in favor of ultraconservative John Ashcroft.44

Bush continues to make highprofile Catholic appearances and pepper his speeches with references to Catholic social teaching. On March 22, he spoke at the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, DC, praising the pope effusively and speaking of the "culture of life, "45 and hosting 60 members of the hierarchy and Catholic leaders at a White House reception. Then in May, he delivered the commencement speech at Notre Dame University and called for a "new war on poverty" - albeit one led by private charities - while quoting Catholic social activist Dorothy Day. In his speech, Bush forgot to note that Day was a socialist, or that the Catholic worker movement she founded refused government funding for fear it would corrupt their work.46

Whether or not Bush's rhetoric is just new window dressing on old conservative policies, the reality is that the Bush administration is pursuing two very different, and contradictory, constituencies with its "Catholic strategy." In order to win the Catholic vote, they are attempting to woo a Catholic hierarchy that is fundamentally at odds with Catholic voters.

The issue of stem cell research is a perfect illustration of the quandary the Bush administration finds itself in. According to news accounts, the Bush camp is deeply divided over whether or not to allow embryonic stem cell research to continue with federal finding. Stem cells - the master cells that can turn into any other type of cell in the body - hold tremendous promise to cure a host of diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, whose agency oversees federal research funding, has championed stem cell research. Even many antiabortion politicians favor the research. But the Catholic hierarchy is staunchly opposed to stem cell research.