Adviser to president quits over scandal

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 20, 2004 | by David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times

Deal W. Hudson, the publisher of the conservative Roman Catholic journal Crisis and the architect of a Republican effort to court Catholic voters, says he is resigning as an adviser to the Bush campaign because of a Catholic newspaper's investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct involving a student at a college where he once taught.

"No one regrets my past mistakes more than I do," Hudson wrote in a column posted Wednesday on the online edition of National Review announcing his resignation. "At the time, I dealt with this in an upright manner and the matter was satisfactorily resolved long ago," he wrote, without specifying the accusations. Hudson, 54, said he had been happily married to his current wife for 17 years. Called for comment, he declined.

Some people contacted for the investigation by the Catholic newspaper said it was being conducted by The National Catholic Reporter. At Fordham University, a Jesuit school in New York where Hudson taught from 1989 to 1995, a university spokeswoman confirmed that the episode had led to Hudson's resignation. The spokeswoman, Elizabeth Schmalz, said: "Fordham followed its policy rigorously in this matter and initiated an investigation upon receipt of the student complaint. The professor later surrendered his tenure at Fordham." Schmalz added, "Something inappropriate was done."

A person involved with the university's investigation said that a female undergraduate in one of Hudson's classes reported to the university that, after she had become drunk at a bar, Hudson made sexual advances toward her. After a period of weeks, she charged him with sexual harassment. The accusations were made near the end of a school year, and Hudson left academia.

Hudson, a former Southern Baptist who converted to Catholicism at the age of 34, has been an influential adviser to President Bush and a close friend of the White House political strategist Karl Rove since the late 1990s. Hudson first caught Rove's attention by publishing a study in Crisis in 1998 arguing that Republican candidates could make inroads among traditionally Democratic-leaning Catholic voters by focusing on regular churchgoers, a strategy that dove-tailed with Bush's emphasis on "compassionate conservatism."

Hudson signed on as an adviser to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. For the last four years, he has been a prominent participant in a weekly conference call held by the Republican National Committee each Thursday with influential Catholic supporters.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said Hudson had played an almost indispensable role reaching out to Catholics for the White House. "He had become the point man," he said. "If you wanted to get something to the top inner circles of the White House from a Catholic perspective, you could contact Deal Hudson and it was delivered."

Donohue said that Hudson's resignation would inevitably set back the Bush campaign's efforts with Catholic voters. "He was the ultimate networker," Donohue said. "I think it will be hurt because of the ties that Deal had."

The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the Republican National Committee and the Bush campaign. The RNC did not comment and Terry Holt, the Bush campaign's spokesman did not return calls on Wednesday. Friends of Hudson said that over the last four years he had become particularly close to Rove. In an interview with The Austin American-Statesman after the last presidential election, Hudson said of Rove, "I have to be careful what I say because I might make him sound like he is God or something." He added, "He has just been so great."

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This year, the fight for Roman Catholic voters is even more intense.

Bush, a Methodist, is running against a Roman Catholic, Sen. John Kerry and church doctrine has at times become part of the campaign. Roman Catholic officials have criticized politicians who favor abortion rights, as Kerry does. At the same time, the pope and other Catholic officials have spoken out against the invasion of Iraq.

In his column on the Web site of National Review, Hudson portrayed himself as the target of politically motivated "personal attacks" because of his steadfast support for Bush.

He said a reporter for what he deemed the "liberal Catholic publication" seeking an interview. Hudson said that after interviewing him the journalist began inquiring into his personal life, including questions about the annulments of his two previous marriages before his conversion as well as questions about the incident with his student.

Thomas Roberts, editor of The National Catholic Reporter declined to comment.

In his column Hudson said that in his book, "An American Conversion," he had discussed his "past mistakes" and "the role they played in my conversion through the grace and the forgiveness I have found in the Catholic Church."

At one point in the book, published last year, Hudson wrote about the cooling of passion in a long marriage. "I experienced, the hard way, that passion does subside, and I was foolish not to realize that the love that follows is better," he wrote. "No doubt this lead to unfortunate and destructive behavior on my part," he added. "I am blessed that I have not gotten what I deserve."