My friend Mike Kelly gets it exactly right in the Washington Post today. The archdiocese of Boston has essentially been protecting child-abusers for years among its clergy. Even now, Cardinal Law uses Clintonian wriggling to avoid full repentance and responsibility. It’s outrageous that Church-protected child-abuse has been allowed to go on for so long. Catholic friends of mine tell me they find it hard to go to Mass any more out of shame and anger. The only way out is new leadership at the top. Anything else will seem to perpetuate the cover-up and continue to undermine the Church’s urgent pastoral and spiritual responsibilities.
LEDEEN GETS IT: “This may have been the first time in American history that an intense internal debate over foreign policy was settled in a State of the Union speech. For many months now, the administration has been divided between those who believed we could make a deal with the Iranian regime, and those who insisted that we had to fight the mullahs. That dispute was settled tonight, when the president correctly and forcefully denounced the unelected rulers of Iran who ignore the desires of the Iranian people for freedom. And as between those who have been arguing for a “go slow” approach to Iraq and those who have been insisting that we cannot wait because time then works in favor of our enemies, the president eloquently rejected the go-slowers. And while he was at it (you just gotta love this guy, he really goes for it), he delivered a few zingers to our “timid” allies. I trust the French translation will be accurate.” – Michael Ledeen, National Review Online.
THE REASON FOR 84 PERCENT APPROVAL: Just read this Balz/Woodward account of Bush’s biggest week. It blew me away.
The Dish 