I’ll be doing some occasional posting on The Corner on matters of general political interest. I have a post up about this Wall Street Journal piece by David Gibson defending Catholic Democrats for supposedly having a “more effective strategy” than Republicans for countering abortion. Bench Memos readers will, I hope, find it of interest as well. Here’s an excerpt:
Gibson attributes to law professor Doug Kmiec the argument that (in Gibson’s paraphrase) “Roe v. Wade is effectively settled law.” But, now more than ever, that is a highly dubious proposition, at least if the next Supreme Court appointments are made by a President McCain. Gibson says that Kmiec “notes” that “Republicans have dominated the White House and Congress for nearly 30 years, and appointed most of the Supreme Court justices.” To be sure, Republican presidents have made some bad appointments in the past, in at least one case (Ford’s pick of Stevens) probably by design and twice more (Kennedy and Souter) in the face of hostile Senate Democratic majorities populated by pro-Roe Catholics. Sensible and faithful Catholics have ample reason to hope and believe that a President McCain will have learned from these mistakes, and they ought to be pressuring pro-Roe Catholic Democrats, not pandering to them.