On the list of good company Sarah Palin finds herself in criticizing that Kennedy speech is Kennedy family friend Archbishop Philip Hannan from New Orleans (who is currently ailing). He has a fascinating new book out, The Archbishop Wore Combat Boots. (If you like history, you’ll probably enjoy it.) In it he writes: “From my perspective, Kennedy went overboard in emphasizing his independence from the Catholic Church, essentially promising an arm’s length manifesto as well as a wall of separation between himself and the Church ….” Archbishop Hannan describes urging resources like Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray — who wrote extensively on church-state issues — on speechwriter Ted Sorensen, but ultimately failing. Kennedy was true to his speech, I suppose, in this way.