The Week

□ The lesson of Geneva is that Gorbachev can’t change his spot.

□ The American Catholic bishops, gathered in Washington, did their standard number on the economy and nuclear war. For good measure, they watered down their opposition to abortion by collectively donning Cardinal Bernardin’s “seamless garment”—the “Cuomo cloak,” as one wag has called it. The idea is to get away from “single-issue politics” by linking opposition to abortion with support for the Great Society. This means that a politician who supports legal abortion and the welfare state is no worse than one who’s against both. If only Hitler had had a poverty program, he might have escaped the censure of all those who are not obsessed with single issues.

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□ The lesson of Geneva is that Gorbachev can’t change his spot.

□ The American Catholic bishops, gathered in Washington, did their standard number on the economy and nuclear war. For good measure, they watered down their opposition to abortion by collectively donning Cardinal Bernardin’s “seamless garment”—the “Cuomo cloak,” as one wag has called it. The idea is to get away from “single-issue politics” by linking opposition to abortion with support for the Great Society. This means that a politician who supports legal abortion and the welfare state is no worse than one who’s against both. If only Hitler had had a poverty program, he might have escaped the censure of all those who are not obsessed with single issues.