Margaret Carlson really slams it to the Catholic Church:

Following a decade during which the bishops squandered much of their authority mishandling their own moral crisis, this would seem the wrong moment for them to go into politics. Their lawyers must have figured out that you can lose your tax-exempt status for endorsing a candidate, but not for excommunicating one. In the process, they’ve become the worst kind of cafeteria Catholics, choosing abortion while ignoring church doctrine on social justice, the death penalty (as governor of Texas, Bush led the Western world in executions) and war (on which God has sent a distinctly different signal to the pope). By singularly obsessing over abortion, the church runs the risk of becoming just one more special interest group, the NRA of the soul.

To fight the fatwah, the reticent Kerry has tried a little emoting. Last Sunday, Kerry quoted Scripture, sang “Amazing Grace” and swayed at a church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. For once, he pushed back against those who say he’s sinning: “I love my church. I respect the bishops, but I respectfully disagree.”

But Kerry can’t go prayer-to-prayer with Bush. Catholics follow the warning of Jesus, as reported by Matthew: “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.” Not to mention the instruction to render unto Caesar and God, separately. If politicians were exempt from these strictures, no one wrote it down.