‘The Hell Fire Of A Nancy Pelosi Catholic’

November 2, 2006

In a terribly strange turn of events, congressional Republicans are intent on tying Democratic candidates to a woman most Americans have never heard of.

Representative Melissa Bean of Illinois, a Democrat, has a Republican opponent in next week’s election, but he does not appear in the advertisement that skewers her. Instead, that role is being played by a fellow Democrat, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader.

Judging by some of the political name-calling in the final days before the elections, Ms. Pelosi seems to be in the thick of campaigns for Congress from Illinois to Georgia and several places in between. She is the unwitting star of at least a half-dozen television spots — and countless radio spots, direct-mail campaigns and candidate debates — warning voters that if they choose their local Democrat for Congress, they are also casting a vote for Ms. Pelosi.

To which voters respond, “Nancy who?”

The new NYT poll (.pdf) asked respondents for their opinion of Pelosi. 12% said they have a favorable opinion (which sounds low, but it’s double Speaker Dennis Hastert’s rating), 21% said unfavorable, 16% are “undecided,” and 50% never heard of her. I’d hazard a guess that most of those undecideds didn’t want to admit they hadn’t heard of her, pushing the number to nearly two-thirds of the country who have no idea who Nancy Pelosi is.

“It’s awful hard to make a boogeyman out of someone no one knows,” Ed Rollins, a GOP political consultant, said. “The reality is, no one is going to vote for a Republican congressman because they are afraid of Nancy Pelosi.”

Of course, that won’t stop Republicans from trying, even if it means resorting to the worst kinds of personal attacks.

Consider this gem:

Former Rep. Bob Dornan (R-CA) launched a vicious attack on Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), claiming that “loyal Catholics” and others who “believe in Christianity” should make sure she stays out of power. The failure to do so would mean jumping “into the hell fire of a Nancy Pelosi Catholic who votes for abortion and rights for perverts.”

Now, there are a couple of ways to look at this. First, as TP noted, it’s Dornan who’s out of touch with Catholics. 58% of American Catholics believe that “one can be a good Catholic without obeying the church hierarchy’s teaching regarding abortion.”

Second, and perhaps more importantly, consider the broader message from B1 Bob here. When considering political leadership, Dornan thinks Catholics should reject other Catholics if they fail to meet his warped standards for morality. It’s truly Talibanesque — it’s not enough to be religious, one has to accept specific religious tenets, without question, in order to be qualified for public office.

Every once in a while, we should remember to thank Thomas Jefferson and James Madison for the separation of church and state.

All they need to do is mention she is a Democrat from San Francisco and everyone who has an immedate kiniption fit is thier base and therefore their target for these ads. You will not change many minds but you will drum up support from the base.

  • It’s truly Talibanesque

    Nice observation. It’s striking how easy some Republicans find it to tell people that they’re going to hell if they make the wrong political choices. Demons, fire, torment for eternity. . . A millenial mindset.

  • What I find really hysterical about “Nancy Pelosi bashing” is that I am a liberal Democrat from CT and I read political blogs every day and I really don’t know anything about Pelosi myself. So I don’t see how this attack can possibly work but there you are.

  • Every once in a while, we should remember to thank Thomas Jefferson and James Madison for the separation of church and state.

    Now if they’d only left a tool for separating heads from arses…

    “loyal Catholics” and others who “believe in Christianity” should make sure she stays out of power.

    I’d like to ask Mr. Doorknob what he’d say to the non-Christians. These “Be a good christian, vote for me (or against him)” appeals all but say “fuck off heathens.” As if it is an established fact that non-christians are all evil so of course they’d want the baby killing perverts in power. Way to bring in the voters you ugly maggot (man looks like he’s been hanging out with Gollum for the past hundred years). I also wonder how “hell fire Catholic” plays in the rest of the country. I’m a quasi-lasped Cath in a very liberal section of the country but I can’t remember ever hearing a priest mention hell. The Hell Fire of a Nancy Pelosi Catholic sounds like the title of a really low-budget horror flick. The kind where women’s tops fall off for no particular reason.

  • Well, the party has all that money, and they have to spend it somewhere, so it looks like it went for some anti-Pelosi TV. Once she becomes Speaker (assuming she does), she’ll be much more recognizable, and the Repubs will have already applied a primer coat of mud.

    As for Dornan, well, among the non-certifiable, his influence is even less than mine.

  • Dornan’s out of touch? You don’t say. The man is a moron, big time.

    Personally I can’t look at Nancy Pelosi without thinking about how she laughed so hard at Bush’s “looking for WMDs” schtick.

    Nobody should have been laughing at that, least of all the Democratic leadership. But there they were. HA HA HA HA HA.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc40lUpql10&mode=related&search=
    (See her at the 56 sec mark)

    Later, she must have thought better of it…
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4608166/

    “…House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday she has treated the subject with respect and doesn’t find it funny…”

    Could have fooled me.

  • So, Bob, as a “loyal Catholic”, where do you stand on the death penalty?

    Good start. “Would you care to comment next on the question of artificial means of contraception?”

  • Emo said it best:

    I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about tojump off. so I ran over and said “stop! don’t do it!” “Why shouldn’t I?” he said. I said,”Well, there’s so much to live for!” He said, “Like what?” I said, “Well…are you religiousor atheist?” He said, “Religious.” I said, “Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?” Hesaid, “Christian.” I said, “Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?” He said, “Protestant.”I said, “Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?” He said, “Baptist!” I said, “Wow! Metoo! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?” He said, “Baptist churchof god!” I said, “Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformedbaptist church of god?” He said, “Reformed baptist church of god!” I said, “Me too! Areyou reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god,reformation of 1915?” He said, “Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!” I said, “Die, heretic scum”, and pushed him off.

  • So Bob…

    I’d agree, good start. But there are plenty of follow ups. ‘So Bob, do I forgive the sexual predator and punish his self serving enablers, or what?’

    ‘So Bob, do I vote for throwing babies in the trash by the thousands or stand with the researchers who want to at least give some possible meanings to their lives? After all, isn’t the real issue i-v fertilization, not life saving research that is still occuring under this administration?’

    ‘So Bob, do I stand with the American College of Catholic Bishops against human trafficing, sexual slavery, and forced abortions in Saipan?’

    ‘So Bob, do I follow Catholic teachings about the poor?’

    ‘So Bob, does a good Catholic follow two Popes who adamently oppose the war in Iraq or a feces flinging monkey who favors it?’

    -jjf

  • You know the wing-nuts are scraping the bottom of the barrel when they drag out Bob Dornan’s bloated carcass. The years after Loretta Sanchez unseated this loony have apparently not been kind.

  • I said, “Die, heretic scum”, and pushed him off.

    I don’t think I get it…. Aren’t Christians and Baptists supposed to believe in the 10 Commandments – one of which is about not being allowed to kill? Oh wait… maybe the reformation of 1915 repealed that Commandment so the one guy was allowed to kill the other guy?? Is that it?? The joke’s on him then, isn’t it. But which Commandment did they repeal in 1879??

    What if he had been a Moslim and coveted his neighbor’s ass?? Is that why they’re passing all those anti-gay Amendments? I sure wish they’d repeal that Commandment….

  • This is funny because I live in Chicago and the Bean ad is on ALL THE TIME. My girlfriend had to ask me who she was. No one here knows jack about her and if they didn’t mention her “San Fancisco politics” they’d know even less.

    There’s a lot of odd ads out there against Bean now… and some of them are incredibly misleading. Some of the stuff stated about Pelosi in that ad isn’t even exactly true ether.

  • Look…what’s happening to Nancy Pelosi is nothing more than the usual misogynistic, market tested Republican demonization of strong Democratic women…she’s Hillary version 2.0…

    The media played into the “polarizing Hillary” image and now the Repubs are holding the same bait with Pelosi…

  • “I said, “Die, heretic scum”, and pushed him off.”

    Already being forwarded – that is funny shit.

  • I’d be amazed if 50% of the American people even turned out to vote next week. Also, most Americans had never heard of Newt Gingrich in 1994 either.

    I just love this no-spam question you have. It reminds me of that Amboy Dukes song, “Why is a Carrot More Orange than an Orange?”

  • Dornan’s statement is pretty typical of conservatives. You have to remember that they have a religious litmus test.

  • Funny thing,in San Francisco it’s the people the Republicans point to and giggle over who think Pelosi is a “conservative,” the same way they do Dianne Feinstein.

    Not to worry though. San Francisco politicians are tough. You have to be to rise to the top of the gladiatorial contests in the colisseum that are San Francisco politics and always have been. Ever wonder why it is that San Francisco and the Bay Area, despite being overwhelmed population-wise by southern California, always produce the leading Democrats in the state?

    If I was a Republican, I would be really, really scared of Nancy Pelosi becoming Speaker. Not for support of abortion, gays and guns, but for the fact she’s going to hand them their heads on a platter while they don’t even see the scalpel.

    Fucking morons. The stench of their panther sweat occasioned by their panic even comes through reports on the computer.

  • My guess is that the reptiles look at these seemingly pointless campaign ads as a down payment on the coming campaign to smear and destroy Speaker Pelosi.

  • I, for one, am in favor of rights for perverts.

    No, seriously, I am. In America, everyone has rights – it’s called the 14th Amendment.

    Yeah, I know it goes against church teachings. That’s the way it is, pal. Like it or leave it.

  • I don’t think I get it…. Aren’t Christians and Baptists supposed to believe in the 10 Commandments – one of which is about not being allowed to kill? Oh wait… maybe the reformation of 1915 repealed that Commandment so the one guy was allowed to kill the other guy?? Is that it?? The joke’s on him then, isn’t it. But which Commandment did they repeal in 1879??

    The joke is about just how Balkanized and fractious and totally blown out of proportion religious schisms are. Here are these two guys, from almost exactly the same church, who have so much in common, it should really have been a magical and life-affirming moment for the guy who was about to jump… but he’s a heretic, so the guy who was walking by thinks the jumper deserves it! Hah, isn’t he stupid?

    Well, that doesn’t sound funny, but it’s almost impossible to explain a joke successfully anyway. To put it another way, consider the joke an abridged version of “Gulliver’s Travels”, particularly the first part of the book that dealt with the conflict between the Lilliputians and their neighbors. Or to abridge it even further, a saying I’ve always liked with a bit of black humor about human nature: “You convert heathens, you burn heretics.”

  • Nancy Pelosi is another “Catholic” cast from the same mold as NM’s Catholic governor, Bill Richardson. She is pro-abortion, including being pro-embryonic stem cell research.

    At my website, I state what is published in the Catechism of Catholic Church regarding abortion and the death penalty. The two are not the same. Abortion always takes the life of an INNOCENT person that is never even accused of a crime. Anybody who can not see the difference between abortion and capital punishment is just not thinking.

    The unchangeable, consistent teaching of the Catholic Church is that abortion is ALWAYS WRONG. Any Catholic that tries to tell you otherwise is either a liar, or is horribly confused. Either way, such a person is demonstrably not a suitable choice for public office.

    Nobody is forced to be a Catholic nor to publicly proclaim their Catholicism.

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