"The Hustler Candidate"

"Suppose the hustler candidate decides it is in her interest to issue an apology. What then? On what grounds should Catholics give a tinker’s damn? Are Catholic feelings so tender—and Catholics so easily stroked and manipulated—that they will be mollified by a Clintonian mea culpa, and then gladly pull the lever for a militant abortion evangelist?"

To Maureen Mullarkey, writing at The Federalist, I answer, "Not this Catholic."

Mullarkey rightly calls out the U.S. Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Do go read the whole thing:

"Forgive me if I do not join the chorus calling for John Podesta’s resignation or—drumroll—a pro-forma apology from Hillary Clinton for derisive comments by her staffers about Catholics.

"Hillary Clinton is corrupt to the marrow. She is guilty of actual crimes. But our shepherds avert their eyes from the squalor of Hillary Clinton’s behavior in office and her policy proposals. Instead, they take aim at the thought crimes of her campaign team.
...
Catholics are already leaning heavily toward Hillary in the polls. We can thank our bishops—and their irresponsible sentimentalizing of migration issues—for the tilt. [CORRECTION TO THAT IN THE UPDATE BELOW!]

"Did any of our now-incensed bishops go public with denunciations of Clinton’s declared hostility to the Hyde Amendment? Or to the Affordable Care Act’s end run around that amendment via Medicaid? Even now, on the eve of the election, they are unwilling to censure Clinton by name for her catastrophic decision-making and lethal policy preferences.

"In the light of the USCCB’s own sympathies and derelictions, there is something oddly comic about these calls for atonement. However much her staffers reflect Clinton’s attitudes, it was still staff who made the offending remarks. They also made them privately. By contrast, Archbishop Charles Chaput called Clinton 'a scheming liar' in public. By the logic at work in this tempest, Clinton is within her rights to demand apology from the archbishop. But she is too smart to do it.

It would have been refreshing if the USCCB had responded more along the following lines:

We are grateful to WikiLeaks for bringing to light ugly attitudes we have long suspected but were reluctant to acknowledge.

A hearty thank you is due John Podesta and Jennifer Palmieri. Without meaning to, they did us all a mitzvah. Their contempt reminds us of something we tend to forget: federal monies get us by the throat. The church is most free to be herself when she refuses the shackles of the state. Mr. Podesta and Ms. Palmieri prompt us to remember that the Catholic Church is no stranger to anti-Catholic bigotry. It has survived it before, and will again. What it cannot survive is a pact with the devil.

Permit us to add: John, Jennifer—you are Catholics, yes? Why don’t you stop by for coffee after Mass one of these Sundays? We’d be delighted to see you. It would be lovely to talk over fresh scones and brioches.

And you, Julian. Sorry you can’t be with us. For this once, we are in your debt. Watch your back, son. Godspeed.

UPDATE: At least this one poll shows that "White Catholics, a swing voter group in elections from 1976 to 2004, are now with Trump by 57-36 percent."