Demagogue

In the summer of 2003, the GOP went public with the smear that Democrats who opposed Dubya's judicial nominees were anti-Catholic. The charge was well-coordinated, with Orrin Hatch setting up the campaign by asking nominee Bill Pryor what his religion was. Then Hatch and the other GOP committee members made the "anti-Catholic" charge in committee, other senators repeated the charge on the floor, and well-connected private group coincidentally hit the airwaves with ads accusing the Democrats of anti-Catholicism.

Last week, the Judiciary Committee had to postpone a vote an a D.C. Circuit nominee.

Why? Because the Catholic Democrats on the committee were in Rome for the Pope's funeral. That was fully half of the Democratic committee members, and the others didn't want to go on without Ranking Member and ex-Chairman Pat Leahy, not to mention ex-Chairman Ted Kennedy.