I don't know how I can bring myself to write anything cogent about Catholic League President (of himself) Bill Donohue's cartoonishly predictable views on marriage in the marriage equality debate and the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church on sexual matters and covering up their own sex scandals after hearing John Fugelsang use the phrase "putting your penis in a kid's mouth". How can you follow that?

But bully for John Fugelsang for pointing out Bill Donohue's hypocrisy of holding up Leviticus for hating on the gays.

“The whole purpose of marriage is to have a family,” he said. “It’s not about making people happy. It’s not about love.”

Fugelsang repeatedly pressed Donohue to explain where Jesus preaches anything about “treating our gay friends like second-class citizens.” The host also pointed out that the Catholic leader is a hypocrite for demanding we follow a Leviticus passage that prohibits “lying with another man,” yet he doesn’t refrain from eating pork or from wearing shirts with mixed fibers.

“I think there’s a little bit of difference between what kind of shirt I buy and two guys having anal sex,” Donohue dismissed.

It's like clockwork. Hilary Rosen made an ill-phrased but cogent point about Mitt Romney hiding behind his wife when it comes to understanding women's issues. Rosen made no disparaging remarks on motherhood, nor dismiss the difficulty of raising children. Still, it was poorly phrased and tellingly, Democrats like President Obama, the First Lady and the DNC were quick to criticize and distance themselves from Rosen.

Rosen apologized and was made to do it again on Wolf Blitzer's show for good measure. So are we done with this? Can we move on to the substantive portion of the Rosen's comments regarding how Republican policies are so draconian that many American women are needlessly suffering?

Of course not, you silly liberal. Now it's time to attack Hilary Rosen for her "attack" (and again, could the people in the Republican Party please grow some thicker skin? I've been called worse names by members of my own family than what Hilary Rosen said of Ann Romney). And there's no one more opportunistic, more misogynistic, more willing to dive deep and wallow in the ugly morass than the Catholic League's Bill Donohue.

Democratic strategist and CAP Action board member Hilary Rosen is a single mother of twins who had to go through the expensive and challenging process of adoption with her then partner Elizabeth Birch. Now, she’s trying to stick up for other mothers who don’t have the luxury of millionaire husbands to help fund their child-rearing duties, and the backlash is getting ugly. Catholic League president Bill Donohue attacked her family on Twitter this morning:

@CatholicLeague: Lesbian Dem Hilary Rosen tells Ann Romney she never worked a day in her life. Unlike Rosen, who had to adopt kids, Ann raised 5 of her own.

Somehow, Rosen’s family is less valid, less worthy of respect because she adopted her children. This insults not just lesbian couples, but all non-birth mothers. In fact, it seems like few even recognize that Rosen is a mother at all, perhaps an inherent cultural consequence of her choice (or lack of choice) to not be a stay-at-home mom. Consider this Twitter quip from Alice Stewart, who until this week was Rick Santorum’s National Press Secretary:

@alicetweet: Being a mother is the most valuable work a woman can do, my heart goes out to @hilaryr children if she doesn’t believe that

So very classy, those Republicans. It's terrible for Hilary Rosen to diminish Ann Romney for her great good fortune to be able to make the choice to stay home with her kids. But it's perfectly acceptable to diminish Hilary Rosen for being a lesbian, an adoptive parent and a working single mother.

Disrespect toward the Catholic Church is whatever Bill Donohue decides it is (he was last heard from attacking Madonna's Super Bowl half-time show), and now he's decided to go after SNAP, the survivors' group for victims molested first by priests, and then by their local dioceses and their crack legal teams. I'm glad I live in Philadelphia, where the local D.A. had the cojones to take on the church and bring criminal charges. In fact, I'd like some enterprising local reporter to ask our new archbishop what he thinks about this statement in light of Bill's latest crusade:

“The Catholic League has the courage to speak up candidly and forcefully for the Church when circumstances call for fighting the good fight. The League should be on every Catholic’s short list of essential organizations to support.”

— Most Rev. Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia

As to the Catholic League, well, sometimes I suspect they have more board members than actual rank and file members (and what moderate board members they are!): Wingers like Brent Bozell, Linda Chavez, Alan Keyes, the far-right Democrat Michael Novak and Kate O'Beirne, just to name a few. Diversity all the way from A to B!

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, believes that the Catholic church has gone too easy on the survivors of sex abuse by clergy, and has vowed to fight them “one by one,” says a post at the blog Right Wing Watch.

In an interview with Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times, Donohue says that in the past the church “has been too quick to write a check” to individuals who report being victimized by pedophile priests. He believes that the church should fight each case “one by one,” ostensibly to save money “in the long run.”

He said that Catholic bishops should “toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough” in the fight against victims of sex abuse. “We don’t need altar boys.”

I can't use the words I'd like to use to describe this big bully, but you can rest assured that he's got at least some of the famously rigid and conservative church hierarchy behind him. So now the American church's cardinals and archbishops have to make a choice: More toxic PR fallout from allowing Donahue to attack people who were raped as children, or try to hold onto the cash? Hmm.

Currently Donohue is backing the efforts of lawyers defending two Missouri priests accused of multiple counts of child molestation. Attorneys for the priests have issued subpoenas to the victims’ advocacy group the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), seeking “more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists,” according to the New York Times article.

SNAP is not involved in the Missouri case, but Donohue believes that the attacks are warranted because, in his words, “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic church.” The subpoenas, thanks to their exhaustiveness, are calculated to distract, bankrupt and embarrass the organization.

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Even though John McCain's new BFF says anti-Catholic things with great vigor. McHagee says he's just a little bit misunderstood:

I have always had great love for Catholic people and great respect for the Catholic Church. My wife comes from a Catholic family and millions of my viewers are Catholics. I am shocked and saddened to learn of the mischaracterization of my views on Catholics that has spread while I spent the weekend celebrating the 50th anniversary of my entry into the ministry with family and friends.

Throughout my career I have been a strong critic of Christian anti-Semitism. But any fair review of my record will demonstrate that I have consistently criticized all Christians – Protestant and Catholic alike – for the sin of anti-Semitism. In fact I rarely address this topic without castigating the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, for the horrendous anti-Semitism he spouted towards the end of his career. It is a bitter irony that in my zeal to hold my fellow Christians accountable for our past anti-Semitism, I now find myself compared to an anti-Semite. To call me “anti-Catholic” makes about as much sense as calling me “anti-Protestant.” I am, most assuredly, neither.

I wonder why The TODAY Show hasn't invited Bill Donohue back on to discuss this issue further?

I'm no fan of Bill Donohue as you well know, but it's interesting to see him get his freak on over Hagee's endorsement of McCain. CNN covers the story pretty thoroughly on The Situation Room.

Donohue: This thing is out of bounds and this is why McCain has to look at thi---this--it's the totality of what the man stands for. He's been bashing Catholicism for decades and making a mountain of money over it.

CNN: McCain's campaign didn't respond when we asked if he knew about Hagee's writings before accepting the endorsement

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Of course McCain knew. And McCain's refusal to denounce the Catholic hating preacher is very interesting indeed. So far Chris Matthews thinks Democratic political ads are more important to Hardball than John McCain getting hammered by the Catholic League over this endorsement. The one Huckabee begged to get in on himself. That's very revealing. You would think in a sixty minute show, Tweety would at least raise the issue. Can you imagine the outrage filled hour Matthews would have produced if Hillary or Obama gladly welcomed Hagee into their open arms?

Will Russert give McCain the same treatment he gives Obama and Hillary?

We already know that the Catholic League's Bill Donohue is an embarrassing buffoon that talk shows love to book because he says repulsive things in defense of the Catholic Church and will smear anyone with his anti-Catholic rhetoric for political and monetary gain.

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As an Englishman again, you have to be quiet when an Irishman speaks.

She said the awards are worthless to her.

Listen, you want to take it outside, Christopher, that's fine."

What's interesting about this clip is when he's confronted by an equally obnoxious character who will not be bulldozed by Bill's tactics, he immediately wants to " take it outside" and duke it out. It's typical behavior of this strain of right wing, Christian Conservatives. (It looks like MSNBC scrubbed these remarks from their transcript. I don't usually believe that this happens on purpose most of the time, but I'm not certain in this case.)

Radar has more...Christian Donohue Says He'll Slap Bejesus out of Athiest Hitchens

So what exactly did it mean?

"It meant, if you want to keep it up, I'll sock you," Donohue tells Radar, adding that the comment was "part of the theatrics of entertainment—this wasn't PBS, after all."

On Wednesday's South Park, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone parodied the Catholic League's Bill Donohue as a power-hungry Catholic Church official who overthrows Pope Benedict and jails Jesus for going against the Church. On last night's Scarborough Country, Donohue reacted to the show in a very surprising way given his track record of over-exaggerated outrage and violent rhetoric.

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"Maybe I do come across too tough on TV. I thought it was hilarious and our staff thought it was hilarious. I said, listen, I said I have no defense except I'm gonna go with it."

Donohue's official statement can be found here. His "I have no defense" reaction speaks to the sheer genius of South Park. Anyone who watched the show knows they hit him hard for sometimes acting un-Christian, but the moral of the episode was one with which he couldn't have possibly disagreed. In case you missed it, check the ComedyCentral schedule here. It'll be rerun tonight through Monday.

Jeff Gatlain, a Catholic priest in KY, goes public in his criticisms of Bill Donohue on C&L. I asked for someone in the Catholic community to speak out against his violent hate speech after his attacks of "Cavallaro" on Anderson Cooper last week and Jeff came forward. That's a big step for him to take.

"As a Christian, a Catholic Priest, I stand in opposition to any and all hateful speech used by anyone, especially when they do so in the name of Jesus. I do not believe that one can claim to be a disciple of Jesus and at the same time deride, mock, insult, or threaten violence against another person. Mr. Donohue clearly makes hateful remarks as well as violent comments towards Mr. Cavallaro and as such he insults God, his fellow Catholics and humanity for that point.

Proclaiming the Salvation of Jesus means that we are to refrain from such vile speech. One cannot preach the love of Jesus while cursing one's neighbor. The two cannot co-exist. To continually use hateful, crude, violent language is indicative of what dwells within one's heart. Mr. Donohue speaks only for himself and not the Catholic Church."

Would that quote be okay? I am a pretty low key person and I strive to be a force of unity and healing in the parishes I serve. I just do not want to become yet another screaming voice like Mr. Donohue.

Jeff started a blog of his own...Thank you for speaking out...

Donohue is a typical right wing bully. I have to figure that many Catholics are offended as I am by this man and I wish they would come out and say it. All he does is name call and spew hatred and violence as he searches for ways to silence people---in this case telling Cosmo that he's lucky he doesn't cut off his head. And his offense? A chocolate Jesus. Cosmo Cavallaro calls him out on Anderson Cooper. Digby show us art at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Will Donahue protest Michelangelo? I've seen " The David," and I was in awe of its beauty. Feministe has more...

C. CAVALLARO: You go to the Catholic Church, and you're going to see statues from Michelangelo that are nude. Are you going to clothe them for the Holy Week

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DONAHUE: Oh, no, let me tell you something. You're -- you're lucky I'm not as mean, because you might lose more than your head.

COOPER: Cosimo, did you want people to eat this? Was that part of this?

C. CAVALLARO: No.

Did you hear what this gentleman is saying, that I would lose my head?

Digby: But until the Catholic Church steps up and says that this screaming nutcase Bill Donohue and his band of freaks don't speak for them, I'm going to have to assume that the Catholic Church agrees with his lunatic ravings.---So it must be the medium. The fact that it is sculpted in chocolate is so offensive to Donohue's thugs that they are issuing death threats to those who display such alleged blasphemy. I don't exactly understand why that would be....read on

UPDATE: Pastor Dan discusses it. The Mahablog says: Et tu, Michelle?

(Full transcript below the fold)

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Jon Stewart weighs in on James Cameron's new documentary where he purports to have found the tomb of Christ. And what would a debate on Christianity be without the ever so Christ-like Bill Donohue?

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"So a member of the Hollywood elite questioning the very foundation of Christianity. I can't imagine anyone's gonna be upset about that..." [cue Donohue]