The Crusaders

This is quite an interesting article about Catholic Conservatives and how they are working to influence policy makers in Washington. Despite outward appearances of a conservative monolith making policy in the halls of power, conservatives are still quite fractious. It seems that one side feels that the others are not conservative enough while the other side feels the others are too conservative.
The article also lists several people well known in conservative circles who have been baptized into the Catholic faith. Hudson Deal, a former Baptist minister who converted to Catholicism and now is the editor of Crisis magazine feels that "evangelicals like a little edge on their message, while Catholics also want to hear the issues of moral decline addressed, but in a more compassionate way." I am sure there are many evangelicals who would take umbrage with that statement.
Probably more telling about how conservatives and Catholics are viewed by the powers that be is this statement by Robert George and how religious leaders were courted by John Kennedy and George W. Bush. "In 1960, John Kennedy went from Washington down to Texas to assure Protestant preachers that he would not obey the pope. In 2001, George Bush came from Texas up to Washington to assure . . . Catholic bishops that he would."
Could this be a sign of a shift of influence to Catholic thinkers and policy makers?