Michael Sean Winters

As the Congress gets ready for final votes on the health care reform bills the USCCB maintains that they cannot support the final bill because it permits federal funding of abortion But a series of analyses have raised questions about the factual accuracy of the assertions made by the USCCB The

Ben Smith rsquo s blog over at Politico com is a must-read on any day but today it is a stop-what-you-are-doing go-read-it-right-now read He looks at the growing suspicion among conservative evangelical voters of the libertarian impulses of the tea party movement The immediate worry is that the

My colleague and friend Austen Ivereigh has an important post below about the sexual abuse crisis and the way Pope Benedict XVI is now involved in addressing it The situation in Germany itself and in Regensberg particularly has raised the possibility that some enterprising journalist will be sear

On last weekend rsquo s NPR quiz show Wait Wait Don rsquo t Tell Me host Peter Sagal recalled the resignation of then-Governor Elliott Spitzer who got caught up in a high-end prostitution ring Sagal commented Who know that would be the high water mark for moral conduct among New York politic

If you think you are tired of reading blog posts about health care reform think about the 30 million Americans who lack access to adequate health care because they do not have insurance If you wish the issue would just go away or you are worried that further government intrusion might muck up our

They say that the fruit does not fall far from the tree It took me a few days to actually watch the controversial ad run by a group Keep America Safe which was co-founded by Liz Cheney former deputy assistant secretary for Near East Affairs and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney Repu

While interviewing the Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez of San Juan Puerto Rico for a profile that will appear soon in the Tablet he said that the culture of Puerto Rico had been ldquo generated rdquo in the Church This is a central theme in the New Evangelization that has been such a prominent part

Kudos to Representative Bart Stupak the pro-life Democrat from Michigan who has insisted throughout the health care debate that he wanted to see a bill pass provided it did not include government funding of abortion While deals were being made on virtually every other issue he dug in his heels d

The ethics controversy surrounding Congressman Charles Rangel until yesterday the powerful Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is yet another in a long line of incidents that prove what really needs no proving Power corrupts The cases are rooted in the psychology of power and they are

Conservatives are permitted to define whatever standards of intellectual consistency for themselves that they wish But it is important in gauging the political sincerity of a movement and its leaders to determine how they fulfill the standards they have set for themselves It is one thing to criti