Dems Tone Deaf on Death of Pope

Opinion Journal's Political Diary has this item from John Fund on the inability of the Dems to connect with us religious folk:

Pope, Shmope

Democrats have been conducting an internal debate ever since last November's election on the importance of connecting with people of faith. But the party's remedial education isn't going well, judging from the Democratic leadership's behavior on Capitol Hill during the final hours of Pope John Paul II's life.

The American Spectator reports that as the Pope lay dying last Friday and early Saturday, Minority Leaders Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House declined to change the party's weekly radio address to take note of the Pope's accomplishments. "We had a plan in place for a national radio address that would have highlighted the Pope's stand on social justice and equality for all," says a Democratic National Committee staffer. "They wouldn't do it. They said it would look like pandering, that it wasn't helpful to their agenda."

Ms. Pelosi, a Catholic herself, was nonetheless said to be especially firm on the need for the party's radio address to focus on attacking President Bush and his effort to win confirmation of his judicial nominees. Mr. Bush, by way of contrast, used his Saturday radio address to recall how the Pope served as an inspiration for so many.

"This is another example of where we just don't get it," a Democratic pollster told the Spectator. "We knew the Pope was dying. We knew we had an opportunity, and we just ignore it and go ahead and act like the Democrats all those Red Staters think we are. We attack the Republicans for trying to save the Schiavo woman, and we ignore the Pope's passing."

-- John Fund