Sheehan
There's a decidedly right-leaning approach being voiced by New Mexico Catholic Archbishop Michael Sheehan and it has some wondering if he took his lessons from the old line party bosses of the past. The eyebrow raiser was the the announcement that Catholic bishops, including Sheehan, would join in an unprecedented alliance with evangelical and other conservative churches to fight gay marriage and legalized abortion.

All this comes on the heels of criticism of the NM Catholic Church for spreading poison on Catholic Kerry for his pro-abortion stance. Some think it was a key reason many Dem Hispanics in the North stayed away from the polls and cost Kerry the state. "It's not that the priests were hitting Kerry from the pulpit, but they were out in the parking lots working the parishioners and allowing literature to be handed out on church grounds," said one informed Hispanic Catholic and politico.

Sheehan's "alliance" with evangelicals is drawing fire from critics who are asking where the religious leader is on the war in Iraq and on the Pope's repeated criticism of materialism run riot, while the poor around the world and in NM grow even poorer. "Those are issues that many Catholics want to see Sheehan address, but it seems he is being pulled further to the right," opined our politico.

CRITICS CONFESSIONAL

Other critics, wounded by the election results, boldly snap that Sheehan should be concerning himself with the seemingly never-ending epidemic of pedophile priests that has infected the state, rather than trying to influence election results.

The Archbishop split hairs with the critics recently when he said: "We make a distinction between having a voice on one hand and promoting candidates or political parties on the other. We stick to issues; we don't endorse candidates."

But how do you separate the two? Sheehan may own the crowd Sunday morning but he has strayed from safe turf and is now out on the streets in the hardball world of La Politica where his move to embrace the evangelicals is seen by some politicos as a cynical way of shoring up his own vote count: sagging numbers of Catholics.

One wonders what the newly emboldened and evangelical sympathizing Sheehan will do as Big Bill's Dem Prez campaign progresses. Will the church again shoot down a Catholic who believes in a woman's right to choose? If the patrons of New Mexico's past were still with us they just might call Bishop Sheehan one of their own.

HEATHER AND THE HAMMER

Heather Wilson may have crushed Dem Richard Romero to retain her ABQ Congressional seat, but Romero's aggressive challenge is keeping her honest. Wilson, who fought charges during the campaign that she was a lackey of the conservative House leadership, did not join fellow R's recently when they overturned a rule that would have kicked Tom "The Hammer" Delay out of the House Majority Leader post upon any court indictment.

Wilson's statement is for her future protection from the lackey charge. Delay is under investigation for campaign finance activities in Texas. The new House rule allows him to stay in the leadership even if he is indicted by a state grand jury.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2004
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