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Don't Buy the Media Labels on Tim Kaine: 'Centrist' or 'Devout Catholic'
NewsBusters.org ^ | July 23, 2016 | Tim Graham

Posted on 07/23/2016 12:47:42 PM PDT by Kaslin

Hillary Clinton's selection of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) as her running mate is already creating one distortion of reality: that Kaine is somehow a "centrist." His American Conservative Union rating score in his first three years in the Senate is 0.00. But here was The Wall Street Journal opening up its coverage tonight:

The other distortion is any journalist touting Kaine as a "devout Catholic" or "traditional Catholic" without noting it would be more accurate to call him a devout and traditional Democrat. A "devout" believer in the church would champion in public its pro-life stance and its opposition to redefining traditional marriage.

As Brent Bozell and I recently explained:

Far-left is middle of the road on the media spectrum. The Washington Post has been especially guilty of suggesting over the years that Kaine was as pious as conservative stalwart Ken Cuccinelli, a man they place on the “far right.” In 2012, the Post profile of his GOP opponent George Allen suggested he was seen as a “colossally insensitive brute,” but this is how the Post began a Kaine profile:

“It’s not unusual, on an election-year Sunday, to find a white candidate in a black church. But Tim Kaine, swaying this month to the gospel groove at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in a poor Richmond neighborhood, wasn’t on the campaign trail. He was taking a break from it at his home parish.”

Tim Kaine has a perfect 100 score from the NARAL folks, and and perfect 100 with the gay-left Human Rights Campaign. But to the Post, he’s practically the Pope’s right hand, swaying in the pews at Mass. A few weeks ago, Kaine and Warner signed a letter to the HHS Secretary (with other liberals like Barbara Boxer) complaining about insurers failing to provide proper payment for contraceptives through Obamacare.

The Post did this in 2005, too, when Kaine first ran for Governor: “Kaine, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, said that teaching at a fledgling Jesuit school in El Progreso [Honduras] gave his life direction, inspiring him to public service and rekindling his devotion to Catholicism.”

When the Post touts your deep Catholic roots as positive, it probably means you’re a liberal opposed to Catholic orthodoxy.

We borrowed from our colleague Scott Whitlock, who noticed this tendency in a Post profile in 2012 headlined "A Man of Faith and Practical Politics: While Running for Senate in Virginia, Kaine Finds Time to Wrestle With His Conscience." The first three paragraphs of the article by Steve Hendrix touted the pro-choice Democrat's Catholicism:

It’s not unusual, on an election-year Sunday, to find a white candidate in a black church. But Tim Kaine, swaying this month to the gospel groove at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in a poor Richmond neighborhood, wasn’t on the campaign trail. He was taking a break from it at his home parish.

“How you doing, brother?” said Peter Thompson, 53, a lean black man in a green fedora, hugging the round-faced Kaine on the church steps.

The part-time Pizza Hut cook and the former governor have known each other since Kaine joined the church almost three decades ago. “We helped start the Men’s Group together,” Thompson said.

Hendrix assured readers that "religion saturates both life and politics for Kaine." He added, "A former missionary in rural Honduras, he talks frequently of how Catholicism informs his views on race and poverty and his deep embrace of cultural diversity, which he hails as 'God’s rich tapestry.'"



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: 2016pesidential; 2016ratconvention; 2016repubconvention; campaigns; cino; corruptkane; crookedhillary; faith; kaine; religiousleft; timkaine
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To: Kaslin
Fox News (Carl Cameron) said Kaine is "pro-life, but he supports a woman's right to choose." Um, what?


21 posted on 07/23/2016 1:15:37 PM PDT by Rastus (#NeverHillary #AlwaysTrump)
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To: CMailBag

[REAL Catholics don’t kill babies.]

Baby-killers - KAINE & UNABLE


22 posted on 07/23/2016 1:17:27 PM PDT by stars & stripes forever (WILL)
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To: Kaslin

Liberals need names to define their liberalism. Conservatives don’t.


23 posted on 07/23/2016 1:22:31 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("They Say That Nobody's Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: Kaslin

The media called Ruth Bader Ginsburg a “centrist too, a withheld that she was the head of the ACLU.


24 posted on 07/23/2016 1:22:38 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: Rastus

I am a lifelong Catholic who took some times off to engage in 20 years of Heavy Metal Mayhem. Since then I am a 12 year member and three time Grand Knight in the Knights of Columbus. Whenever I hear the word “devout” as a self definer of one’s Catholicism I hear PHONEY PIETY. here’s what I do for Jesus. I engage in the service of the poor that our Pope seems to be unaware of. I flip pancakes. Cook turkeys and go to Mass every Sunday. As a Catholic I must admit. I stink....


25 posted on 07/23/2016 1:23:21 PM PDT by MGG
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To: Kaslin

Crooked Hillary, Corrupt Kaine


26 posted on 07/23/2016 1:25:50 PM PDT by Regulator (He's Just Biden Lite)
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To: Kaslin
"Devout Catholic."

What a bunch of garbage. Pope Jorge The Red is a "devout Catholic", and he is a Marxist and a heretic.

27 posted on 07/23/2016 1:33:25 PM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: SkyPilot

Who is Pope Jorge? *rme* There is no Pope George and will probably never be one.


28 posted on 07/23/2016 1:38:15 PM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: loveliberty2

You make excellent comment, as always. Thanks for posting


29 posted on 07/23/2016 1:40:26 PM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: Kaslin
The "Devout Catholic" label isn't such a good thing, imho.

They swear obeisance to a man. Not God. A man.

30 posted on 07/23/2016 1:40:35 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist (And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,)
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To: Kaslin

Not Catholic myself but I have observed that most Catholic’s hearts are in the right place.

Not this guy...........or any other baby killer.


31 posted on 07/23/2016 1:42:17 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Bill and Hillary Clinton are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of our political system.)
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To: rawcatslyentist

Catholics swear obedience to Christ and the Church He founded.


32 posted on 07/23/2016 1:49:36 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007 (Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.)
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To: MGG

I agree 100 percent. I stink too. As Catholics we believe it is not through our works but our faith that we are granted eternal life with Jesus. To me being devout means working to establish a personal relationship with Christ, through prayer, eucharist, encounters with others and confession.


33 posted on 07/23/2016 1:50:24 PM PDT by longfellowsmuse (last of the living nomads)
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To: rawcatslyentist

“They swear obeisance to a man. Not God. A man.”

You have been misinformed.


34 posted on 07/23/2016 1:54:05 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: Kaslin

TIMMY ! (think South Park)


35 posted on 07/23/2016 1:57:33 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam , Know Peace)
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To: Kaslin

Kaine is for baby-killing at the local Planned Parenthood clinic.

Welcome to the facts.


36 posted on 07/23/2016 2:04:52 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Kaslin

No “devout” Catholic exists as a Democrat.

Catholic and Democrat would be an oxymoron.

So the Clinton campaign can hang that one up.


37 posted on 07/23/2016 2:21:45 PM PDT by RitaOK (Viva Christ Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxmsists coming, infinitum.)
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To: Kaslin

The LIB fool is a certifiable LIB idiot who has a very, very “checkered” past. If hillary clintoon likes him, there definitely is a criminal side to him.


38 posted on 07/23/2016 2:52:45 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?.)
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To: RitaOK

“No “devout” Catholic exists as a Democrat.”

As a long-time ex-Catholic, that has not been my experience.


39 posted on 07/23/2016 3:03:19 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
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To: Kaslin

The second coming of Yeb.


40 posted on 07/23/2016 4:37:29 PM PDT by stillfree? (My My My)
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