"Phoning it in"

Let's concede -- as I am entirely willing to do, and as I hope Eduardo is willing to do -- that reasonable Catholics of good will can and do disagree about, say, the content of International Law relevant to war-making, the appropriate application in particular cases of just-war principles, and the particulars of the tax structure that best serves the common good.  Let's concede that reasonable Catholics of good will can conclude that, all things considered, President Bush's commitment to "the Culture of Life", properly and richly understood, is not what it could and should be.  It does not follow, in my view, that Bush's talk, in the context of the March for Life, is "drivel", or "focus-group candy."  (That one could easily characterize as disingenuous "drivel" the use by some on the left of "seamless garment", "solidarity", or "values" rhetoric is, of course, is not, of course, the point).

It is simply wrong to say that the present Administration -- whatever its other faults -- has not walked the walk, within the obvious constraints imposed by realities on the Court and in the Senate, when it comes to protecting the lives of unborn children.  Even if we think this fact is not everything, it isn't nothing. 

However much we might disagree with, or even abhor, the Administration's Iraq or tax policy, and however cynical we might think the GOP has been in exploiting voters' pro-life views, it remains useful to recall the facts about Bush's pro-life record since his election in 2000 (the linked-to list is far too long to reproduce here).  I would urge everyone -- particularly those inclined to think that, on the abortion issue, the Bush administration has not performed markedly different than the alternative administration would have -- to review the list (current as of 2004, and so does not include, for example, the recent nominations to the Supreme Court).  It is quite striking.

Now, I do not intend to revisit, in my blogging, the debate we had here in the Fall of 2004 about the election, about how Catholics may or should vote, about how we should weigh and balance all the competing issues, and so on.  I believe now, and I believed then, that reasonable people could and can disagree about this.  I'm not telling people how to vote or whom to support.  That said, I do not believe -- and I believe the linked-to list supports my view -- that it can plausibly be denied that the Bush Administration has, within the restraints imposed by the Court, done a great deal, and achieved a great deal of good, on the pro-life front.  That there is more to be done is, of course, something we can all agree on.