Nuns get what they want

There's been a lot of talk about Roman Catholic lobbying for and against health care reform, so we must wonder if the nuns had anything to do with Stupak's about-face -- here's the NYT's Maureen Dowd on Saturday in advance of the vote (with a Bob Casey reference):

Stupak got in hot holy water when he told Fox News, "When I'm drafting right-to-life language, I don't call up nuns." He followed that with more scorn for sisters, telling Chris Matthews that the nuns were not influential because they rarely try to influence — which makes no sense — and because "they're not the recognized spokesperson for theCatholic Church." He listens to the bishops, he said, and antiabortion groups.

We might have to bang Bart's head into a blackboard afew times before he realizes that in a moral tug-of-war between the sisters and the bishops, you have to go with the gals.

The nuns are giving the Democrats cover. As Bob Casey, an abortion opponent who helped negotiate the abortion language in the Senate bill, observed, quoting Scripture: "They care for 'the least, the last and the lost.' And they know health care."