Quick background: Speaker of the House [mc_name name=’Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B000589′ ] invited Pope Francis I to be the first pope ever to speak to a joint session of Congress… what’s that? “Did he ask permission of the President?”  Umm… no. You see: Democratic agitprop to the contrary, Barack Obama is not actually a king.  In fact, at the moment Obama’s actually just a bit of a troll: and even if he wasn’t Speaker Boehner – and Senate Majority Leader [mc_name name=’Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000355′ ]; don’t forget him – do not actually need permission to do things.  They’re the ones in charge of the legislative branch; Barack Obama runs the executive branch. There’s a well-defined limit to the things that one branch of the government can actually do to the other: we call this concept ‘separation of powers’ in this country, and it is my devout hope and fond dream that by mid-2016 that particular phrase will serve as a trigger warning to outraged progressives.

Anyway… oh, I’m sure ABC News means well, but it’s trying a little bit too hard, here: “As pope, Francis has taken positions on some issues that clash with the views of Republicans who now control the House and Senate.”  Immigration, blah blah blah, financial, yadda yadda, climate change, yeah whatever… but here’s the thing.  All of those positions? They’re derivatives of various principles and beliefs in Catholic theology.  You know what’s absolutely CENTRAL to Catholic theology?

Life.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I will cheerfully (albeit discreetly) roll my eyes at a few Pontifical statements about global warming if it means that I get to watch Francis I tell [mc_name name=’Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’P000197′ ], Joe Biden, and every other pro-choice Democratic Catholic sitting there in Congress that they are wrong about their interpretation of Holy Mother Church’s teachings regarding abortion* and that this heresy of theirs is not a subject for argument. I want to see them squirm – and yes, some of the Democrats will squirm. Most likely the ones who actually have to sweat their next election.

One last thought on this is that [mc_name name=’Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’P000197′ ] suggested that members of her reduced, devastated, demolished, decimated (literally!), demoralized, cut-to-the-bone, withered, wheezing, desiccated, starved, dehydrated, gelded (nah, that’s just mean), powerless, impotent, and generally marginalized caucus might be too busy to go to the Netanyahu speech.  Now, everybody here knows that this effectively means that every Democrat who can afford to tick off the pro-Israeli majority in this country (I’m not going to call it a ‘vote,’ because that implies that the result is in doubt) will skip the speech.  But I don’t think that [mc_name name=’Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’P000197′ ] has the guts to try something similar with Pope Francis.  I dare her to prove me wrong.

Heck, I double-dog dare her.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: The pope, of course, will not excommunicate Pelosi, et al, on the spot. Barack Obama to the contrary, the Church does not act so… directly, these centuries. But Holy Mother Church still has her little ways.

*A word that, by the way, is conspicuous in its absence from the ABC article.