Catholics United’s call for Catholic author/Republican operative Deal Hudson (pictured) to resign from his advisory role aboard John McCain’s campaign is generating some major news coverage. Catholics United is calling for Hudson’s resignation over allegations that he sexually harassed a college student while he was teaching at Fordham University–Hudson has expressed “guilt and regret” over the incident, according to the Washington Post–and because of what the group calls Hudson’s “divisive and controversial nature.”
The Catholic League attacked the Democratic National Committee’s religious outreach director a couple months later for being hostile to religion’s role in public life. She quickly resigned.
Now liberal Catholics are adopting that same tactic against the McCain campaign. Interesting to note that the Catholic League has issued a press release defending Hudson and his role aboard the McCain campaign. But Hudson did wind up resigning from the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign over the same sexual harassment allegations.
Which got God-o-Meter thinking: what provoked Catholics United to begin calling for Hudson’s head now, since the allegations are nothing new? Here’s what Catholics United organizing director James Salt tells GOM via email:
Deal Hudson is increasingly becoming McCain’s chief Catholic surrogate. Just this past Monday Deal Hudson did a radio show on behalf of the McCain campaign. He was also the chief instigator of the Hagee apology to Donohue. As he comes out more in the open, we wanted to call attention to McCain’s vetting of his Catholic surrogates. I don’t think McCain knew about Hudson’s background.
How will the McCain camp respond? Keep Hudson or throw him overboard? The McCain camp angered the Christian Right when it threw evangelical supporters John Hagee and Rod Parsley under the bus a couple months ago. Will it do the same thing this time around and risk angering conservative Catholics? If so, the list of prominent religious conservatives supporting McCain will get pretty thin.
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