Catholics for Romney

It's natural for politicians to seek support from various voting blocks. So no one should be surprised to know that Obama recently released a list of his national co-chairs of his "Catholics for Obama" team. But before Obama did that, Mitt Romney had released his list of co-chairs for his "Catholics for Romney" team. Before looking at Obama's team, I want to take a look at Catholics for Romney.

Romney's leadership team at the national level is made up of a truly remarkable slate of leaders. Here is the list of National Co-Chairs, Catholics for Romney.

Frank Shakespeare (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See 1986-1989)

Shakespeare served as Chairman of the Board of Heritage Foundation,
and his work in radio helped bring an end to the Cold War under Reagan.

Tom Melady (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See 1989-1993)

Malady was influential in getting the Holy See to recognize the state of Israel in 1993. In addition to many years in the diplomatic corps, he served as president of a Catholic university and written extensively on foreign affairs.

Ray Flynn (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See 1993-1997)

    Jim Nicholson (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See 2001-2005)

Nicholson first met with Pope John Paul II on September 13, 2001, two days after 9/11.

Francis Rooney (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See 2005-2008)

Rooney was the first ambassador under the Benedict XVI pontificate.

Mary Ann Glendon (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See 2008-2009)

Glendon, a professor at Harvard Law School, famously declined to speak at the Notre Dame commencement
in 2009 after the school invited Obama to speak.

 Interesting Points to Note

Of these six chairmen, five were appointed to their ambassadorships by Republican presidents.

 Ray Flynn, the first Clinton appointee, was a Democrat at the time he served as Ambassador to the Holy See. I suppose he still is, but he has certainly not been a far-left liberal. Flynn served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the 1970s, and was a Boston City Council member from ’78 to ’84. In 1983, Flynn was elected for the first times to be mayor of Boston. He was re-elected in ‘87 and ‘91. Some credit Flynn with bringing the Catholic vote to Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election, resulting in Clinton’s win over incumbent George H.W. Bush. In return, Clinton appointed Flynn to the Ambassadorship when he was 54 years old. Flynn resigned as mayor in order to fill the appointment. Flynn started at least two Catholic advocacy groups after leaving the ambassador position (http://catholic-citizenship.org/ and http://www.yourcatholicvoice.org/). While he was president of one of these organizations, Flynn supported George W. Bush in the 2000 election. He also publicly supported Republican Scott Brown in the 2010 Massachusetts Senatorial race, actually appearing in television ads for Brown.

An eminently qualified field, I must say!!!!

The Missing Link

The person whose name is “missing” from the list of ambassadors--between 1997 and 2001--is Lindy Boggs. It is no wonder that she is not a Romney supporter since she was a Democrat Congresswoman from Louisiana for nearly 18 years, from 1973 to 1991. She is also the mother of TV news personality Cokie Roberts, who is a liberal feminist. (She spoke at the LCWR Assembly in New Orleans in 2008 and was given a reward by them.) Mrs. Boggs was born on March 13, 1916, making her 96 years old. She was 81 when Clinton appointed her to the ambassadorship.

Cokie Roberts, Lindy Boggs, and the late Barbara Boggs-Sigmund

Could we expect to see Mrs. Boggs on the Catholics for Obama team? More on that in my next posting!