The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has released new numbers about the priestly pederasty that has so devastated countless lives and the Catholic Church. In 2005 U.S. Catholic dioceses spent $399 million on settlements with victims, 81 percent of them boys, plus $68 million for psychological counseling and lawyers' fees. Add these staggering statistics: Since 1950 the church now has spent nearly $1.3 billion in reparations to more than 12,537 victims with credible claims against 4,827 priests.
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Detroit, host to this year's Super Bowl, may epitomize the plight of American cities past their prime. Consider this, from the San Diego Union-Tribune: "The economy stinks. The auto industry is hemorrhaging workers. The housing market is in broad retreat. Crime and poverty are ever-present." Detroit's population has plunged to about half its 1.8 million level in 1950 (in the same period Detroit's suburban population has tripled, to 3.1 million).
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These days the Republicans and the Bush administration are taking a lot of legitimate hits - and some of them not-so-legitimate. Yet as with most things in D.C., the Republicans are not alone. For example:
(1) In the House, Republicans voted for limits on the donations of independent political groups called 527s (named for the tax code section under which they fall); Democrats voted heavily against the 527 limits.
(2) In the Senate, Democrats killed the carefully crafted compromise on immigration. Here's The Washington Post, in an April 8 editorial: "The Senate could have left town yesterday with a workable, if imperfect, immigration bill that would have let millions of people living here illegally come out of the shadows. It had before it a deal that could have attracted 70 votes; it had the backing of the White House and the support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. . . . Democrats - whether their motive was partisan advantage or legitimate fear of a bad bill emerging from conference with the House - are the ones who refused, in the end, to proceed with debate. . . . Democrats putting political self-interest over solving a serious policy problem ought to worry that their actions will backfire with the very people whose interests they are purporting to protect."
And (3) the Democrats have had a field day ripping President Bush for warrantless wiretapping in the Long War against jihadist terror. Among those hardest on Bush: former President Jimmy Carter, who has blasted Bush for "a disgraceful and illegal decision" on terrorist surveillance under which "no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated." Interesting, but Bush was not the first. In 1977, Carter himself authorized warrantless electronic surveillance of Truong Dinh Hung and Ronald Louis Humphrey - sealing their convictions as spies for Vietnam.