The Zeal Of The Convert

Sam Brownback derides fellow Senators for not being real Catholics. Linker:

As Joe Feuerherd, author of the NCR article, notes, "It is unusual, and perhaps unprecedented in modern times, for one senator to question the religious practices of another." No wonder, then, that Brownback's office has disowned the letter, claiming both that "our chief of staff ... had never seen, heard of, or approved it" and that they "are not pleased with the content of the letter."

Given Brownback's rigid theoconservatism - in which Catholicism is reduced to criminalizing all abortion and preventing gay couples from having any legal protections - the statement was banal.