"New and Improved" Hilary Spouts Same Old "Blah-Blah"

From the pages of Times Against Humanity . . .

"With many Americans certain that former first lady and current New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton will run for president in 2008, they point to what appears to be a concerted effort to move her toward the political middle on one of the nation's most contentious issues—abortion," Randy Hall begins his Cybercast News Service report.

Speculation about Sen. Clinton's stance on the emotional issue began after she said abortion "in many ways represents a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women" during a speech to the New York State Family Planning Providers this past January 24.

The decision to have an abortion "is a profound and complicated one; a difficult one, often the most difficult that a woman will ever make," the senator said. "The fact is that the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in the first place.

"I for one respect those who believe with all their hearts and conscience that there are no circumstances under which any abortion should ever be available," she added to gasps from the audience.

The potential presidential nominee concluded her address by proclaiming her hope that "those on both sides of the abortion issue could find common ground." But can the life or death of an innocent child be reduced to merely a political "issue" and how sincere is Mrs. Bill Clinton's pre-2008 makeover?

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said that any suggestion Sen. Clinton is moving to the right is "laughable."

"There may be a rhetorical shift to the middle on a few issues like abortion and defense," Sabato said, but, he added, "She didn't concede anything on the abortion issue. She simply said, 'We ought to talk.' It's the usual political 'blah-blah.'"

Sabato added that conservatives have every right to be skeptical of a "new and improved" Hillary Clinton. "I think there's a significant difference between what she is saying and what she actually believes and would do in office," he said.

In a related development, the Archdiocese of New York has determined that Marymount Manhattan College is no longer a Catholic institution, LifeSite reports. The college had been under fire for inviting Sen. Clinton to give its commencement address and receive an honorary degree on May 20.

"The decision to honor one of Congress' most outspoken and strident advocates of abortion rights was just the latest episode in a long history of secularization at Marymount Manhattan College," said Patrick J. Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization dedicated to the renewal of Catholic identity at America's 220—now 219—Catholic colleges and universities.

It appears that Margaret Minson, the school's vice president for institutional advancement, would not contest Reilly's assessment. On being informed that the school had been stricken from the Official Catholic Directory, she retorted that Marymount "has not been a Catholic college for several decades."

"There is tremendous value to clearly and formally identifying wayward Catholic institutions as no longer Catholic," Reilly observed. The man now sitting on the Chair of Peter is apt to agree.

"This is the fourth time since the late Pope John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution on Catholic universities, that a bishop has declared an historically Catholic college or university to be not Catholic," notes LifeSite. Chances are that it will not be the last.