Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down

Thumbs Up to Melinda Henneberger for her article in this morning's Washington Post about Indiana's Senate race. I confess, of all the many congressional races this fall, there is no candidate I hope wins more than I hope Joe Donnelly wins and there is no candidate I hope loses more than I hope Richard Mourdock loses. Donnelly is a pro-life Democrat, a centrist, someone with a bipartisan track record. Mourdock unseated Sen. Dick Lugar in the GOP primary, charging Lugar with being a RINO. Fortunately, the good sense of many people who would have easily backed Lugar is causing them to give Donnelly a second look.

Also in this morning's Post, Kathleen Parker, whom I normally like a lot, repeats one of the worst falsehoods to come from the Catholic neo-con blogosphere in a long time, the idea that the Catholic idea of subsidiarity has anything to do with our constitutional system of federalism. Subsidiarity is about determining which level of society is best equipped to provide help, subsidium, in achieving the common good of all and extending special concern to the poor and vulnerable, all with a strong preference for solutions that are closest to the person. Federalism is about the separation of power. Parker is not a lazy writer nor a lazy thinker. She should know better than to simply repeat this nonsense.