In November, the perpetually aggrieved Christian right, in yet another failed attempt to smear the president, had a collective hissy fit about how the US Embassy to the Vatican was being moved into the larger compound which houses the US Embassy to Italy. The move was done for financial and security reasons. No problem for the Vatican but for the perpetually aggrieved Christian right it was a big f**king deal. Thus, it was no surprise that Fox New would jump onboard the grievance bandwagon by interviewing one of the aggrieved Catholics who is a former Vatican ambassador. This morning, former Bush 43 Secretary of Veterans Affairs and - drum roll please - former GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson was back for more whining.
The segment, in setting the propaganda message of the requisite "controversy" orchestrated by an evil Pres. Obama, recycled the same chyron used in the last piece: " 'Holy Controversy' WH Changing Location of Vatican Embassy." Clayton Morris verbally reinforced the propaganda: "The Obama administration's decision to move the American Embassy to the Holy See drawing criticism some former ambassadors who say the move could strain US Vatican relations." Not named by Morris, the former ambassadors are Ray Flynn (conservative, anti-choice Democrat who endorsed Mitt Romney, Thomas Melady (also endorsed Romney), Mary Ann Glendon (anti-choice zealot who refused to accept an award from Notre Dame because the school awarded the president an honorary degree.) and Francis Rooney (billionaire Romney supporter).
Nicholson brayed about how the "Holy See" AKA the Vatican is a "sovereign country." He whined about the closure of the "dignified" current building and the move into tacky offices which is "a clear diminishment of the stature of that post..." According to Nicholson, when you diminish stature, you diminish influence and respect," and some are saying that "this is a slap in the face to the Pope and to Catholicism, and to American Catholics." He whined that this is "clearly a big mistake."
Morris read a State Department comment about how the move is being done, in part, for safety reasons. Nicholson continued to whine about how, when he was ambassador, this was discussed and how he said it would be a big mistake. Naturally, President Bush agreed, unlike that Catholic hating Obama who is doing this "under the guise of economics and security." He claimed that neither of these reasons "holds water." He whined about the ugliness of the new building. Morris recommended that viewers read Nicholson's "great piece in the (Murdoch owned) Wall Street Journal - a piece co-written by Ray Flynn - a piece followed by the usual low level invective about how the Muslim loving, Catholic hating, Marxist president is attacking Christians. (I'm not kidding)
While, in the scheme of things, this segment was low key, it was yet another example of classic Fox News propaganda which reinforces the already existing hatred of the President to sow more hatred. But Fox is the defender of Christianity so it's all good...But didn't Rush tell us that the Pope is an evil Marxist? It's a complex world....