Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Who's telling the truth here?

Some Catholic Republicans are telling their local priests and parishioners not to believe what the Missouri Catholic Conference — the church's lobbying arm in the state — says against GOP proposals to cut Medicaid spending and to support life sciences research.

The Republicans' anger is directed specifically at Larry Weber, executive director and chief lobbyist of the Missouri Catholic Conference.
...
“I'm beginning to understand that the lobbyist for the Catholic Conference does not always present things in a truthful fashion,” said Rep. Jodi Stefanick, a St. Louis County Republican and a Catholic who has spoken with her priest about Weber.

“If I had a bishop call me up and say, ‘I'd like to talk to you about this bill'— fantastic,” she said. “But I don't give any credibility to that lobbyist. He's proven himself wrong.”
...
Though Rep. Carl Bearden, a St. Charles Republican who leads the House Budget Committee, has worked with Weber in the past on pro-life issues, he recently barred Weber from his third-floor office in the Capitol.
Sounds pretty serious...
“I understand people have different viewpoints,” said Bearden, who tore into Weber during a recent speech on the House floor. “The problem comes when you start misrepresenting and flat-out lying.”
And then there is this:
Rep. Bill Deeken, a Jefferson City Republican, had similar thoughts. He recounted that at one point in the session, several groups of Catholic schoolchildren from around the state were brought to Jefferson City to lobby against the Medicaid cuts. Deeken and other Republican lawmakers were invited to a rally at a Catholic church across from the Capitol.

“We were asked to come to defend what we had done,” Deeken said. “They (groups of schoolchildren) were chanting, ‘Save the Kids,' and they had no idea what this bill was doing.”

Deeken said it bothered him that children were used as “pawns” by the church.
Story here.

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