Reply #191: You are putting words in my mouth. JFK in no way kowtowed ...

[puebloknot]

... to extremist religious elements, as the Bush administration has done.

Yes, some people were sure the Pope was going to move to D.C. if Kennedy was elected.

Catholics have *every* right to hold public office. They do not have a right to try to instill their personal religious beliefs into our governmental proceedings.

I object only to anyone's trying to "tear down the wall between church and state."

As a great example: If Mr. Kaine takes office and holds a personal objection to birth control, he does not have the right to deny that privilege to women who don't share his religious beliefs. John Kennedy's Catholicism did not have a chilling effect on the development and dispensing of birth control methods during his political life. His fellow Catholics did what they could to fight it, but JFK did not try to stop its development, as Bush has done everything in his (seized) power to stop stem cell research, based on his own personal "religious" beliefs.

I object to anyone who aspires to public office who does not have loyalty to the Constitution first and last -- and not to any religious philosophy.