When did Bill Donohue become the pope?

And why does he think he represents the Catholic Church and all of its members? I didn't know Catholicism was so hateful and ugly, but listening to this man makes me wonder.

Lane Hudson over at the Huffington Post:

The ramifications of Bill Donohue and the Catholic League's reckless rhetoric has materialized in the form of death threats to bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. This is what happens when the ultra-right wing is given the megaphone of mainstream media. It is also a complete break down in the responsibility that the media has in vetting those who are given a platform to spread a message.

This is also evidence that ultra-right wing organizations that create messages based on hate and fear find sympathetic audiences with people who think more like citizen-militia than the loyal Catholics that Bill Donohue claims to represent. It is no wonder that there has been no mainstream Roman Catholic group, nor the Church itself, to step forward to support Donohue in his illegal, unethical scalp-seeking tirade against Senator Edwards' bloggers.

Bill Donohue must immediately rescind his hateful comments against these two young women and call on the hate-mongers, which he is responsible for inciting, to cease their threats against Amanda, Melissa, and their families. Call him at 212-371-3191 and demand this.

Donohue's attacks on junior staffers are completely unprecedented. It is a new low. His actions have the effect of putting their lives in danger and he must not be allowed to get away with it.

This man is so indignant over these two female bloggers and what they have said in the past. So no one can have said any foul things in their past? They should lose their jobs if they have? Ok, fair game.

Bill Donohue on Jews:

Donohue said the following on December 9, 2004 on MSNBC about Jews:

Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the messiah. Hollywood likes anal sex.

And:

Back in 1992, for instance, Sinead O'Connor suggested that the Roman Catholic hierarchy was covering up an epidemic of child abuse by members of its clergy. Vigorously denying this allegation and viciously attacking O'Connor was how Donohue made his bones with the Catholic League. His indignation towards O'Connor and anyone else who suggested such a coverup of child abuse was how he grew the league from a membership of 11,000 to more than 300,000.

I wonder how those 300,000 people feel now, having put their trust in William Donohue only to learn, years later, that he was massively, disastrously wrong -- that he took their donations and used that money to defend and enable pedophilia. Some of those people, being human, must feel a sense of shame for being manipulated into defending the indefensible. Donohue doesn't. He doesn't care that his abominable position leaves him "permanently discredited" (to quote Bob Marley's "War," as sung by Sinead O'Connor).

And:

...he bashed Mark Foley for not fighting back against the priest who molested him.

“As for the alleged abuse, it’s time to ask some tough questions. First, there is a huge difference between being groped and being raped, so which was it Mr. Foley? Second, why didn’t you just smack the clergyman in the face? After all, most 15-year-old teenage boys wouldn’t allow themselves to be molested. So why did you?”

You know, Bigot Bill, it's possible to take someone to task for their behavior without propogating rape myths. But then, you don't think rape is a big deal, do you? Given your responses to it, it certainly wouldn't seem that way. Rape is no big deal while insulting the Church is bad bad bad. Gotcha. He and his ilk need to look no further than their own mirrors to see why people are fleeing the Church.

And on YouTube.

And these:

"The gay community has yet to apologize to straight people for all the damage that they have done."
[MSNBC Scarborough Country, 4/11/05]

"People don't trust the Muslims when it comes to liberty."
[MSNBC Scarborough Country, 2/9/06]

"Name for me a book publishing company in this country, particularly in New York, which would allow you to publish a book which would tell the truth about the gay death style."
[MSNBC Scarborough Country, 2/27/04]

Gee...if this is what Catholicism is all about, if Bill Donohue is the spokesman of this church, this church is really ugly.

Update 2/15: Frances Kissling:

What happened is [the Swiftboating of John] Kerry repeated, in a way. I think that's the goal. What you have are these right-wing Catholic groups, the Catholic League and Priests for Life and Fidelis, which came out after Donohue went after [Marcotte] calling for Obama and Hillary to repudiate Edwards for hiring them. What it is is part of the 2008 attack by conservative Catholics against Democrats, whether they're Catholic or not: Anything they can do to discredit the candidates is what they're going to do.

My reaction is, "OK, here we go." This is what it [has been like] since 2000 when George Bush added Catholic conservatives to his list of base groups for the Republican Party. What we can trace is activism on their part against Democrats, particularly against Catholics, and support for George Bush. Period. They're going to take any opportunity they can. Then you have the consistency of playing that anti-Catholic card. Where the Catholic shtick comes in on this one is that the bloggers had a lot to say about religion and a lot to say that's critical of the Catholic Church. Well-deserved criticism, in my opinion. But it feeds very nicely into the Donohue agenda, which is to cast everything that is critical of positions taken by the Catholic Church as anti-Catholicism.

[snip]

Do you think that this blogger controversy will have a net negative impact?

Well, the unfortunate thing is the resignation. That's the most unfortunate aspect because it only emboldens him. Because Donohue won. And that makes me furious.

It's also like Mara Vanderslice; she worked for the Kerry campaign as his religious outreach person and Donohue discovered that she had once been in a demonstration with [AIDS activist group] Act Up, and he then went after her, with exactly the same kind of language: "I'm going to get her fired," etc. She didn't lose her job and didn't get fired, but she was totally isolated within the campaign; she couldn't make public statements or be used well anymore. And he writes about how "I got her."

There is something about this man and his attacks on women that is frightening. There was a while when I refused to go on air with him [for television appearances] because -- you know I am a very strong person -- but I felt physically threatened by this man. He never physically threatened me, but I felt like I was in the presence of an abuser. So for a long time I just refused because it was too degrading to be in his presence. I got over it eventually and have done a few things with him since. I understand that he is so offensive that he does himself damage; as long as I can maintain my equilibrium with him attacking me in the most vicious ways possible -- that only does me credit and makes him look like the abuser that he is. But the glee with which he went after Vanderslice and the glee with which he has gone after these women marks him as an abuser.

(Via Feministe)