John Paul II 1920-2005

I have mixed feelings about the passing of the Pope. I disagreed with him on lots of things, especially how he handled the sex abuse scandal at the end of his pontificatcy.

But I still feel bad with immediately dissing people like John Paul II shortly after their death, unlike some of my colleagues. The Pope did do a lot of great things and at least he stood by what he believed it, I think U2's Bono put it best, calling John Paul II "The best front man the Catholic Church ever had."

It will be interesting to see if they elect a moderate to liberal pope, who will take a second look at celibacy of the priests, contraception, gay rights, and other hot topics like pacifism and the death penalty. Somehow I doubt this and expect an equally if not more conservative pope being elected by the cardinals, yawning the gap between the majority of lay Catholics and their clergy (and the Mel Gibsons of the laity).

And speaking of lay Catholics and conservatives, ex-US Rep. Rick Lazio sounds like he is thinking of challenging Hillary again for NY senate. Lazio "had lunch" today with NY GOP Chair Stephen Minarik and exec dir Ryan Moses. Hillary should be dancing in the streets. Or if he is thinking of running for governor, cheers all around for Spitzer are due as well. In short, Lazio is a joke.

RI, the most Catholic state in the Union, has a key US Senate race on hand. Ex-RI AG and Democratic candidate Sheldon Whitehouse pledged to "work my heart out, from one end of the state to another." Boy, that’s not much of a commitment, because you can drive from one end of the state to another in an hour or so. Whitehouse always was a schmuck; but then again, all the Democrats there are pretty pathetic. You’ve got Patrick Kennedy, who is dumb as a post, Jim Langivin, whose staffers are a bunch of pretentious jerks, and a string of losers who can’t win the Governor’s seat after decades of GOP control.