It isn't just Kasich's words that connected him with the 78-year-old Bishop of Rome. Kasich's policy decisions during the past five years have reflected the pope's plea that politicians be "genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor." Most noteworthy was the governor's courageous decision to break with his Republican colleagues and support Medicaid expansion in the state of Ohio. When conservatives pushed back on his decision, Kasich asked his fellow Republicans to understand that poverty is real. "When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer."

Pope Francis would most certainly agree. He has derided trickle-down economic systems that cut social programs as having a "crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power," and has lamented that "the excluded are still waiting."

But even if one says that maybe Hale has a point and that Kasich, (who was raised Catholic, but who is now a member of a tiny Anglican breakaway from the mainline Episcopal Church) is just taking his faith seriously -- Hale has a tell:

Hale favorably compares George W. Bush with Gov. Kasich.

Kasich's performance Thursday night was reminiscent of the George W. Bush era of "compassionate conservatism." Bush defined this governing philosophy in simple terms: "It is compassionate to actively help our citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on accountability and results." The philosophy proved successful for Bush. But can Kasich follow suit?

Bush, of course, never delivered on his promise of compassionate conservatism -- as exposes by top officials of his office of Faith Based Initiatives, John DiIulio and David Kuo later made clear.  

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists have long divided Democrats on a range of matters related to reproductive rights and access to reproductive care.  Some of this has been carried out under the rubric of "common ground" and "abortion reduction." Sometimes otherwise sensible liberal leaders went along with this.  Sometimes apparent efforts to silence opponents were cloaked as appeals to civil discourse.  (As an advocate for actual civil discourse, such tactics were particularly offensive to me, and I wrote about it, among other places, here and here.)

But to my knowledge, the avatars of civility in public life, from any point of view on abortion, have had nothing to say about the false and inflammatory allegations of criminal activity by PPFA involving "trafficking" in fetal tissue and organs, and "profiteering" from a "black market" and so on.  Reasonable people may disagree on matters of abortion, but the discussion is not enhanced by fact free, hyperbolic language fueling election season calls to "defund Planned Parenthood."

All this comes along in a wider and deeper context of which it is important not to lose sight.

Anti-abortion Democrats have long sought to cast their cause as progressive, but their actions sometimes take them into common cause with the Religious Right.  This tendency has been on display during the current brouhaha.

The Center for Medical Progress (a Catholic Right group with no relation to the liberal Washington DC think tank, Center for American Progress) has made news for its tabloid claim that PPFA engages in the potentially criminal harvesting of fetal tissue and organs for profit. But the documentation does not substantiate the charges.  In fact, the unedited version of the covertly recorded video and the transcript supports PPFA's statements that they only engage in the lawful practice of--and with the woman's consent--donating fetal tissue for medical and research purposes.

Two days after the release of the first video, Christopher Hale published a provocative op-ed in the religion section of The Washington Post online.  He called for progressive and Democratic leaders to join him in denouncing Planned Parenthood, citing the Center for Medical Progress's crude work of propaganda as the justification for his call to moral action.

It is fair to say that Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good epitomizes the tendency of some anti-choice Democrats to become entangled with religious and political elements who are neither progressive or Democratic.  (Note: David Daleiden, the point man in the anti-PPFA smear campaign, says he is not only Catholic, but is "a really big fan of Pope Francis.")

The fact is that there is no evidence that PPFA or any of its personnel or affiliates are doing anything that violates the legal and ethical standards regarding donation of tissue and organs for purposes of medical and scientific research. The full transcript of the original video, which was released by CMP, shows PPFA's Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola explaining how patients are not coerced but are informed about the option of donating tissue, and also making it very clear that there is no profit motive.

Subsequent statements issued by PPFA were consistent with what Nucatola told her undercover interviewers. PPFA states, "[W]e do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does - with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards.  There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood.  In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field."

Indeed, the charges being exploited by anti-abortion groups and pols are based on a method of using terms like "selling," "trafficking," "haggling,"  "profiteering," and "black market" to make inflammatory charges that are not supported by the facts.  

Reporting further suggested that the original video may have been released in collusion with Republican Members of Congress--at least two of whom had seen it weeks before its release.  

All of which reasonably leads one to wonder why the executive director of an organization founded by Catholic Democrats and whose only two publicly listed board members are prominent Democratic donors -- rushed to endorse the anti-Planned Parenthood video apparently without even a cursory check to see if the charges were true,  and was quick to praise Kasich's debate remarks, without offering any evidence that his remarks are backed up by facts.

Adapted from a post at Eyes Right, the blog of Political Research Associates