How Are Miers And Castro Alike? How Are They Different?

1. They're both lapsed Catholics who demonstrate the old saw about rejecting an absurdity that's logical and coherent in favor of an absurdity that's illogical and incoherent.

2. The Supreme Court hopeful was once an abortion foe but has now had her opinion on Roe v. Wade disappeared through the Eternal Sunshine magic of the nomination process. El Jefe has moved in the opposite direction, and is calling on his old enemies for help:

Fidel Castro wants help from the Church to fight the "plague of abortion" in his country, reported an Italian cardinal at the end of a visit with the Cuban president.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa, spoke of his trip in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, published Thursday.

"Fidel Castro is asking us for help to combat the plague of abortion in Cuba," he said.

"The spread of abortion, as Fidel Castro emphasized, is among the causes of the country's demographic crisis," the cardinal added. "And it is also a consequence of the plague of sexual tourism.

Assuming the Cardinal is telling the truth (and you should never assume a Cardinal is telling the truth), it would be pretty pathetic if the Cuban dictator is more straightforward in his view than a Supreme Court nominee. Are we really going to see a confirmation hearing where everybody has to pretend Miers' opinion on this matter has suddenly become some big mystery? If she thinks Roe v. Wade is a bad decision (and as a point of law, she could certainly argue that it is), then she should say so. If she's got a religious calling to outlaw abortion, she should say that too. Her personal savior was very specific on this issue.