Wendy Long's for religious liberty, Kirsten Gillibrand prefers Obama's HHS mandate

By Michael Gaynor

For New Yorkers, the alternative to stealth socialist "fundamental transformation" promised by Obama and promoted by ACORN, the Working Families Party, Gaspard and Gillibrand are the traditional American values, such as religious liberty, the limits of government and the possibilities of freedom, championed by Long.

What kind of "Catholic" supports compelling Catholic institutions to provide free contraception, sterilization and abortifacients?

Wendy Long and Kirsten Gillibrand are both Catholic, but only one of them stands by her faith and religious liberty.

That's Long.

Long stands strong, while Gillibrand's gone terribly wrong.

Herewith Long's latest press release:

U.S. Senate Candidate Wendy Long Stands With Cardinal Dolan and All People of Conscience Opposing Infringement on Religious Freedom

For IMMEDIATE Release: May 22, 2012

Calls on Gillibrand to support rights for all New Yorkers

New York, New York — U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long stands with Cardinal Dolan, Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, the University of Notre Dame, and all people of conscience to oppose the Obama administration's attack on religious liberty, calling on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to support the rights of all New Yorkers, not just some.

While Sen. Gillibrand is relentless in her efforts to extend benefits to certain select groups, she has turned her back on the fundamental freedom of faith and conscience that is protected by the United States Constitution. In the process, Gillibrand is turning her back on New Yorkers who don't share her and President Obama's cynical political agenda.

Just recently, Sen. Gillibrand described her support for same-sex marriage in moral terms, saying: "So I just think it's a matter of right versus wrong, it's a matter of core values of humanity and fairness and freedom and the ability of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." At the same time, Gillibrand is willing to compromise the rights and the moral values of Catholics, Jews, Muslims and people of faith from all walks of life.

Wendy Long said, "The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is what protects all Americans, from all walks of life, to be able to practice their faith, and to keep the government from meddling in their lives and consciences. The willingness of Senator Gillibrand and President Obama to trample that principle for the sake of their own political agenda is dangerous and wrong."

She added, "I stand with Cardinal Dolan and all people of faith in opposing the Gillibrand- Obama effort to reduce our freedom of religion to just another activity that can be regulated by the federal government."

Perhaps Gillibrand, an unapologetic ACORN supporter, is still angry that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development stopped funding ACORN!

On November 13, 2008, the USCCB announced that "Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the national anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), ha[d] ended all funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN...."

Why?

"Last June, CCHD cut off funding to all ACORN groups when we learned about a major case of embezzlement eight years ago which raised serious concerns about national ACORN's financial accountability, transparency, governance and organizational integrity. Even though CCHD was only funding local ACORN organizations, and not these national structures, we felt it was necessary to cut off CCHD funding and review support of all ACORN groups.

"More recently, the Subcommittee also became concerned about widespread reports of ACORN involvement in alleged voter registration fraud and political partisanship. As a result of the cut-off earlier this year, no CCHD funds were involved in any of these activities. However, the allegations intensified our questions and problems around ACORN's organizational integrity, competence and non-partisanship. Therefore, we extended the cut off of CCHD funding of any ACORN organizations.

"The Bishops' CCHD Subcommittee met November 8-9 and reviewed this matter at length and discussed it in depth. The Bishop members of the Subcommittee voted unanimously to reaffirm, extend and formalize the decision to end CCHD funding of ACORN organizations because of serious concerns about financial accountability, organizational performance and political partisanship. While not all the specifics can be known, we simply had too many continuing questions and concerns about these serious matters to permit CCHD funding of ACORN groups. This cut off means that no CCHD grants were given to ACORN groups this year (using funds from the 2007 CCHD collection) and no funds from the coming collection (to be taken up in on November 23-24 in many dioceses) will go to ACORN in any place or at any level."

"CCHD's current criteria and guidelines prohibit partisan activity and funding of any group that engages in activities contrary to Catholic moral teaching, whether or not those activities are funded by CCHD. These criteria are actively enforced and have led CCHD to deny funding to many groups and to quickly terminate any group that violates these prohibitions."

Actually funding to ACORN was not cut off "quickly."

ACORN's partisan political nature may have been concealed from the USCCB, but the USCCB should have realized much sooner that ACORN was engaged in "activities contrary to Catholic moral teaching."

New York's radical Working Families Party faithfully supported Gillibrand in her political campaigns before and since the USCCB cut off funding ACORN, and Gillibrand has been faithful to ACORN and the Working Families Party.

The Working Families Party is ACORN's favorite party, as this Politico profile of Bertha Lewis show (www.politico.com/arena/bio/bertha_lewis.html): "Bertha Lewis is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Organizer of ACORN, the largest community organization in the country. Appointed in May 2008, Ms. Lewis oversees the operations of its 400,000 strong membership, which is active in over 110 cities across the country. A 16 year veteran of the organization, Ms. Lewis was most recently the Executive Director of ACORN's New York affiliate and is a founding Co-Chair of the New York Working Families Party."

The dots are there to connect.

This entry on Patrick Gaspard illustrates the ACORN-Obama-Bertha Lewis-Working Families Party-Democratic National Committee integration (www.discoverthenetworks.org/printindividualProfile.asp?indid=2420):

PATRICK GASPARD

Former community organizer

Worked for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in 1988

Was an organizer for the New Party, a socialist political coalition, in the 1990s

Served as executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union's Local 1199

Was a leading activist with the Working Families Party, an outgrowth of the New Party

Served as political director for Bertha Lewis, who was the head of ACORN's New York chapter

Served as the director of President Barack Obama's Office of Political Affairs from January 2009 to January 2011

Became executive director of the Democratic National Committee in January 2001

Patrick Gaspard was born in Kinshasa, Zaire, after his father had fled there from the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. When Patrick was three, he immigrated with his parents to the United States and was raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

As he grew into young adulthood, Gaspard came to admire Third World leftists and revolutionaries. He had a particular fondness for Aime Cesaire, a radical poet/politician from the French colony of Martinique. A member of the French Communist Party, Cesaire was a teacher to the Marxist theorist Frantz Fanon.

Gaspard entered the world of politics in the mid-1980s, when he became a community organizer who planned and coordinated New York City-based demonstrations for "social justice" in Haiti as well as a variety of school-reform issues. In 1988 he worked for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, and the following year he served as a volunteer with Democrat David Dinkins' successful NYC mayoral campaign.

In late 1995 Gaspard was working in New Jersey as an organizer for the New Party, a socialist political coalition that then-Illinois state senate candidate Barack Obama had recently joined.

In 1997, outgoing Manhattan borough president Ruth Messinger, who was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), enlisted Gaspard to work for her (ultimately unsuccessful) mayoral campaign against Rudolph Giuliani.

After the Messinger campaign folded, Gaspard took a job as chief of staff to New York City councilwoman and radical feminist Margarita Lopez.

In 1999, while Gaspard was still employed by Lopez, New York City was rocked by the controversial shooting (by four police officers) of a 23-year-old, black, unarmed illegal immigrant from Guinea named Amadou Diallo. The officers mistook Diallo for an armed man who resembled the description of a serial rapist they were seeking. In the wake of the incident, two officials (political director Bill Lynch and president Dennis Rivera) from one of the city's most powerful and militant labor unions, the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU's) Local 1199, recruited Gaspard to organize and lead the union's "March for Justice" against alleged police brutality; Gaspard also led a series of additional demonstrations thereafter. Before long, he rose to become the union's executive vice president.

By 2001, Gaspard was a leading activist with the New York Working Families Party (WFP), an outgrowth of the New Party.

In 2001 Gaspard served as political director for Bertha Lewis, who was, at that time, the head of ACORN's New York chapter. (Lewis would go on to become ACORN's chief national organizer seven years later.) In the July 2, 2001 issue of The Nation, Gaspard and Lewis jointly published a letter defending the Working Families Party against its critics. In that letter, the authors described their extensive joint involvement in WFP activities; they signed their names as: "Bertha Lewis, ACORN, WFP"; and "Patrick Gaspard, SEIU State Council, WFP."

As of 2009, Gaspard is was listed as an advisory board member of the WFP-aligned Working Families Center.

In 2003 Gaspard served as acting field director for Democrat Howard Dean's presidential bid. After the Dean campaign fizzled in 2004, Gaspard became the national field director for America Coming Together. Later, he helped city councilwoman Yvette Clarke win the congressional seat vacated by DSA member Major Owens. (Clarke went on to become a member of the Progressive Caucus, which has deep, longstanding ties to the DSA.)

In 2006 Gaspard was the acting political director (i.e., a federally registered political lobbyist) for SEIU International (which is closely tied to ACORN) during the union's successful effort to help Democrats recapture majorities in both the House of Representaives and the Senate. He focused heavily on the issue of healthcare during his tenure with SEIU. For instace, he lobbied for an extension of the State Children's Health Insurance Program and helped congressional Democrats pass the bill before President George W. Bush vetoed it.

During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Gaspard was Barack Obama's national political director, using his labor ties to galvanize massive get-out-the-vote efforts in states with large union populations like Pennsylvania, Texas, and Ohio.

After Obama's electoral victory in November 2008, Gaspard served as an advisory board member of the new president's transition team. His fellow advisory board members included such notables as Carol Browner, Janet Napolitano, and Susan Rice.

In November 2008 Obama announced that Gaspard would serve as director of the Office of Political Affairs, where he was entrusted with: (a) providing the President with an "accurate assessment of the political dynamics affecting the work of his administration," and (b) "work[ing] with powerbrokers around the country to help push the President's agenda."

In January 2011, Gaspard left the White House and became executive director of the Democratic National Committee.

For New Yorkers, the alternative to stealth socialist "fundamental transformation" promised by Obama and promoted by ACORN, the Working Families Party, Gaspard and Gillibrand are the traditional American values, such as religious liberty, the limits of government and the possibilities of freedom, championed by Long.

© Michael Gaynor