Discussion: Pope Francis Will Give A Speech To Congress This Fall

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Discussion for article #232924

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A Christian addressing a gathering of mostly christianists. This should be interesting.

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…Or Chri$harians as the case may be…

BTW Boehner
This does NOT make up for BiBi nettin’yahoo.

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When Congress invites a Pastafarian to speak to them, now that’ll be news.

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Can he bump the date up to March 4th?

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Man, I can only hope that the Pope lifts his robes and takes a massive holy crap all over plutocracy during his speech, issuing a divine admonishment to Amurikkkan society for its desperate dash towards iniquity. I want to see the GOP/Teatroll faces as he says shit about REAL “Christians values” that can be used to bludgeon them mercilessly.

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Did Boehner run this by Rush first, cause I really don’t see Rush allowing them to attend until the pope gets in line with their party line hatred of the poor, gays, women and non-Ayn Rand believers.

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I have little doubt that is precisely what Boehner’s staffers thought. “Oh, we’ll get the Pope to cancel out Bibi and the press will buy it, hook, line, and sinker.”

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Exactly, put aside one’s anti-religion views and think about it for a second. A majority of GOP leadership in Congress is Catholic. This Pope is clearly committed to deeply liberal economic principles. He, God’s right hand man or whatever, is going to be in their faces preaching the virtues of equality and forgiveness. Are Boehner and company going to be able to sit there all stone faced when the Pontiff speaks out against the very core of their ideology? And with Joe Biden, a Catholic, sitting next to him, enthusiastically applauding the Pope, it will be even harder for Boehner to maintain his partisan convictions. And you just know President Obama will use the Pope’s visit to kick off some kind of legislation to combat income inequality before the Pope’s visit, Republicans will predictably lampoon his proposals, and then wind up with egg on their faces when the Pope cosigns Obama’s agenda. This presents a serious problem for the GOP.

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Up fOR reelection, BIBi caN"t SPEak. UP for reelection, PoPE caN? WhATever, Libtards!!1!!!one!1!!!

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Will that be before or after the rwnj meltdown when the Pope’s releases his encyclical about Global Climate change? If it’s after, that could be amusing…

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Which tea party congressman will yell “YOU LIE”?

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But serious question. The Pope is the Head of State of The Vatican. Was this invitation cleared with the White House/Sec of State? How is this invitation to speak different than the invitation to Netanyahu, aside from the re-election aspect? And if it is not, then whoever issued the invite (Boehner?) should be getting the same criticisms, no?

In fact, in light of the Netanyahu dustup, I’m disappointed that TPM posted this item without answer the question of who extended the inviation.

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Give 'em Hell, Frankie. Then head over to SCOTUS and address your communicants: Justices Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Roberts, and Alito.

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I have the same question. Does this also violate diplomatic protocol or is Boehner entirely within his (real) authority by issuing the invitation?

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Good to hear.

And unlike Nuttin’Yahoo, this invitation wouldn’t obviously benefit Francis as the pope is not in the middle of a re-election campaign, nor does he want us to invade and subjugate a sovereign nation.

I hope he burns the Republicans down.

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These two invites are not the same, so let’s not try to conflate the two. The violation of diplomatic protocol in Bibi’s case is because the WH wasn’t told the invitation was extended, negotiations were held in secret without the WH’s knowledge, and because it was designed specifically to undercut the president’s negotiations for a nuke deal with Iran. A foreign leader speaking before Congress was never at issue.
Also, Boehner’s authority to invite Bibi to speak before Congress was never at issue either. The insult is not only the underhanded way they went about it, the motivation for doing so, but also the obviously disrespectful and manipulative attempts at undercutting the president’s foreign policy. There’s just no comparison here.

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There’s letters seal’d: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang’d,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For ‘tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar’; and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.

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I was not trying to conflate the two. I was just asking a question.

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You’re right, and I apologize if I came off harsh. Another poster upthread was attempting to suggest there’s somehow hypocrisy at work when the circumstances of the two invitations are so dramatically different.

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