Ken Salazar took another shot at Focus on the Family yesterday, this time by exposing anti-Catholic remarks by a leader of the organization:
After his first verbal barrage on Wednesday, a Focus on the Family spokesman said Salazar was aligning himself with Democratic senators who allegedly showed an anti-Catholic bias in rejecting one of the appeals court nominees, former Alabama attorney general William Pryor.
Salazar responded Thursday with a terse letter to Dobson. In it, he defended Senate colleagues of various faiths, and he called on Dobson to repudiate a Focus board member who once referred to Catholicism as "a false church."
The board member, R. Albert Mohler Jr., said Thursday he stands by the comments he made in March 2000 on the cable news show Larry King Live.
"I believe that the Roman church is a false church and it teaches a false gospel," Mohler said at the time. "And indeed, I believe that the pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office."
OK, this was obviously a well planned counterattack, and I think we can go with the theory that Salazar hopes to make rank and file Catholics (and maybe even the hierarchy itself) think twice about who their leaders are allying with politically. So there is a bit of self-preservation at work, even though Dobson's people themselves would never support Salazar.
Regardless, calling attention to anti-Catholic remarks made on national TV by a Focus leader -- and then provoking that leader to reaffirm his remarks publicly during the middle of this brouhaha -- is potentially a political disaster for the Focus on the Family movement.