Pete Hoekstra took some (is still taking) well deserved heat for his now infamous tweet:
Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.
Twitterers (twitteries?) had a field day mocking him:
ciolino @petehoekstra Today I poked my finger on a hanger. Now I know what all those aborted babies go through.
ceedub7 @petehoekstra I got a splinter in my hand today. Felt just like Jesus getting nailed to the cross.
netw3rk @petehoekstra Someone walked in on me while I was in the bathroom. Reminded me of Pearl Harbor
Also, some clever person created a website called "Pete Hoekstra is a Meme"
However, Pete Hoekstra isn 't alone. According to this article by Bob Egleko of the San Francisco Chronicle, Richard Thompson -- president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center -- believes that if you oppose the Vatican's policy on same sex adoptions you're just like Nazis. The exact quote:
It is not a stretch to compare the San Francisco board's actions to that of the Nazi Germany policy of Gleichschaltung, vilifying Jews as an auxiliary to and laying the groundwork for more repressive policies, including the final solution of extermination.
Got that? Opposing the Vatican policy on same sex adoptions is just like the Nazi policy of Gleichschaltung.
This started in 2006, when former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, then prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith and elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, said that Catholic Charities cannot allow same-sex couples to adopt. Levada also said, "Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children."
Got that? Allowing children to be adopted by same sex couples would actually mean doing violence to these children.
After Levada's directive to Catholic Charities, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted this resolution:
RESOLUTION 060356
Resolution urging Cardinal William Levada, in his capacity has head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, to withdraw his discriminatory and defamatory directive that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households.
WHEREAS, It is a insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great City's existing and established customs and traditions such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need; and
WHEREAS, The statements of Cardinal Levada and the Vatican that "Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households," and "Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children" are absolutely unacceptable to the citizenry of San Francisco; and,
WHEREAS, Such hateful and Discriminatory rhetoric is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors; and
WHEREAS, Same sex couples are just as qualified to be parents as are heterosexual couples; and
WHEREAS, Cardinal Levada is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city, and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear; and
WHEREAS, The Board of Supervisors urges Archbishop Niederauer and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy all discriminatory directives of Cardinal Levada; now, therefore, be it Resolved, that the Board of Supervisors urges Cardinal William Levada, in his capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican (formerly known as Holy Office of the Inquisition), to withdraw his discriminatory and defamatory directive that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households.
Which led to the lawsuit by the Thomas More Law Center, an organization that doesn't seem to have a problem with Levada's statement that "Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children." but does have a problem with a resolution condemning that language and that policy.