Needless to say, but I'll say it anyhow, if this statement had been made by a Republican candidate for President, it would be Exhibit A in the case for that candidate's incompetence.

But the New York Times gives John F. Kerry a "do-over" in this statement:

Mr. Kerry became combative when told that some conservatives were criticizing him for being a Roman Catholic who supported policies, like abortion rights and same-sex unions, that are at odds with Catholic teaching.

"Who are they?" he demanded of his questioner. "Name them. Are they the same legislators who vote for the death penalty, which is in contravention of Catholic teaching?"

He added: "I'm not a church spokesman. I'm a legislator running for president. My oath is to uphold the Constitution of the United States in my public life. My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II, which allows for freedom of conscience for Catholics with respect to these choices, and that is exactly where I am. And it is separate. Our constitution separates church and state, and they should be reminded of that."

Mr. Kerry apparently meant John XXIII, as there is no Pius XXIII.

"Apparently" indeed.

Nice of the Times to give Kerry the benefit of the doubt.

Update: Alright, Man Without Qualities asks the very question I was too polite to ask. Just how dumb is Kerry not to have a grasp of the basic beliefs of the majority of citizens he purports to represent? I rather suspect that if I were an elected to the Senate from Utah I would care enough about my constituency to learn something about Mormonism, if only not to sound like a moron when I said something about the subject.

By the way, has anyone else noticed this weird habit that Kerry has of "dissing" the constituencies to which he nominally belongs, but sucking up to everyone else. For example, he shows up late to Mass wearing ski clothes, but there he is in a suit and tie to take communion in an AME church. Likewise, he serves 4 months in Vietnam and then trots back home to accuse his fellow veterans of war crimes.

There is some kind of weird pathology there. It's almost as if he thinks he's better than everyone else in the organizations of which he's a member.