President Obama and policy arch-nemesis Timothy Cardinal Dolan will share a meal and a podium this Thursday at the Waldorf — and some of the 1,000 dinner guests are hoping His Eminence will deliver a silverware-rattling sermon on ObamaCare.
“They’re going in hopes that the cardinal’s going to slam him,” said state Sen. Marty Golden, a Brooklyn Republican attending the annual Al Smith Dinner. “It’s insulting that [Obama is] coming. What he’s doing to the Catholic Church — forcing them to do things against their beliefs — it’s reprehensible.”
Outrage over the federal mandate that even faith-based institutions provide employees with insurance coverage for birth control has been simmering for months. The upcoming dinner has only inflamed the agita of conservative Catholics worried that Obama’s appearance will be misinterpreted as a church endorsement.
“The cardinal himself wonders whether he made the right decision” in inviting Obama, said a source close to Dolan. “He knows the president wants this for one reason, and that’s the photo.”
Though nearly all presidential candidates since 1945 have attended the annual fund-raiser, Catholic leaders in the past have snubbed those with policy views antithetical to church teaching. In 1996, John Cardinal O’Connor didn’t invite President Bill Clinton, who had vetoed a partial-birth-abortion ban, nor his challenger Sen. Bob Dole; and in 2004, Edward Cardinal Egan passed over John Kerry, a Catholic who’s pro-choice, as well as incumbent President George W. Bush.
“Our whole objection is inviting Obama to this dinner about 18 days before the election,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League.
Mitt Romney will also speak at the black-tie charity dinner, named for the late New York Democratic governor who in 1928 became the first Catholic nominated for president by a major party.
“It’s better to invite than to ignore, more effective to talk together than to yell from a distance,” blogged Dolan, who in August sued the Obama administration over the contraception policy.
At least two top state conservatives have opted out of the $2,500-a-plate affair for a lower-profile event.
“This president has shown such a disrespect for the Catholic Church,” said Jerry Kassar, chairman of the Brooklyn Conservative Party. “It is not appropriate to give him a forum at a politically significant event just before the election.”
Mike Long, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State, who usually attends the dinner with Kassar, says he’ll instead go the Human Life Foundation dinner honoring former US Sen. James Buckley.
But some conservative Catholics support Dolan’s decision and see it as saavy.
“If Catholics want to change the culture, they need to engage it,” said Catholic League President Bill Donohue.