The Clampdown

So now President Obama has named Harry Knox to be the man who leads the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Sometimes I wonder whether the Obama administration is just incredibly bad at vetting their appointees, or whether Obama really holds mainstream American beliefs in such contempt.

The new leader of the Faith-Based group is a man who has insulted and belittled the Catholic Church (the single largest Faith Group in the world) and Pope Benedict because the Pope believes that abstinence will do more for preventing AIDS in Africa than handing out condoms. Rather than take an adversarial position and respectfully disagree with the Pontiff, Knox claims that Pope Benedict is “hurting people in the name of Jesus.” He also accused the Pope of spreading “blatant falsehoods” and forcing African Catholics to choose between their health and their faith. Unsurprisingly, Knox also works for the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual activist group.

Of course, the Pope is absolutely correct. Abstinence will prevent the spread of AIDS much more effectively than condoms (as common sense indicates), and Knox should probably be made aware that no government or organization in the world has done more to comfort and help those afflicted with AIDS than the Catholic Church. But then, that might get in the way of Knox’s reflexive anti-Catholic bigotry.

Even when confronted with the claims from Edward Green, Harvard’s Senior Research Scientist for AIDS Prevention, that condom use doesn’t work to prevent AIDS and that the Pope’s message has done far more to help in these efforts than all of the condoms in Africa, Knox simply dismissed the claims with: “He is simply incorrect in his assertion. All the other evidence of science shows otherwise.” This from a man who would almost certainly claim that the Catholic Church is too dogmatic in its beliefs.

Knox is just the latest in a long line of people appointed by Obama who hold positions that are inimical to basic American values. From the radical Communist Van Jones to the eugenics-advocating John Holdren to the radical homosexual activist Kevin Jennings to the Mao-quoting Anita Dunn to the Hugo Chavez-supporting Mark Lloyd to the anti-Catholic Harry Knox, Obama has amassed quite a backlog of radicals in his stable of advisors. Add in his mentors like the racist anti-American Jeremiah Wright, the anti-American terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and the Marxist professors, feminists, and “punk rock performance poets” that he gravitated towards as his peer group in college, and the answer to the question about whether or not Obama is incompetent at vetting becomes clear. He is most definitely not incompetent about vetting those he appoints.

He appoints those who share his radical values.