Good-bye, Bart, and Good Riddance!

Bart Stupak has announced his plans to resign from Congress and the turncoat's exit is no loss. Like other "pro-life" candidates before him, he proved that his love for unborn children wasn't even skin deep. He sold them out cheap. Did he really think he could get away with it? With the tea party activists raising hundreds of thousands to unseat him, he made their job easily by picking up his ball and going home. Perhaps his name is providential, the same as the nasty sniveling little cartoon juvenile with the integrity of a turnip. But I suppose one shouldn't insult turnips that way.

I hope anyone reading this will pray for Bart Stupak. Oftentimes, it is adversity that teaches us humility. Stupak wasn't fit for the halls of Congress where bribes and chicanery are the rule rather than the exception. Only those truly grounded in God's truth can survive such a poisonous environment. Which reminds me of Hilaire Belloc's famous quote when he was running for Parliament and attacked for being a devout Catholic:

This is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me for this I shall thank God that he has spared me the ignominy of representing you in Parliament.

Belloc only remained in Parliament for four years when he decided he could more effectively bring about reform by working as a journalist. His writing, like Chesterton's, survives and is as timely today as when he picked up his pen.

Politicians, as Belloc implies, need to spend significant time on their knees before they stand on their feet in the halls of government. Otherwise, their time in the halls of power is likely to be the prelude to a very hot hall in a very low place. Consider all the politicians that Dante met in The Inferno. God help these men and women if they betray the public trust or treat it lightly.

When you pray the intercessions at Mass for our political leaders, please really mean it.