Interviewing Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the liberal Catholic group NETWORK, on her Thursday MSNBC show host Andrea Mitchell touted the organization's effort "to rally opposition to Paul Ryan's proposed health care cuts" with a nationwide "Nuns on the Bus" tour. In part, Campbell ranted that they wanted to make sure "our nation's soul is not corrupted further by the House Ryan budget."
Campbell began by touting Catholic bishops "who also say that the House-passed Ryan budget is actually immoral," and proclaimed that she and her left-wing colleagues, "know how terribly important it is that the American public understand the problems, the huge problems in the House-passed budget and that we need to educate the American people."
Wrapping up the segment, Mitchell promised: "We will follow the Nuns on the Bus, your tour next week." Campbell enthusiastically replied: "Oh, do follow us, it's going to be a great trip."
On Wednesday, Campbell also appeared on MSNBC's Politics Nations, where host Al Sharpton declared: "There's a war being waged in this country. It's a war against the most vulnerable in our society. For months now, the GOP has relentlessly targeted programs that help the poor....sadly, villainizing the poor has become a rallying cry for the other side."
Introducing Campbell, Sharpton announced: "This isn't American. This isn't right. And it's why a group of Catholic sisters are organizing nuns on the bus. A bus tour that will start in Iowa and then travel through nine states to highlight the cruelty of this legislation." Campbell gushed that it was "an honor" to be Sharpton's guest.
Like with Mitchell, Campbell sounded like a Democratic Party hack:
...this budget that was passed by the House, proposed by Congressman Ryan, erodes the very core of who we are as a nation. Because what it does is it says we no longer believe in community. We no longer believe in caring for each other. We only believe in shifting money to the top. More money to those who are the richest. And giving even more money than the military wants to the military. People don't know these facts. And we need to make it clear.
Here is a portion of Mitchell's June 14 exchange with Campbell on Andrea Mitchell Reports:
1:23PM ET
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Joining me now, is Sister Simone Campbell, who is leading the Network, which is a Catholic social justice lobby. Which starting Monday is going to be on a bus tour, Nuns on a Bus they say, to rally opposition to Paul Ryan's proposed health care cuts. Sister Simone, it's very good to see you. Thank you very much for joining me. Tell me what – what inspired you and your colleagues, your fellow nuns, to take on the bishops, in some cases, and in fact the Vatican?
SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL: Well, actually what's really interesting about this is we're actually standing with our bishops, who also say that the House-passed Ryan budget is actually immoral. And when the censure came out from the Vatican and Catholic sisters were getting so much attention, we said, well, we're not used to having attention on ourselves. I mean, that's not what we're about. We're about using our opportunities to serve the needs of people who live in poverty. Who live at the margins of society. Who are falling through the cracks of our rather fractured tenuous economy.
And so we came together and I invited help from our colleagues to say, what can we do to lift this moment up? And we know how terribly important it is that the American public understand the problems, the huge problems in the House-passed budget and that we need to educate the American people. And how to do it? Well, it struck us that going on a bus and lifting up these issues might get information out beyond the Beltway, beyond Washington, D.C.
MITCHELL: It's an unusually public role and I know that you waited several months actually after the Vatican censure to decide how to respond. You took your time and you did it in a very contemplative way, but you really are raising all sorts of issues, and issues that really do affect women, primarily, women and children, and those, as you say, at the margins of our society economically.
CAMPBELL: Right. Right. Well, I think we need to make a distinction between the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, who is really the biggest focus of the Vatican criticism. And they have a direct tie to Rome, in that they are like incorporated by Rome, so that their existence depends on Rome's approval. Network, the organization I run, was criticized in this same document as a troublemaker, a suspect organization for LCWR, the women religious, to have a relationship with.
So our response has been a little more public, a little more quickly. The Leadership Conference has had a board meeting, was in Rome earlier this week. And in prayer and reflection we'll be having more meetings this coming weekend and then over the summer in the regions. So that process is going on. Our process is really a political process. Lifting up our faith to push back, to use it for mission so that the people that Jesus responded to in the Gospel, the people that were cared about by Jesus, the poor, or the least and the last, as we sometimes say, that they are lifted up and the focus is on them and their needs. And our nation's soul is not corrupted further by the House Ryan budget.
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Here is a portion of Sharpton's June 13 exchange with Campbell on Politics Nation:
6:50PM ET
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PAUL RYAN: We don't want to turn this – into a panic. That allows able-bodied people...
MITT ROMNEY: I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We need people working with jobs, not our saving food stamps.
MICHELE BACHMANN: Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves. Self-reliance means if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.
SHARPTON: Neither should he eat. That's outrageous. But it makes sense coming from a party fully behind wrong way Ryan's budget. A budget where 62 percent of the cuts come from low income programs. This isn't American. This isn't right. And it`s why a group of Catholic sisters are organizing nuns on the bus. A bus tour that will start in Iowa and then travel through nine states to highlight the cruelty of this legislation.
Joining me now is Sister Simone Campbell. Executive director of network, a national Catholic social justice lobby. She`s organizing the nuns on the bus tour. Sister Campbell, thanks so much for joining me this evening.
SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL: It's an honor to be with you.
SHARPTON: Now, why is it so important to you that you and others are speaking against this budget?
CAMPBELL: Well, what we know is that out in the country, people don't know the reality of the budget. They just hear the sound bites of politicians saying, oh, this is wonderful, this is good, this is responsible. And what we know is that this budget that was passed by the house, proposed by Congressman Ryan erodes the very core of who we are as a nation. Because what it does is it says we no longer believe in community. We no longer believe in caring for each other. We only believe in shifting money to the top. More money to those who are the richest. And giving even more money than the military wants to the military. People don`t know these facts. And we need to make it clear. We stand with the people who have – our economy has pushed to the margins.
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