There are at least three peculiarities in Nancy Pelosi's Meet the Press analysis of Barack Obama's fumbling response to Rick Warren's question about when a child should be given human rights:
First, there is absolutely no question about when life begins. There is no point in the development of a human being from conception to death at which the individual is not alive. Life is a continuum, it had only one beginning and that was with the first cell.
Second, it's bizarre to say that the Catholic Church has only held its present policy on abortion for fifty years. The Church has opposed abortion for almost 2000 years. Ms Pelosi is getting hammered for her "mangling" of catholic doctrine, but she said today that she stands by it even though Catholic theologians and historians have said she's wrong.
Third, I have never heard of anyone in the GOP opposing birth control. Perhaps she's referring to the unwillingness of Republicans to subsidize birth control with tax dollars, but if this is what she means, her claim that the people who oppose a particular program are opposing birth control is either stupid or dishonest.
So what shall we conclude about Ms Pelosi? Was she making a simple mistake about the Church's position on abortion? How can that be if she has studied this matter for years as she claims? Was she misinterpreted? But we have the video. What other options are open to us short of concluding that she simply lied?
RLC