If, as a Catholic, you are going to vote for Barack Obama because he chose a vice presidential candidate who is Catholic, I would suggest you rethink your vote. Joe Biden is a cafeteria Catholic.

Joe Biden has a respectable (or should I say disrespectful) pro-abortion NARAL rating. There are numerous pro abortion groups that prey on Democrat politicians but none bigger than NARAL which comes to Congress with unlimited funds to buy support for their agendas. Biden, like Obama, is bought and paid for.

The American Catholic bishops have made it perfectly clear that there are five "non negotiable" sanctity of life issues. That would be saying "no" to politicians that are for abortion, same sex marriage, killing baby embryos for research, cloning and euthanasia.

The bishops also said we need to look at a politician's overall platform that is for the common good. I challenge anybody to show me where the Dem Party offers this nation a "common good platform" that allows a Catholic to overlook the five "non negotiable" sanctity of life issues.

Cafeteria Catholics like to use the excuse that Dems are for the poor and Reps for the rich. That is a myth. We are spending more on the poor under Bush than ever before in our history. Actually, the Dems have become a party of elitists. Dems are Hollywood, liberal college professors and lawyers. Dems refusal to drill for oil is harder on the poor than any other group.

Biden has a voting record that is anti Catholic on all five accounts. He specifically said he would take the fight in the Senate to keep Catholics Roberts and Alito from serving on the Supreme Court for fear they would overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision that has led to 45 million babies killed since 1973. Is that not hypocrisy?

Small wonder the archbishop of Denver during the convention told Biden to refrain from taking communion as a pro-choice Catholic! Cafeteria Catholic Sebelius was told the same and cafeteria Catholic Nancy Pelosi (most powerful woman in congress) was chastised for claiming the Catholic Church is not clear on when life begins. An outrageous claim. Who can respect these cafeteria politicians?

There is no bigger pro abortion politician on this planet than Barack Obama who has a perfect 100 percent rating with NARAL. How can any real Catholic with a clear conscience support the Democrat ticket in November? Logically, not possible!

On domestic and foreign affairs issues, Joe Biden votes the party line and the party line is far left liberalism. Biden will do nothing to fix Washington or create positive change as evidenced by his 35 years as a senator. His past voting record proves it. Obama is the most liberal voting senator while Biden is third. The majority of voters in this country are right of center, not, by any stretch, far left. It's ludicrous to think he is a positive agent for the Democratic Party -- for Catholics or anybody else.

Please note. I am critical of Catholics that get out of line. I am critical of Republicans when they forsake conservative values. But most of all I am against the Democratic Party that threw religious groups under the bus as far back as the '60s. That's not opinion, that's fact. A survey of all kinds of voters showed that most think the Democratic Party is unfriendly to religion, yet many religious people I know put their politics above religion. Politics first, religion second. Not for me.

By the way, since Glenn Staab called into question my reputation recently, how about his sterling reputation as western Kansas' biggest voting Catholic Democrat?

Les Knoll

Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.