As a progressive Catholic I thoroughly enjoyed watching Rabbi Lerner and Sister Joan make the neoconservative priest Richard Neuhaus look uncomfortable and irritable. It was sort of fun to watch him have to control himself in making excuses for the Religious Right.

With all that said, both Sister Joan and Rabbi Lerner as well as "the Bulldog," Tim Russert (acting more like a well-trained house dog), failed to ask Neuhaus the obvious questions about some of his friends on the Religious Right :

Father, what about the IRD?

Father, how do you reconcile neoconservatism with Pope John Paul II's opposition to the invasion of Iraq?

Father, why is the IRD so heavily funded by New Right foundations with such obvious political agendas?

Father, what business is it of Opus Dei Catholics such as George Weigal, Michael Novak and John McCloskey to influence the policies of the mainline Protestent Churches?

Father Neuhaus would have gone from uncomfortable to squirm in two seconds flat.

When Russert, failed to follow through, the liberal voices on the panel should have  pressed home what we all know is at the heart of the matter. Somebody on our side with high exposure has to confront the Neuhauses, Novaks, Borks and Weigels of the world about how they constantly employ this front group to misuse faith for corrupted self-interest.

And that is a shame. Joe Conason, Fred Clarkson, Chuck Currie and many other familiar  names have already done the heavy lifting in researching these folks. Their hard work is the political football that needs to picked up and run into the end-zone.  And until the MSM press starts to casts more light on this piece of religious Astroturf,  our battle will always be uphill.

I have a suggestion: let's let friends such as Sister Joan and Rabbi Lerner (both of whom have constantly spoken so eloquently for our side) as well as the Tim Russerts of the world know that these questions need to be raised in front of a national audience.