Catholic publisher quits Bush campaign
David D. Kirkpatrick
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4935870.html
Deal W. Hudson, the publisher of the conservative Roman Catholic journal
Crisis and the architect of a Republican effort to court Catholic
voters, said he is resigning as an adviser to the Bush campaign because
of a Catholic newspaper's investigation into accusations of sexual
misconduct. The accusations involve a student at a college where he once
taught.
"No one regrets my past mistakes more than I do," Hudson wrote in a
column posted Wednesday on the online edition of National Review
announcing his resignation. "At the time, I dealt with this in an
upright manner and the matter was satisfactorily resolved long ago," he
wrote, without specifying the accusations. Hudson, 54, said he had been
happily married to his current wife for 17 years. Called for comment, he
declined.
At Fordham University, a Jesuit school in New York where Hudson taught
from 1989 to 1995, a university spokeswoman confirmed that the episode
had led to Hudson's resignation. The spokeswoman, Elizabeth Schmalz,
said: "Fordham followed its policy rigorously in this matter and
initiated an investigation upon receipt of the student complaint. The
professor later surrendered his tenure at Fordham." Schmalz added,
"Something inappropriate was done."
A person involved with the university's investigation said that a female
undergraduate in one of Hudson's classes reported to the university
that, after she had become drunk at a bar, Hudson made sexual advances
toward her. After several weeks, she charged him with sexual harassment.
The accusations were made near the end of a school year, and Hudson left
academia.
Hudson, a former Southern Baptist who converted to Catholicism at the
age of 34, has been an influential adviser to President Bush and a close
friend of White House political strategist Karl Rove since the late
1990s. Hudson first caught Rove's attention by publishing a study in
Crisis in 1998 arguing that Republican candidates could make inroads
among traditionally Democratic-leaning Catholic voters by focusing on
regular churchgoers, a strategy that dove-tailed with Bush's emphasis on
"compassionate conservatism."
Hudson signed on as an adviser to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, and
for the last four years has been a prominent participant in a weekly
conference call held by the Republican National Committee with
influential Catholic supporters.
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|George W. Bush is a deserter: http://www.glcq.com/bush_at_arpc1.htm
|Fascist War Criminal to stand trial: http://www.PeopleJudgeBush.org
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