The Protestant being Dan Hall, who is a candidate for Minnesota State Senate – and as far as I can tell, an Evangelical pastor.  Which is not the same as a Roman Catholic priest.  This is kind of important, as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota apparently thinks that all Christian clergy look alike to them.  The short version is that the below ad was mailed out to attack Hall, and in a fashion that completely misrepresents both Dan Hall and the Roman Catholic Church.  the National Catholic Register calls this “The Most Anti-Catholic Political Ad You’ll Ever See,” and it’s hard to argue with that:

Now, I understand that Democratic activists sometimes have difficulty telling the difference between Christians and all that, but when you put out ads the idea is to help your own side.  The incumbent Democrat is already disavowing this ad and doing his best to pretend that he has nothing to do with his own political party; he’s also claiming that he’s running a positive campaign, which I suppose is easy enough to do when you can get somebody else to channel the spirit of the Know-Nothing Movement for you.  Certainly, the Roman Catholic church itself is not amused, particularly since they have essentially nothing to do with this election in the first place.

And that’s not even getting into the content of the ads, which brazenly attempt to smear Hall, who is a man heavily involved with volunteer chaplain services in the Midwest.  Then again, we’re talking about desperate Democratic activists.

And I can’t think of a worse thing to call them.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

[UPDATE]: Not the first time that they’ve deliberately used Catholic imagery in their attacks on Hall, either.