Since I am the author, I will leave judging the journalistic quality of this article to others in the NewsTrust community.

As I am the author of this piece, I will leave it to others on NewsTrust to judge the journalistic quality of this story.

As I am the author, I will leave the assessment of the journalistic quality to others. But I will say that I wish that more had been written on the very real concerns about the push to mandate, instead of on the minimal opposition buy the religious Right. There has been a knee-jerk reaction byt he Left that if the Right is against it, they must be for it, and that serves no one in this debate.

This article tackles a perennially thorny issue -- staunch Catholics who are also staunchly opposed to a core Catholic teaching. Those who agree with their opposition wonder at their loyalty to the Church, and those who disagree with their position feel that they do not have the right to call themselves Catholic.

I disagree with a previous reviewer who mentioned that it was suspicious that it cam eout at the same time as Exxon posted record earnings. I wanted THAT to be the focus of the article -- they are making money hand over fist but are appealing to try and lower the amount they need to pay in damages. That is scandalous.

It draws some important connections, and lays out the web of deceit well. Slate.com published emails between Ridenour and Abramoff in March 2006. They are availabel at http://www.slate.com/id/2138082/entry/2137077/