The Republican message on Democrats as the Republicans hope to retain control of Congress, "The Democrats offer criticism, but they have no plan to succeed in the 'war on terror'."

That is easy and culpable rhetoric coming from the party that absolutely controls Federal government and the government's messaging.

Many people, Democrat, Green Party, independent, even Republican, and otherwise have opposed the war in Iraq as immoral. Many leaders from the Vatican -- including Pople John Paul II and our current Pope Benedict XVI -- have challenged this war under Just War theology.

The truth is we do not need an exit strategy from Iraq other than empowering the government of the people we are at war with; something our current Adminstration and its compliant Congress does not seem to be willing to do. But, then, we seem to have a government invested in disempowering the very people on whose behalf they govern. So, in those terms, that makes sense.

Admittedly, the Democrats are partly at fault in this debate. Democrats, themselves, do not have a consistent position on Iraq. There are Democrats who are battling to position themselves for political success versus Democrats positioning themselves for morally correct reasons. Because the two clash, their collective position is vague.

I cannot fully blame the Democrats who are positioning themselves 'correctly', though. They do not campaign in a vacuum and they do not control the terms of the debate. But I can blame Democrats who are more interested in election/re-election than they are to the common good and to the morally correct global positioning of our country, they compromised with those who control the terms of the war debate and undermine our Constitution.

That is, of course, where we, as Catholics, come in. We have at stake, on the one hand, the dignity of life and of the human person; and, on the other hand, we have at stake the very rule of law. We are not properly distracted by agendas that counter the common good, we are not, if we take our faith seriously, equally complicent to compromising the common good and the rule of law by ignoring the moral consequences of our government's policies.

We, as Catholics, need to change the argument. The question is not whether we succeed or fail on the private agenda of those who lied to us in order to speak and act in our name in engaging an unjust war, but whether we are going to insist our government represents us in doing the right thing.

We, as Catholics, do not automatically embrace particular parties -- even if we, individually, do -- we embrace the demands of faith and the common good on our government's policies.

We have been plagued by people presuming to speak for Catholics, but who have been speaking for non-Catholic agencies with non-Catholic agendas -- e.g. the Heritage Foundation. This year, Catholics should vote from the perspective of Catholic faith; not from the perspective secular neo-cons trying to define for us our Catholic faith. Don't let secular people define your faith. Let Christ define your faith. And do the right thing on Tuesday.