O'Donnell To Buchanan: If Obama Shouldn't Speak At Notre Dame, Why Did Bush?

Lawrence O'Donnell caught Pat Buchanan in a contradiction regarding the controversy over the invitation to President Obama, a supporter of abortion rights, to deliver the commencement address at Notre Dame on May 17. O'Donnell wants to know why it's objectionable to extend an invitation to Obama while it was acceptable to extend one to President Bush. Bush not only supported and repeatedly applied the death penalty, opposed by the Catholic Church, but he also waged the war in Iraq against the Pope's objections. Watch:

O'Donnell: "This is the same university that invited George W. Bush. This is the same religion that stands in adamant contradiction to the death penalty. This is the same religion whose head, the Pope, pled personally with George W. Bush not to launch an unprovoked invasion and war in Iraq. That same president, George W. Bush, who used the death penalty more than anyone who has been in the oval office, that president was welcomed at Notre Dame with none of these objections..."

Crooks and Liars points out that Buchanan thinks this is his winning argument:

Buchanan: Every unborn child is totally innocent. And in the United States, everybody who goes to execution is guilt of murdering someone, of taking innocent blood.

The ACLU, however, states, "In the U.S., as of June 2002, 108 people including 12 death row inmates, have been exonerated by use of DNA tests." The main point, though, is that, like abortion, the death penalty is a matter of principle for the Catholic Church. Buchanan is picking and choosing among church teachings in objecting to one invitation while excusing another.