New Hampshire House GOP leader D.J. Bettencourt is under fire for calling Bishop John McCormack a "pedophile pimp" after the cleric demonstrated against proposed budget cuts for social services. Before being named bishop of Manchester in 1998, McCormack served as a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, where the Catholic sex abuse scandal began and where he was in charge of investigating sexual misconduct allegations. In 2002, McCormack averted unprecedented criminal charges against the New Hampshire diocese by agreeing that it had harmed children by moving abusive priests from parish to parish. "Would the Bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the 'vulnerable?'" Bettencourt wrote. "This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a rain coat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone."The Catholic League's Bill Donohue is predictably outraged: "As president of the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am contacting every member of the New Hampshire House calling for a Resolution of Censure. House Majority Leader David J. Bettencourt has had plenty of time to retract his vicious assault on Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack and refuses to do so. Therefore, it is only fitting that he be censured for his invective."
RELATED: Bettencourt has already earned the scorn of the Christian right for saying that a repeal of same-sex marriage should not be among his chamber's priorities. That prompted NOM to brand him "an enemy of the family."
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