Does anyone think the right wing nuts are wokring to fix the Pope election

[TrueAmerican]

I'm thinking that the right wingers and the Bush Administation are using bribery and such to ensure a very Conservative Pope.

[ugarte]

1. I do wonder who counts the votes

And that holy vow of secrecy they all took...even if there was some electoral hanky-panky, we'll never know about it since they can't ever talk about it.

It does feed conspiracy theories. On the other hand, I think waht the hell does it matter? They're all super-conservative anyway.

[dflprincess]

8. Diebold will not be involved in the count

Three cardinals will be chosen at random after the conclave is sealed to count the votes. I think I've read that 3 more are also chosen at random to monitor the count. Again, I'm relying on memory, but I believe each ballot is read aloud as it is opened and each ballot is pierced with a needle adding it to a string that holds all the ballots until they are burned.

[Bridget Burke]

2. Bush's cronies & the inbred snake-handlers may find...

That they're up against an institution that's bigger than they are. For good or ill, the Church has been in business for quite a few centuries now.

[TheFarseer]

3. I know they want to

but I don't think they have any way to influence it. They couldn't influence the pope to endorse our misadventure in Iraq and they can't fix the papal election. I'm sure the Vatican could give a shit what the bush cabal thinks much like the rest of the world.

[WI_DEM]

4. the next pope is likely to be conservative, but it isn't a fix

Most of the cardinals who vote on the next pope are conservatives and most were appointed by Pope John Paul II who was himself a conservative and wanted cardinals who believed in the same principles as he did.

[Bluzmann57]

5. No

eom

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. I rather doubt it.

The Catholic hierarchy is conservative enough (theologically and socially if not politically) that a "conservative" pope is almost a certainty. And the idea of the conservative political faction in the US attempting to influence the choice of the head of the Catholic Church (a church that an awful lot of them, as crazed Protestant fundamentalists, think is Satan) is so laughable as to be beneath comment.

[MercutioATC]

7. No

...just No.

[burn the bush]

9. Shrub is probably already promising billions in Faith based initiatives to

the RIGHT pope.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Wouldn't surprise me

So they can get more Catholic voters. God I hate these people. Why don't the butt out of other people's lives?! First Ukraine and now this?

[Piperay]

11. Opus Dei

wants a conservative Pope and I'm sure that is what they will get.:-(

[markus]

12. Hey, not to worry. JP2 appointed most of the carnidals

There will be another very conservative pope. While the laity of the U.S. and Western Europe take an increasingly cafeteria approach, the clergy and the leadership will grow increasingly, frighteningly right-wing.

They will cheerfully lie down with the evangelical dogs, and wonder at their fleas.

[radfringe]

13. bush met with the American Cardinals

while in Rome... no one is saying what the meeting was about

the "blather-heads" are speculating that a ultra-conservative will be selected

other blather indicates there is no one person in the lead, and there will be lots of "wrangling" going on as the different "factions" negotiate

[Cuban_Liberal]

14. If you believe that, you don't understand the Church.

Most cardinals don't like Bush.

[tritsofme]

15. Demand exit polls after the vote!

And if they don't match we will know Diebold rigged the Papal election.

Sometimes people take things to awful and unreasonable extremes.

The Pope will be a conservative much in the way John Paul was, mostly because he appointed all of the voting cardinals, you don't need bribery to accomplish that.

[Bridget Burke]

16. A Pope who is "Conservative" as far as Church doctrine goes...

Still may not go along with Bush & Co. JPII didn't.

Bush & Co may be able to rig votes in a few states. They're out of their league in Vatican City.