Catholic Church Official Has Harsh Words for Barack Obama

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Mile High Critic

Denver's Roman Catholic Archbishop says Barack Obama is the "most committed" abortion rights major party presidential candidate in 35 years.

Father Charles Chaput says, "To suggest, as some Catholics do, that Senator Obama is this year's 'real' pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse."

Chaput adds that pro-Obama Catholics "seek to contextualize, demote and then counterbalance the evil of abortion with other important but less foundational social issues."

Back in August Chaput criticized Obama running mate Joe Biden and House Seaker Nancy Pelosi — both Catholics — for their stance on abortion. He also suggested Biden should skip communion.

Blame Coach?

Some Republicans are predicting the worst for Election Day and one story is providing an unusual scapegoat if things do not go their way.

Chris Chase at Yahoo! Sports suggests that angry Republicans should really blame former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, because Chase says Ditka could have stopped the Obama juggernaut even before it started.

Ditka was reportedly mulling a U.S. Senate run in 2004 and would have been Obama's Republican opponent.

Chase writes, "Obama was still a virtual unknown in Illinois in June of '04. Had Ditka run and won, Obama most-assuredly wouldn't be running for president today."

Republican leaders wanted a well-known candidate to challenge Obama after Republican Jack Ryan dropped out of the race because of a messy divorce, but Ditka turned down the offer saying he did not want to give up his job as an NFL analyst.

Palin Comparison

Sarah Palin's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" scored the show its best ratings in 14 years. The highly-anticipated meeting between Palin and her comedic impersonator Tina Fey was seen by around 14 million viewers. An estimated 17 million watched the show's first half-hour.

Palin said she had a great time. She told a New York TV station, "I would do that again in a heartbeat... you have to have a sense of humor through all of this."

The last time "SNL" was watched by as many people was back in 1994 when it was hosted by the kneecapped Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.

Spy Game

Iranian security forces have apprehended two suspected spies for allegedly transmitting information about the regime's nuclear program. So you're probably wondering were the spies American CIA? British MI6? Maybe Israeli Mossad?

Well — we're not quite sure. An Iranian newspaper reports that two "spy pigeons" were captured near the Natanz Nuclear Facility in the Isfahan Province. A source tells the paper one of the pigeons was "caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings."

This source gave no further description of the two birds, what country the pigeons may have been spying for or what the fowl intruders' fate may be, but Iranian security forces apparently believe the metal rings and strings are some form of communication device.

— FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.