The last interview with Michael Davies
A suggested answer to why liberals get to be cardinals, at least in two cases:

He (Walter Kasper) and his fellow German, Lehmann, were made Cardinals. You see there is no chance of Cardinal Ratzinger being made Pope. The job of Kasper and Lehmann is to go to the conclave and stop anyone Ratzinger supports from being made Pope. It is interesting, Pope John Paul II wouldn’t appoint Kasper and Lehmann at first and a week later he did.

Well do you know where the pressure came from? The Polish hierarchy. Because they get so much money from the Germans. So Kasper and Lehmann said, ‘You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours.’

Money talks.

And:

Kasper went on this ecumenical mission to Athens, attended the Greek Orthodox liturgy in the morning and in the afternoon he was having lunch. Then the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Athens (Christodoulos, head of the Church of Greece), who is a good friend of Count Capponi and Una Voce, asked his Eminence how he had enjoyed the liturgy in the morning. "Oh wonderful, wonderful," said the Cardinal, "I thought I was in heaven." Then the Archbishop said that he thought perhaps that they should make some changes to the Greek liturgy because, perhaps for modern people today, some of it is too mystifying. Kasper said, "No that would be a mortal sin. You mustn’t change a thing. Keep it exactly as it is." And the Archbishop said, "Then why did you destroy your liturgy which was the equivalent of ours?"

A comment left on a message board notes Mr Davies doesn’t say if the cardinal had an answer.

The archbishop caught the cardinal 1) being patronizing and 2) using a double standard and wouldn’t have it. Kala!

Ask some online Byzantine Catholics that question and you’ll be run off their message board and, if you are committed to their rite, have that commitment questioned. Very queer indeed.

The great one stumbled (even saints are fallible) regarding Mr Bush:

People like this revolting John Kerry who openly says abortion is OK, divorce is OK. If I was an American I would have to vote for Bush because he is a lot more Catholic than Kerry. I mean how the Vatican can take seriously a man like Edward Kennedy who has lead a scandalous life and I mean it was disgusting when Jacqueline Kennedy died and all those Kennedys who were divorced were there and they all went to Communion. There is no protest at all from any of the big Church authorities.

Mr Kerry’s views are revolting as are the Kennedys but, looking at the big picture, the war on Iraq means Mr Bush and his handlers should/must be thrown out. As for him being a lot more Catholic, I listened to the debates. Even in the hot-button issue (as it should be) of abortion he said there will be no litmus test for Supreme Court justices for example so under his party it’s business as usual for that. So in practice the matter factors out. The ‘values’ voters were played or maybe their ‘values’ are inconsistent.