The Catholic Governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley, a pro-abortion rights and pro-gay marriage Democrat, will run for president, according to a report from the Washington Examiner.

In 2009, when the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. announced that it was considering withdrawing from providing certain social services if the city council passed a same-sex marriage law, O'Malley reportedly said, "That's not the Catholic church I know." So what is the Catholic Church O'Malley knows.

It's one where the U.S. bishops are dismissed as a clan of firebreathing partisan Republican hacks. In speaking about the HHS contraceptive mandate with Candy Crowley, he completely dismissed the religious liberty concerns of the Catholic bishops. Here's the transcript from Newsbusters:

O'MALLEY: I am Catholic. And I think, Candy, there has been a little bit too much hyperventilating over this issue. It's one of those issues that they want to use... CROWLEY: Well, it came from Catholics themselves in the hierarchy.

O'MALLEY: Well, some, and most of those members of that hierarchy are also Republicans. And if you look at 28 states, Candy, this is not about abortion, it's about covering contraception as part of the health care coverage, mandatory basic coverage. Twenty-eight states already require this, and in Europe countries that are...

CROWLEY: But you're not thinking about the state, the federal government, telling a religion what it must cover in a health care policy.

O'MALLEY: Well, there is an exemption for churches themselves. The exemption does not necessarily extend to institutions like hospitals or universities that employ people of all faiths. But these same rules apply in countries like Italy which have overwhelming numbers of Catholics, and yet we did not see the reaction in those countries to these sorts of things.

Ironically the very pro-abortion rights O'Malley once defended his stance on abortion by warning about using the coercive power of government. "One should not use the coercive power of the state unless there is a broad consensus about the use of that coercive power of the state," he said. "And on the issue of abortion, I have come to the conclusion that that is a choice that is best left to individual women and their doctors, and it's not the sort of choice, the sort of coercive choice that any government is very good at making."

Mr. Limited Government doesn't worry so much about the government forcing religious people to buy other people's abortifacients but there's just no way the government could protect life in the womb. No, that's just hyperventilating partisan nonsense.

O’Malley also signed into law a measure that legalized same-sex marriage in Maryland all while many media stories referred to him as "devout." When encouraged not to sign gay-marriage legislation by Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, the devout O'Malley responded by saying:

“I do not presume, nor would I ever presume as governor, to question or infringe upon your freedom to define, to preach about and to administer the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. But on the public issue of granting equal civil marital rights to same-sex couples, you and I disagree. . . . I look forward to working with you on other issues of mutual agreement. And I respect your freedom to disagree with me as a citizen and as a religious leader without questioning your motives.”

Clearly, when party politics doesn't line up with Catholic teaching, it's the teaching that hits the ditch.