President Obama vs. Prominent Bishop Over Abortion

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Thou Shalt Not

President Obama told the National Council of Churches Wednesday that people who say abortion funding will be in health care legislation are bearing false witness and that, "these are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation."

But one high church official says the president is the one doing the fabricating. Philadelphia Archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali wrote a letter to the House of Representatives saying, "Some will claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion under the (House bill). But this is an illusion... federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions."

The president has said there are no plans to revoke the existing prohibition on using federal taxpayer dollars for abortions.

Going Postal

Republicans are again accusing Democrats of playing politics with the mail. Roll Call newspaper reports that Democrats on the House Franking Commission have blocked Republicans from using political terms such as "cap-and-tax" when describing climate legislation in official mailings.

The commission also asked that the word "Democratic" be removed from the text and replaced with "majority." One Republican even found that the exact partisan language the commission rejected for a GOP mailing had been approved three years earlier for then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. A commission staffer explained that the Pelosi newsletter had been approved in error and that the GOP mailings were denied because they did not comply with long-standing rules.

Texas Republican John Culberson calls it censorship: "Democrats can't win a fair fight in the sunshine. They've always got to rig the rules."

Show Stealer

It seems Hillary Clinton just can't catch a break.

Earlier this month it appeared the secretary of state was upstaged by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as he took the media spotlight traveling to North Korea and returning with two American journalists freed from captivity. Analysts guessed that plus a tiresome travel schedule contributed to Secretary Clinton becoming visibly irritated in the Congo when a university student at a town hall event asked what her husband thought of an international financial matter.

Well, now it seems another Bill is causing problems and stealing part of her vacation. You see, the former president and the secretary of state traveled to Bermuda for a getaway and now Hurricane Bill is pelting the island with heavy rains and winds, that have forced the Clintons to cut their vacation short.

— FOX News Channel's Lanna Brit contributed to this report.