Having read the emails, and knowing the backstory of both Mr. Newman, and the Halpin thread, I don't see your's or Kurtz/Chaput's claim as being valid at all. On the otherhand, over at Commonweal blog, Anthony Annett  illustrates clearly the ways in which the neo-cons tried to, and succeeded in, reducing Catholic Social Teaching to the Republican agenda, even to the point that it influenced what Bishops got appointed to the US.