text: As I have thought more about MSW's contention that Senator Feinstein's questions can be understood as a compliment to Catholics, the more I think MSW is using his talent for  persuasion to calm an overreaction by encouraging offended Catholics to (mis)interpret caution and criticism as paradoxical admiration of deep and committed faith. 
   
  That pitch might help in the short term.  Offended Catholics indulging the throwback drama of imagining that we are being persecuted in the US, if convinced by MSW, might retreat to smug and thus unpleasant but relatively harmless versions of Dolan's "Catholics are Number One" giant football-style foam finger-waving.  
    
  In the long run, that pitch is dangerous, as is EVERY effort by ANY dominant group to cast the fears and cautions of others as compliments to - if not outright confirmation of -  the justness of our dominance. 
  
  MSW should know that.