McCain’s vice presidential selection is likely to be a major topic at both meetings. Matney said Huckabee supporters want the former Arkansas governor on the ticket; failing that, she said, many would oppose Romney. While the Michigan native and former Massachusetts governor got significant support from many conservatives during his primary campaign, others say they are suspicious of his relatively recent move to social conservative positions on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

Some Huckabee supporters will not back McCain if Romney is on the ticket, Matney said. “That’s not the sentiment of everybody,” she said. “(But) we would certainly rather have somebody other than Romney on the ticket. Who he chooses will speak volumes to us.”

Particularly in his last posting, contemplating Jeremiah’s injunction to the exiles and the experience of Daniel and his three fellow royal children of Israel, Fr. Neuhaus seems close to saying something important about some of the issues that infuse the discussion with which this blog concerns itself, but it seems rather tentative at this point. Hopefully further installments will flesh out his thinking about the limits on the accommodations of the here and now, particularly in the political realm.