Hooray for Bob Newhart!

When last week we wrote that Bob Newhart was planning to appear as the headliner at the Legatus annual summit (the magazine said the devil was responsible for marriage equality in Minnesota), we hoped aloud that his booking agent just didn't know what they'd signed him up for. Newhart is Catholic but he's never expressed anything approaching the extremely bigoted opinions that other event speakers, including Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum and the Catholic League's professional homophobe William Donohue, have done. His comedy has always been very inclusive, never mean, and he's gotten great renewed attention (and an Emmy!) for his work opposite out actor Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory.

So Newhart's announcement yesterday that he was dropping out of the conference was great news--but not if you read the hissy fits on conservablogs (we've read it so you don't have to). From "America's No. 1 Indepdent News Team" at NationalReport.com:

"In a shocking turn of events, spokesmen for Bob Newhart, the legendary television and LP record comedian, have announced he is reneging on a commitment he made to headline the upcoming Legatus Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Orlando, Florida on February 6, 2014, pending Newhart's replacement. The annual conference is held to honor and entertain people who are Catholic, politically conservative, politically active, and believe in a Pope, even today's communist-leaning one currently leading the Church."

The Pope is a commie? Don't tell Jesus (who wasn't exactly a capitalist, btw). And also, "LP comedian"?

But there's more: "The old comic offered little explanation for his change of 'Hart' on his Facebook page, which has recently filled up with lots of nasty comments by transgenders and other gays, who are all upset that Catholics believe in real families first. They also vehemently oppose the mission of The Catholic Church, which is to affect political policy by stopping the erosion of social values, by any of several means, including (among others) force of law, helping poor people, commissioning statues, and raising awareness of the bullying that normal people must face whenever same-sex preferring people and the degenerates who support them feel like they have something important to say to help ruin Christmas, or any other Christian gathering."

OK, point of order. Is Christmas just ruined, or outright cancelled? Because I've already done my shopping.