Rush Limbaugh, we expect nonsense from him. But the Vatican, that’s another story. When the Vatican is so threatened that it launches attacks on nuns, well, you know what they say in politics, a hit dog hollers.

Granholm contrasts partisan media provocation (personified by Rush Limbaugh) with the moral authority typically associated with the Vatican. The remark suggests that when an institution known for restraint or spiritual leadership resorts to public attacks—here, on Catholic nuns—it signals anxiety and defensiveness. The closing proverb, “a hit dog hollers,” frames the Vatican’s criticism as an involuntary reaction to being struck by a truth or challenge it cannot comfortably absorb. In effect, the quote reads the intensity of the response as evidence of vulnerability: the louder the protest, the more likely the accusation has landed. It also implies a political reading of ecclesiastical conflict, treating the dispute as a power struggle rather than purely doctrinal debate.