The other day, I posted the item from the Washington Post about the implicit (or even explicit) Catholicism of rock and roll. Now, as kind of a sideways addendum, there’s this interesting piece of news about one of the people mentioned in the essay, Bono:

Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a self-proclaimed nonpartisan, has just made an intriguing hire to his operation: Matthew Dowd, a former top adviser to George W. Bush.

Mr. Dowd, Mr. Bush’s chief campaign strategist in 2004, began work last week as the chief strategist for the One Campaign, the anti-poverty organization that Bono founded, Mr. Dowd said today.

“It fit in with where I was in my life, which is no longer wanting to be in partisan politics,” he said in an interview. “It seemed perfect.”

Bono has attracted both Republicans and Democrats, including Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, to lend their support to the One Campaign. But Mr. Dowd, while a former Democrat, has strong Republican ties that make him an unusual choice for what could be a visible position.

He will be lobbying presidential candidates from both parties to support the One Campaign, a job that may be more difficult after he publicly distanced himself from Mr. Bush’s presidency last spring. In an interview with The Times in March, Mr. Dowd expressed disappointment with Mr. Bush’s leadership on Iraq and other issues, and said he felt “a calling of trying to re-establish a level of gentleness in the world.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work,” he said then of his future career prospects.

Now, Mr. Dowd said, people in politics probably don’t see him as a member of either party. “I don’t want to be viewed as a Republican and I don’t want to be viewed as a Democrat,” he said. “I’d rather be viewed as a human being.”

How cool is that? Matthew Dowd may well have found the “mission work” he feels called to do. God love him.

Photo: Matthew Dowd and Bono, from the New York Times