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October 12, 2007
Attacks on Judiciary Down But Not Out
The Right’s rhetorical war on the judiciary reached its fever pitch in 2005, when Congress broke a vacation to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case. To take one example from many, Rep. Tom DeLay, then House Majority Leader, declared that the judiciary had “run amok,” warned, “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.” He later added, “Our next step, whatever it is, must be more than rhetoric.”
Since then, Congress has changed parties, and DeLay, tied to a corrupt lobbyist and indicted in Texas for laundering campaign money, is out of office, and so it feels like the pressure has been dialed down a notch. At least, that’s how it seems to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
"Particularly since the 2006 election, I am pleased to relate, rapport between Congress and the federal courts has markedly improved," Ginsburg said at a meeting of American and Canadian judges in Vancouver.
No bills limiting judges' independence have been introduced in the current Congress and "one sees far fewer broadsides against 'activist judges' reported in the press," Ginsburg said. … She recounted with distaste comments about judges made in 2005 by two Texas Republicans, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Sen. John Cornyn.
Cornyn had expressed his “concern” that there might be “some connection” between “unaccountable” judges and violent attacks against members of the judiciary.
While far-right members of Congress like Todd Akin continue to introduce legislation to tamper with the courts—such as his bill to impeach judges when Congress disagrees with their opinions—Justice Ginsburg is right that, without right-wing leadership in Congress, such efforts will lead nowhere.
Unfortunately, while the days of the “nuclear option” and Tom DeLay are behind us, the current status may be the calm before the storm, when a future Supreme Court nominee or even just the politics of the presidential debate will likely cause tensions to flare again. GOP candidates have pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices in the Scalia-Thomas mold, and at the recent Values Voter Debate, second-tier candidates--including religious-right favorite Mike Huckabee--pledged support to a court-stripping measure.
“In ’08, it’s all about the judges,” as Rick Scarborough stated recently.
Posted by Ezra at 5:42 PM | Permalink
From the Department of Yuletide Cheer Enforcement
Like Christmas music and decorations, rumblings from the Right about a mythical “war on Christmas” come earlier every year. In the second week of October, we have perhaps the first entrant: the American Family Association—fresh off its success in bombarding newspapers with angry letters demanding they stop running a television ad—is warning its supporters that the web site for a cookie company is not using the word “Christmas.” As usual, this is translated into an effort to “offend Christians” and “ban Christmas”:
Mrs. Fields has become the first company to ban Christmas from their products and promotion for this year. … Mrs. Fields wants the business of Christians who celebrate Christmas, but they don’t mind if they offend Christians. …
Tell the company that since they don’t mind offending Christians, you will not be purchasing their products this Christmas. Ask them to please use Christmas in their promotion next year.
Read more on the ghost of “war on Christmas” past.
Posted by Ezra at 5:40 PM | Permalink
October 11, 2007
Right Versus Librarians
A few years ago, anti-gay activists found themselves having a rough time in their attempts to vilify the gay penguins of Central Park Zoo in New York, but it seems they are always looking for ever-more sympathetic targets.
“There’s good news and bad news in the world of children’s books,” writes Robert Knight, head of the Media Research Center’s Culture and Media Institute, adding that the “good news” involves banning books—a book about penguins, no less:
First, the good news: And Tango Makes Three, a picture book for 4- to 8-year-olds about two penguins who are into homosexual “parenting,” is the “most challenged” book on the American Library Association’s (ALA) Banned Books Week list.
This means some parents are still on the job and are not turning their children over to the tender mercies of the Free Sex Lobby, which effectively runs the ALA.
So, what’s the “bad news,” you ask? According to Knight, formerly a spokesman for Concerned Women for America, it’s that fewer books are being banned, thanks to those (supposedly sex-crazed) librarians and their 25-year campaign against censorship.
Posted by Ezra at 5:53 PM | Permalink
Regent Student Under Fire Over Robertson Photo
The Virginian-Pilot reports that Regent University Law Student Adam Key is facing disciplinary action from the university for having posted an unflattering picture of Pat Robertson on his Facebook page.
Posted by Kyle at 2:58 PM | Permalink
Backing Romney By Default
Mark DeMoss, a conservative Christian publicist, is generating a lot of news with his open letter sent to some 150 right-wing leaders urging them to rally behind Mitt Romney for the sole purpose of denying Rudy Giuliani the Republican presidential nomination.
DeMoss has been a supporter of Romney for months, organizing a meeting between the candidate and various right-wing leaders, and serving as a member of his Faith and Values Steering Committee. Given all the talk lately of right-wing leaders and activists bolting the GOP should Giuliani win the nomination, DeMoss apparently sensed an opportunity to pitch his candidate to the disenchanted and urge them to back Romney not only because he shares their values but, most importantly, to prevent Giuliani from winning:
As certain as it seems that Hillary will represent the Democratic Party, it now appears the GOP representative will be either Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Governor Mitt Romney (based on polls in early states, money raised and on hand, staff and organization, etc.). And, if it is not Mitt Romney, we would, for the first time in my memory, be faced with a general election contest between two “pro-choice” candidates.
And you don’t just have to take DeMoss’s word that Romney is the real deal – apparently even Jerry Falwell would have supported him, had he not died:
Just about six months before his death, Jerry accepted my invitation to a meeting with Gov. Romney at his home outside Boston. He joined me, and about 15 other evangelicals, for an intimate discussion with the Governor and his wife Ann. Jerry was one of several that day who said, “Governor, I don’t have a problem with your being Mormon, but I want to ask you how you would deal with Islamic jihadists…or with illegal immigration…or how you would choose justices for the Supreme Court…,” and so on.
While Jerry Falwell never told me how he intended to vote in the upcoming election, I think I know how he would not have voted. I also know he would not have “sat this one out” and given up on the Supreme Court for a generation.
Aside from assuring his right-wing allies that Romney is everything they are looking for, the focus of his the letter is on capitalizing on the Right’s antipathy toward, and fear of, Giuliani :
Currently, conservatives (whether evangelical or not) are dividing their support among several candidates. In the long run, this only helps Rudy Giuliani, who clearly does not share our values on so many issues … Talk of a possible third party candidate draft movement only helps Giuliani (or, worse yet, Clinton), in my view. While I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. James Dobson that not having a pro-life nominee of either major party presents an unacceptable predicament, I would rather work hard to ensure we do nominate a pro-life candidate than to launch an 11th-hour third party campaign. Mike Huckabee affirmed this concern when he told the Washington Post last week, “I think a third party only helps elect Hillary Clinton.”
“Hey, you hate Giuliani and are unimpressed by everyone else, so why not back Romney?” seems to be DeMoss’s message – one that, for a lot of panicked right-wing leaders, just might be a lifesaver, since they have placed themselves in a situation where they are faced with the unpleasant prospect of having to abandon the GOP all together.
Posted by Kyle at 2:15 PM | Permalink
New President at Coral Ridge
Following the death of D. James Kennedy, Brian Fisher has been tapped as president and CEO of Coral Ridge Ministries and is setting some lofty goals: "to reach an audience of 30 million people in 2012 with the transforming truths of God’s Word."
Posted by Kyle at 1:56 PM | Permalink
October 10, 2007
FRC's Perkins Suggests Romney Better Than Huckabee on Religious-Right Issues
In a press call this morning, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins downplayed recent talk about religious-right leaders threatening to bolt the GOP for a third-party presidential candidate. Perkins, promoting FRC’s Values Voter Summit in Washington next weekend, said he was “optimistic” that the GOP field would “solidify” and a candidate acceptable to the Right would emerge out of the conference’s straw poll.
Rudy Giuliani’s decision to participate in the FRC event threatens to deflate this optimism, however. If Giuliani gets significant support from among the FRC members participating in the straw poll—as he has from among the national constituency these leaders claims to represent—then the threats by James Dobson and others to spoil the election could fall flat. “I’m not saying he won’t get some social conservative support,” cautioned Perkins, “but some social conservative support is not enough to win.” Despite Perkins’ claim that Giuliani will receive a “cordial” reception, we can expect many speakers—not just other candidates—to directly or indirectly attack, in Perkins’ phrase, “the pro-abortion rights candidate.”
And while some right-wing activists are hoping that the Religious Right will coalesce around one of their second-tier favorites—such as Mike Huckabee—Perkins seemed to downplay that option, panning them as unacceptable to economic- and foreign policy-oriented Republicans. In fact, Perkins spoke glowingly of Mitt Romney, saying that “in my opinion, [he’s] the strongest on these core social issues”—and not only that, but his “conversion” on wedge issues has been “genuine.” In fact, Perkins said Romney is stronger than Huckabee and the others on such issues.
During the campaign cycle, he has made these issues more front-and-center in his message than I think other candidates who are social conservatives have, I mean that have a track record of social conservatism. I think he has staked out ground on these issues so much so that he would have a very difficult time ever backing away from them; he would lose all credibility. He has really brought emphasis to these issues. And I do think, yes, more than Mike Huckabee and some of the others.
Meanwhile, Alan Keyes can’t get no respect. Despite his wide-open schedule, he’s not on the list of speakers at the Values Voter Summit; nevertheless, FRC’s Charmaine Yoest declared that “we have all of the major GOP candidates.”
Posted by Ezra at 1:41 PM | Permalink
"Rudy is the GOP's Crazy Aunt"
So says Operation Rescue Founder Randall Terry: "[O]ur mission is simple; deny Giuliani the Republican nomination. Failing that, we must deny him the White House at all costs – even if it means Hillary becomes President. Rudy is the GOP's crazy aunt. Every family has a crazy aunt in the basement. So what do you do with her? Don't give her the family checkbook; don't give her the keys to the car; and by all means, keep her in the basement."
Posted by Kyle at 1:19 PM | Permalink
Who Will This Third-Party Savior Be?
With some on the Religious Right threatening to divorce the GOP and support a third-party candidate—as a way to punish Republicans if they nominate Rudy Giuliani—one has to wonder who exactly they would be endorsing. Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan captured the far-right imagination in 1988 and 1992, respectively, but there don’t appear to be any big-name spoilers waiting in the wings this year. Even Alan Keyes, a perennial-favorite losing candidate, has thrown his lot in with the Republican field.
The third-party posturing has been led by Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, and his own love-hate past with the GOP gives us a clue. In 1996, unwilling to support Bob Dole, Dobson cast a “protest vote” for Howard Phillips, the nominee of the extreme-right U.S. Taxpayer’s Party (a.k.a. the Constitution Party). Phillips was also present by telephone at the Council for National Policy meeting that discussed the third-party strategy.
As a co-founder of the Moral Majority, Phillips was one of the key figures in building the Religious Right, although by even the early 1980s he was disenchanted by the Republican Right he helped put in power. (For example, he repudiated Reagan for being soft on Communism.) In 1991, Phillips began an effort to consolidate various remnants of extremist parties of the past into his U.S. Taxpayer’s Party, building upon the tide of militant anti-abortion activism and militia groups that was cresting in the early 1990s. The USTP would nominate Phillips as its candidate in 1992, again in 1996, and—renamed the Constitution Party—once again in 2000. The party finally gave him a breather in 2004, nominating Maryland lawyer Michael Peroutka after flirting with Ten Commandments-toting ex-judge Roy Moore.
So who will be the Constitution Party candidate in 2008? Phillips is no spring chicken, and Peroutka is out, having endorsed Ron Paul. The other names being floated are far from impressive. In January, the list of potential candidates included Alan Keyes (now a GOP candidate), border vigilante Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project, and Jerome Corsi, co-author of the “Swift Vets” book and one of the major proponents of the theory that the Bush Administration is secretly creating a North American Union. In addition, a Florida pastor named Chuck Baldwin has been mentioned as a potential candidate.
Although a Minuteman candidacy would have the potential to arouse a dedicated anti-immigrant cadre, the Constitution Party has never been able to crack 0.2 percent of the popular vote, making it an unlikely spoiler. And even the pollster who claimed to find that an anti-Giuliani candidate backed by Dobson and friends would capture 27 percent of Republican voters admitted that that level of support would dissipate when an actual candidate is named.
Posted by Ezra at 9:26 AM | Permalink
October 9, 2007
"Justice Sunday" Preacher Survives Vote of No Confidence
Jerry Sutton survived a vote at the Two Rivers Baptist Church stemming from allegations that Sutton and others "misapplied, misappropriated, and mishandled the finances," though a lawsuit in which he is being represented by Larry Crain, senior counsel at Pat Robertson's American Center for Law & Justice, is ongoing.
Posted by Kyle at 3:35 PM | Permalink
Thompson Campaign Picks Up George Allen
Fresh of his "macaca" disgrace, former Senator George Allen has signed on to be a co-chair of Fred Thompson's presidential campaign.
Posted by Kyle at 3:30 PM | Permalink
Scarborough Can’t Make Up His Mind
Back in February, Vision America’s Rick Scarborough was one of the first to throw down the gauntlet regarding the possibility of Rudy Giuliani winning the Republican nomination and raise the specter of a bolting the party all together should that happen:
The fact that Rudy Giuliani is polling at above 35% should awaken Values Voters to the reality that America desperately needs revival. Christians should be no more inclined to vote for a pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-gun candidate than homosexual activists are inclined to vote for Jerry Falwell or D. James Kennedy.
We must pray and work toward securing a candidate that we can not only vote for, but get excited about when we go to the polls.
And we should be ready to go outside the Republican Party if it refuses to give us such a candidate. Christians must always remember that we are followers of Christ, not pawns of a party which often wants to dance with us before the election but then ditches us right after the final vote count.
But then, when other right-wing leaders recently echoed Scarborough’s call and made exactly the same point, Scarborough suddenly backtracked:
To all of that I say emphatically, “Grow UP!!!” When I hear my friends, and people I admire, saying that they will either stay home or go to a third party, I lose my patience. Five years ago I stepped out of a good pastorate to devote my full attention to educating pastors and congregations on what Christian citizenship truly means and teach them why Christians, of all people, should and must stay engaged. Now some of the men who most inspired me to get involved are acting like our movement is dead and the cause is lost.
…
I for one do not intend to sit idly by and allow evil to triumph because good men choose to do nothing--or worse, do the wrong thing. I have often said in speeches to churches, “the only thing worse than not voting, is voting without a clue as to what you are voting for.” When it comes time for the ‘08 elections, we must be armed with truth and determined to vote our values. If enough of us do that, we will get a president who will make the right choice when it comes to nominating judges. In ’08, it’s all about the judges! … We may have to hold our nose as we vote in ‘08, but we must and we will vote.
And now it appears as if Scarborough has changed his mind once again:
Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, a Texas-based group that has a network of 5,000 pastors willing to mobilize their churches to vote, was at the recent meeting of those who threatened to back a third-party candidate, and he said they were not just bluffing.
“I am not going to cast a sacred vote granted to me by the blood of millions of God-fearing Americans who died on the fields of battle for freedom, for a candidate who says it’s O.K. to kill the unborn,” he said. “I just can’t.”
“It’s not about winning elections. It’s about honoring Christ.”
So, according to Scarborough the 2008 election either seems to require that the Right “hold our noses” and support the Republican nominee because it’s “all about the judges” or abandon the GOP because it’s all “about honoring Christ” … or preferably some combination of the two that will allow them do the former while pretending there are upholding the latter.
Posted by Kyle at 3:24 PM | Permalink
Dobson Says Jump, GOP Says How High
It took awhile, but every one of the four leading Republican presidential hopefuls who skipped the “Values Voter Debate” in Florida have now agreed to attend the upcoming “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, DC being sponsored by the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, American Values, and others.
In early September, Mitt Romney agreed to attend and, a short while later, so did John McCain. Fred Thompson held off – at least until a message from James Dobson blasting him as unacceptable to the Religious Right made its way into the press, and then the Thompson campaign suddenly got the message and quickly agreed to attend as well.
Still, a few weeks went by with Rudy Giuliani being the only candidate refusing to attend – until again Dobson and his right-wing allies lashed out, announcing that they would consider abandoning the Republican Party if Giuliani gets the nomination, with Dobson taking to the pages of the New York Times to explain that “If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate.”
And guess what happened?
Giuliani has now announced that he too will be attending the FRC/FOF event.
It is quite a testament to the influence of James Dobson that despite having publicly savaged McCain, Giuliani, and Thompson, these candidates are tripping over themselves to attend an event that is scheduled to culminate with a “Family, Faith and Freedom Gala Dinner Honoring Dr. James Dobson.”
Posted by Kyle at 3:20 PM | Permalink