January 2007

Constitution Party reportedly considering Minuteman leaders Jim Gilchrist and Alan Keyes, and “Swift Boat” co-author Corsi, for 2008.

To divine their “philosophy.”

Priests for Life head calls Brownback “hero for the unborn.” Meanwhile: Brownback introduces bill to stymie First Amendment lawsuits.

After weeks of campaigning at Right Wing events and jostling for the mantle of “most conservative” candidate, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback visited Iowa and struck a completely different chord:

Kansas senator and presidential candidate Sam Brownback said Tuesday that he would focus his campaign on issues that have a bipartisan consensus, a break from his trademark social conservatism.

"The political discourse automatically goes to the most difficult issues, and then we can't talk about them," said Brownback, in Iowa for the first time since announcing his bid on Jan. 20.

"I'd rather work on a core set of issues that we can agree on.

Brownback’s next stop was Michigan: This afternoon, he spoke at a conference of non-profit managers, where he apparently focused his remarks on alternative fuels. But the real test of the senator’s claim will come with reports of his speech this morning at Ave Maria Law School, founded by right-wing funder and Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan. Monaghan has endorsed Brownback, saying he “doesn't want to be associated with anyone who’s going to compromise.” The topic of Brownback’s speech was the judiciary, and in the past few months, Brownback has tried to block a nominee who once attended a lesbian commitment ceremony. How will the new, “bipartisan” Brownback address his divisive actions in the Senate?

Last summer, when Washington, DC was suffering through a spate of murders, the Christian Defense Coalition responded by sponsoring “six days of around the clock prayer vigils under a large tent on the National Mall, from July 21 to July 26, seeking God to reduce the crime rate in the nation’s capital over the next six months.” 

Following the week-long vigil, the CDC announced that “there were no murders in Washington” during that time period, but then issued a correction stating that there had actually been one.    

Six months later, the CDC has returned to announce that its vigil was a rousing success:

The Christian Defense Coalition is delighted to report that there were 27% less murders in the final five months of 2006 compared with final five months of 2005.

The Coalition encourages churches across the nation to begin to reach out in public prayer regarding pressing social concerns facing their local communities.

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, comments, “The Christian Defense Coalition promised at the end of July we would announce the numbers concerning Washington, D.C.’s murder rate for the final five months of 2006.  We are delighted to report, after a season of concentrated and regular prayer, there was drop in the murder rate of 27%.

CDC initially said it was seeking to reduce the “crime rate in the nation’s capital over the next six months,” though now it looks as if they have retroactively decided to cut it to five months – maybe because the DC murder rate in January is up 10% over last year.   

Incidentally, Mahoney failed to note that the murder rate in DC has dropped every year since 2002 and has dropped 65% since its high in 1991.

On top of that, he made no mention of the role that DC police undoubtedly played in lowering the murder rate:

This grisly sequence caused then-Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey to declare a "crime emergency," giving himself the power to reassign officers immediately to the times and areas where they were most needed. The declaration also prompted then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams to propose a broad package of anticrime measures.

In the end, the District Council gave the police $8 million for extra overtime, imposed a 10 p.m. curfew for youths 16 and younger, and authorized installation in high-crime areas of surveillance cameras and an acoustic shot-detection system.

Officials also took a number steps to increase public awareness. Inside buses and subway cars they put up posters bearing head shots of 20 young victims of gun violence, complete with names, life spans and the message: "Real guns kill real people."

In the months that followed, the number of homicides dropped. After 24 in July, there were 12 in August, 13 in September. And the numbers didn't spike when the police overtime money was spent and the emergency expired.

"I think all that was done mattered a great deal," City Councilman Jim Graham said in an interview last week. "I think if we hadn't spent the money, we'd be having a very different conversation today."

Kansas Republicans have selected Kris Kobach, a law professor and anti-immigrant activist allied with the Religious Right, to be their state party chairman, widening the gap between GOP moderates and the Right that has already led some to leave the party and run as Democrats, including the current lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Kobach first made headlines shortly after September 11, 2001, when he played a leading role defining immigration policy under Attorney General John Ashcroft; Kobach was instrumental in implementing a mass registration and questioning of “enemy aliens” (as the World War II-era law put it) – predominantly legal immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries. He moved back to the Kansas City suburbs in 2003 to run for Congress, while at the same time launching lawsuits in Kansas and California against laws granting in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants who live in the state, attended U.S. high schools, and are pursuing citizenship.

During his unsuccessful congressional campaign, he came under fire from his own party for extreme rhetoric during the GOP primary, and was criticized for special appearances as a “constitutional expert” in churches in the midst of campaigning, such as at several “pastors’ policy briefings” with Jerry Falwell in the weeks leading up to the general election.

Since then, Kobach has continued his campaign against in-state college tuition for immigrants and against the federal DREAM Act. He also took part in a handful of immigration hearings last year held by House Republicans who were pushing their draconian enforcement bill. Most recently, he joined the legal defense of local anti-immigrant ordinances in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Valley Park, Missouri.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican candidates for president, have both been hard at work courting the Right Wing – from Romney speaking at “Liberty Sunday” to Brownback suiting up for the mythical “War on Christmas” to both signing Grover Norquist’s no-taxes pledge within a day of each other – and filling up their dance cards with endorsements from the Religious Right. Romney, though considered a more viable candidate, has been at a disadvantage in accruing right-wing points following revelations of his past support for gay rights.

Now, Brownback himself is questioning Romney’s right-wing credentials, reports CBN News:

“I think you have to look at where he stood on the issues and what he said publicly,"  Brownback said. “At times he's said different things on these issues. I think that's all going to come out during a long campaign."

Brownback wouldn’t flatly say if Romney is a reliable conservative. He said, “We'll see and that will be for him to discuss. I do think when we get out on the campaign trail and when the campaign really gets fully engaged, there's going to be a lot of discussion about where do people actually stand on the issues and where have they been and where are they now and how reliable are they to stay that way."

At the same time, CBN posted an article alluding to a similar problem haunting Brownback – his alleged pro-choice position at the start of his political career.

Presidential candidate Sam Brownback told CBN News that he's always been pro-life despite his decision to stay away from the pro-life label at the beginning of his race for Congress in 1994.

"I was in the same position in 1994 as I am today as far as being pro-life," said Brownback. "I didn't articulate then. I thought - and this is just getting into politics - that I would be better off saying the specific areas of the issue rather than 'Are you pro-life or pro-choice?'"

In particular, Brownback’s campaign said he had no recollection of telling Tim Golba, then president of Kansas for Life, that his position on abortion was “more in line with” that of pro-choice Sen. Nancy Kassebaum. The campaign has sent out a letter to supporters asking for job references: “Can I please ask those that are capable and willing to send me a testimonial quote highlighting Senator Brownback's work on pro-life issues?”

Both of these stories were reported by Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. Robertson expressed enthusiasm early for Brownback, a point noted by conservative columnist George Will, reporter Jeff Sharlet, and others. Now, Robertson might be backing down a little bit, according to Sharlet.

Had been at issue in former AG Kline’s defeat. Activists cite Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly.

In State of the Union speech. But Heritage’s Lips wants to scrap No Child Left Behind. Meanwhile: Vouchers debated in Georgia.

When it was revealed last month that Mary Cheney and her partner were expecting a child, the Right was apoplectic, calling it “tragic,” “immoral”, and “unconscionable.” Among those criticizing Mary Cheney was Carrie Gordon Earll of Focus on the Family who said that "just because it's possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father doesn't mean that it's best for the child."

Appearing on “The Situation Room” yesterday, Wolf Blitzer asked Vice President Cheney about FOF’s statement and Cheney responded by lashing out ... at Blitzer:

BLITZER: We're out of time, but a couple of issues I want to raise with you. Your daughter, Mary. She's pregnant. All of us are happy. She's going to have a baby, you're going to have another grandchild. Some of the -- some critics, though, are suggesting -- for example, a statement from someone representing Focus on the Family, "Mary Cheney's pregnancy raises the question of what's best for children. Just because it's possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father doesn't mean it's best for the child." Do you want to respond to that?

CHENEY: No, I don't.

BLITZER: She's, obviously, a good daughter...

CHENEY: I'm delighted -- I'm delighted I'm about to have a sixth grandchild, Wolf. And obviously I think the world of both my daughters and all of my grandchildren. And I think, frankly, you're out of line with that question.

BLITZER: I think all of us appreciate...

CHENEY: I think you're out of line.

BLITZER: ...your daughters. No, we like your daughters. Believe me, I'm very, very sympathetic to Liz and to Mary. I like them both. That was just a question that's come up, and it's a responsible, fair question.

CHENEY: I just fundamentally disagree with you.

BLITZER: I want to congratulate you on having another grandchild.

If Cheney is angry about questions regarding his daughter’s pregnancy, perhaps he ought to spend less time attacking journalists and more time blasting his own right-wing supporters.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.

A state legislator from the northern Virginia suburbs has proposed a bill to “forbid religious, charitable or community groups from using state or local government money to intentionally serve illegal immigrants by providing food, shelter, education or other social services,” the AP reports.

Del. Jackson Miller, a Republican recently elected to represent the affluent Washington suburb of Manassas, has made “quality of life” issues his political signature, which for him means combating “overcrowding” (i.e., extended family members) and cracking down on undocumented immigrants looking for work. His campaign website lists “illegal immigration” as his top issue.

Miller said he was inspired to act following the efforts by the town council of the nearby suburb of Herndon to create a day-laborer center, which drew fire from right-wing groups like Judicial Watch and the Herndon Minutemen and was incorporated into the 2005 governor’s race by unsuccessful GOP candidate Jerry Kilgore. Nevertheless, his bill is more reminiscent of a provision proposed by Republicans in the U.S. House last year that would have created criminal penalties for churches that give aid to immigrants without checking their papers first.

Campaigning for president as “the full-scale conservative,” Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) has won the hearts of many right-wing activists for joining in the calls warning of a so-called “War on Christmas” and blocking a judicial nominee who once attended a lesbian commitment ceremony, but his candidacy has so far failed to establish viability. “Brownback has to prove he can win,” as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention put it. Still, the senator is steadily expanding his base, as he demonstrated during Monday’s anti-abortion protests in Washington.

Brownback wrote an op-ed in support of the protests in The Washington Times, and he spoke at several events during the day, culminating in a “Brownback for President” reception. Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reports:

The Rev. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life gave the opening prayer: "We pray today particularly for a man whom we love and whom we admire, whom we look to and have looked to for leadership and have not been disappointed. We pray today for Senator Brownback and his family."

Two hundred march participants chanted: "Brownback! Brownback!"

Brownback also spoke at the Family Research Council’s Blogs4Life conference (covered by ProLifeBlogs, Townhall, and Human Events), where he predicted that “Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned” within a few years, as Milbank reported.

He announced his introduction of the "Unborn Pain Awareness Act" and vowed to protect all "children of a living God." Asking why disabled Americans are protected but not fetuses with abnormalities, he demanded: "What's the difference -- location?" For emphasis, he introduced a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome. He urged the listeners to speak to abortion-rights supporters with "truth encased in love."

This is not the first time Brownback has used children as stage props. This past summer, the senator argued against embryonic stem-cell research by bringing out a 7-year-old girl, who had drawn a picture of herself as an embryo saying, “Are you going to kill me?” This particular rhetorical technique was previously used by former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), who brought a 4-year-old to the Senate chamber while arguing for the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.” ““What they wanted to do was kill this baby by stabbing her in the base of the skull and suctioning her brains out,” said Santorum, pointing to the girl in the audience.

Santorum’s extreme politics endeared him to the Right – not too long ago, he was the one frequently mentioned as a potential presidential candidate – but it cost him his Senate seat in November’s election. Brownback is hoping to find a growing Right Wing in Iowa that could give him the edge in the GOP caucus, but first he has to appeal to more moderate Republican voters, and convince them that he won’t meet Santorum’s fate. Otherwise, the difference will be location – the chasm between warm reception at a far-Right blog panel and disappointment at a real-life voting booth.

(Photo from ProLifeBlogs.com.)

Such as bans triggered on overturn of Roe.

Denounces “radical immigration agenda.” Meanwhile: FAIR complains about lack of border fence.

The Washington Post reports that Newt Gingrich’s new organization recently received “a $1 million check from Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon G. Adelson.”

The Post turned to Traditional Values Coalition head Lou Sheldon for comment on the idea that Gingrich would be using gambling funds to bankroll his right-wing agenda:

"The problem is the income comes from what we call a vice, and that is an issue," said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, which has long been a powerful voice on social issues inside the GOP.

"I certainly could never have done that and I certainly can't encourage it, but if good will comes out of it in terms of these issues . . . then that remains to be seen. There's an old expression that the devil's had the money long enough, it's about time the good people got their hands on it," he said.

Oh the hypocrisy:

[Jack] Abramoff quietly arranged for eLottery to pay conservative, anti-gambling activists to help in the firm's $2 million pro-gambling campaign, including Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Both kept in close contact with Abramoff about the arrangement, e-mails show. Abramoff also turned to prominent anti-tax conservative Grover Norquist, arranging to route some of eLottery's money for Reed through Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform.

…

In May, eLottery hired Abramoff's firm, Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, for $100,000 a month, according to lobbying reports. In the following months, Abramoff directed the company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations, faxes, e-mails and court records show. The groups included Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform; Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition; companies affiliated with Reed; and a Seattle Orthodox Jewish foundation, Toward Tradition.

In 2000, Abramoff’s client, eLottery, faced devastation if Congress passed legislation prohibiting internet gambling.  Abramoff’s solution was to take an exception for jai alai and horse racing contained in the legislation and argue that the exceptions would actually expand legalized gambling and then gin up right-wing opposition.  

Unfortunately for him, most of the Right supported the bill, so Abramoff reached out to Sheldon and Ralph Reed in an effort to kill it.  Sheldon when to work pushing House members to oppose the bill and targeting Reps. Robert Aderholt, J.C. Watts and others with mailers accusing them of supporting a “law the gamblers want” for having voted for the gambling bill.  

In the end, Abramoff’s scheme paid off and Congress adjourned without passing the legislation.  

It was no coincidence that Abramoff called Sheldon "Lucky Louie."

Militant Operation Rescue drew thousands in 1991. This year, joined by Mahoney of Christian Defense Coalition and Cass of Center for Reclaiming America for Christ.

Despite constitutional challenges.

As “full-scale conservative” with op-ed in support of March for Life and speech at Blogs4Life conference. Land: He “has to prove he can win,” while Romney must convince Right “he's become one of them.”

Staver claims bill would “certainly restrict free speech”; perhaps he means “free speech” during the act of committing a felony?

Groups had pushed privatization.

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project, told CNSNews.com that there is a “silent war” consisting of “U.S. residents” that “have been killed in action” by “illegal aliens”:

While the mainstream media is focused on the Iraq war, this ongoing silent war is "taking its toll in lives and domestic tranquility," said Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project.

"Since 9/11 alone, about 45,000 U.S. residents have been killed in action via homicide or manslaughter at the hands of illegal aliens, and about another quarter of a million to 300,000 have been wounded," Gilchrist told Cybercast News Service in an interview.

Gilchrist said he used the terms "killed in action" and "wounded" intentionally "because essentially, we have a war going on here that's not a declared war, that's not a conventional war, but it is costing us 9,000 lives a year."

Where did he those figures? Apparently from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who has asserted that:

The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. Another 13 Americans would survive who are otherwise killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals.

It appears that Gilchrist simply took those numbers together, multiplied by 365 days, and then by 5 years to get his “killed in action” statistics.

But King’s numbers are, as he put it, “extrapolate[d]” from a GAO study he commissioned, which said that that “about 27 percent” of federal inmates in the last few years are noncitizens. As Colorado Media Matters reports in detail, this “extrapolation” is not realistic. Most prisoners in the U.S. are in state, not federal prisons, and most murder cases are prosecuted at the state level. The actual proportion of noncitizens in federal and state prisons combined is a fraction of the number King claims. Using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Colorado Media Matters reports that “According to the BJS, 6.4 percent of all state and federal inmates at midyear 2005 were ‘noncitizens’ -- not just illegal immigrants -- down from 6.5 percent in 2004, 6.6 percent in 2003, and 6.9 percent in 2002.” Nevertheless, King claimed that “Between the cities, the counties, the state and the federal penitentiaries, that study -- my study shows 28 percent are criminal aliens.”

To summarize, Rep. King took the statistic that “about 27 percent” of federal inmates are noncitizens, added one percent to make 28, applied it to state prisons for no reason, pretended they are all “illegal aliens,” and then “extrapolated” a murder rate (apparently by multiplying 28 percent by the number of murders).

The resulting “statistic,” used by King, Minuteman Gilchrist and others, is simply a fictitious number with no relation to reality. What it is related to is the underlying effort by anti-immigrant activists to equate immigrants with criminality – from activists like Gilchrist to the local civic leaders who pass anti-immigrant ordinances.

While reality-based studies appear to show that immigrants commit less crime and may even make communities safer, anti-immigrant activists can always resort to made-up numbers to make their claim.

Comments at American Enterprise Institute.

“Christians beware!” warns Scarborough, who tried and failed to take over Texas convention in 1996.

Having already made nice with Jerry Falwell after having once labeled him an “agent of intolerance,” and fresh on the heels of his offer to meet with James Dobson after Dobson declared that he would not support his presidential bid “under any circumstances,”  John McCain appears to be doing all that he can to win over the Right.  

For instance, it was recently announced that McCain has secured the endorsement of a Christian talk-show host in Iowa:

Maxine Sieleman praised Mr. McCain for his "consistent record supporting pro-life, pro-family legislation" and his commitment to appointing "strict constructionist judges."

Ms. Sieleman is the founder of the Iowa chapter of Concerned Women for America, which advocates bringing "biblical principles" to public policy. She has also hosted a show on a Christian radio station in Des Moines since 1982.

In an apparent attempt to further establish his right-wing credentials, McCain has done a blatant about-face and announced that he will oppose a lobbying reform bill he once supported:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has told conservative activists that he will vote to strip a key provision on grassroots lobbying from the reform package he previously supported.

…

While grassroots groups on both sides of the political spectrum oppose the proposal, social conservative leaders such as Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who broadcasts a radio program to hundreds of thousands of evangelical Christians, have been its most vehement critics.

McCain sponsored legislation last Congress that included an even broader requirement for grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. But now he will vote to defeat a similar measure.

PAC chair Bay Buchanan: “Christian right can feel completely comfortable with” him. But some on the Right link him to extremist, “pro-eugenics” groups like FAIR. Also mentioned for possible Senate run.

National Prayer Network: it’s “the most dangerous legislation ever.” Repent America: it’s the “ammunition to police our thoughts.” Focus eyes veto.

“[D]rives away the non-base,” says architect of “Contract with America.”

“Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” asks Del. Hargrove of state apology bill.

FRC asks supporters to pray against “socialized medicine.”

Reports Daily Breeze. More on Barton.

It looks as if Rep. Tom Tancredo is hoping to capitalize on his anti-immigrant credentials in an effort to make a run for the White House:

Rep. Tom Tancredo yesterday formed a committee to explore a run for the Republican nomination for president, hoping to force the issue of immigration into the primary debates and push the candidates to embrace stricter enforcement.    

"As I look at the current presidential candidates -- Republican and Democratic -- I simply do not see one who reflects the grass-roots, majority belief of Americans that our borders must be secured, that employers who hire illegals must be prosecuted, and that no one who has broken our immigration laws should ever be put on a 'pathway to citizenship,' " Mr. Tancredo wrote in his first fundraising letter.

It is hard to believe that Tancredo has much of a chance of winning the GOP nomination – and the fact that his campaign is winning accolades from Bay Buchanan does not bode well:

Bay Buchanan, a friend and confidante of Mr. Tancredo's who runs his political action committee, Team America, said that immigration is the issue that will help Mr. Tancredo stand out from the pack of candidates. She also said his record, consistently conservative up and down the line, will go over well with Iowa's pro-life, conservative caucusgoers.    

"He is an across-the-board social conservative -- one that the Christian right can feel completely comfortable with, that he has been with them on those issues for his whole life," she said.    

…

But Mr. Tancredo stands out from that pack because he brings to the race a dedicated army of talk-radio show hosts and activists who oppose illegal immigration.    

"His strength is that he already has a national following. He has enormous grass-roots support. He is well-known across this country by the Republican base," said Mrs. Buchanan, who was chairman in all three of her brother Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigns.

Having thrice chaired her brother’s various losing efforts, Buchanan clearly has an affinity backing futile vanity campaigns, so it comes as no surprise that she’s supporting Tancredo.

In a rousing call to arms, Rabbi Daniel Lapin cites the failure to heed warnings about the rise of Hitler, Communism, and Islamic terrorism in warning of “a serious war” that “is being waged against a group of Americans” – a war against “Christian conservatives,” or perhaps just “Christians.” “I am certain that if we lose this war, the consequences for American civilization will be dire,” he writes.

Phase one of this war I describe is a propaganda blitzkrieg that is eerily reminiscent of how effectively the Goebbels propaganda machine softened up the German people for what was to come.

There is no better term than propaganda blitzkrieg to describe what has been unleashed against Christian conservatives recently.

Consider the long list of anti-Christian books that have been published in recent months.

Lapin lists six books critical of the Religious Right (and one critical of religion in general). “Fervent zealots of secularism are flinging themselves into this anti-Christian war with enormous fanaticism,” he writes of this “proliferation of anti-Christian print propaganda.”

If they succeed, Christianity will be driven underground, and its benign influence on the character of America will be lost. In its place we shall see a sinister secularism that menaces Bible believers of all faiths. Once the voice of the Bible has been silenced, the war on Western Civilization can begin and we shall see a long night of barbarism descend on the West.

Lapin, president of a group called Toward Tradition, is adopting the “persecuted majority syndrome” championed by the right-wing activists who brought you “Justice Sunday: Stopping the Filibuster against People of Faith” in 2005 and the “War on Christians” conference in 2006. (Lapin was a featured speaker at “Justice Sunday.”) In this tactic, political disagreements with the Religious Right in particular are neatly translated into attacks on Christianity in general.

Called the “Republicans’ Rabbi-in-Arms” in a Washington Post profile, Lapin has carved out a particular niche among D.C.-based right-wing activists and the leadership of the GOP. It was reportedly Lapin who introduced Jack Abramoff to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Toward Tradition has been implicated in allegedly funneling bribes from a gambling company to a DeLay aide.

With Abramoff now in prison and DeLay out of office (and under indictment), Lapin’s influence on the Right may be less certain. Perhaps his embrace of the mythical “war on Christians” theme represents an attempt to reestablish his right-wing credentials.

Focus on the Family faults GOP commitment to the issue. Committee for Justice promises Bush’s extreme picks will continue.

Focus on the Family, RightMarch urge members of contact Congress; Americans for Tax Reform “may rate” votes on the provision.

Citing Goldwater and Reagan, claims lack of “fidelity to principle” is what ails GOP.

NJ Family Policy Council acts relieved.