I wrote a post last year noting that the Right-Wing had a lot of different groups under which they pressed the agenda. On top of their own organizations, a lot of right-wing leaders are also involved in umbrella organizations like the Arlington Group and the Council for National Policy. There are also various state-level organziations like the "Patriot Pastors" movement and the "Restoration Projects" that are active in places like Texas and Ohio.
And then there are things like the Iowa Renewal Project, where Mike Huckabee hobnobbed with various right-wing leaders as he rallied to win the Iowa primary. Apparently there is also one in Georiga as well, which is slated to host Gov. Sonny Perdue, Daivd Barton, Mat Staver and other for a luncheon next week:
Georgia Renewal Project
Cordially invites you to participate in its Pastors' Policy Briefing Luncheon
Rediscovering God in America
With Special Guests
The Honorable Sonny Perdue Governor of Georgia
and
Historian David Barton WallBuilders
Who will be accompanied by
The Honorable Bob McEwen Dr. Mat Staver and other guest speakers
To be held at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel 2450 Galleria Pkwy, Atlanta, GA 30339 on Tuesday, November 25, 2008.
11:30 AM - 2:30 PM Registration begins at 11:00 AM.
There will be a reception prior to the luncheon beginning at 11:00 AM.
The luncheon is complimentary and will be provided by the Georgia Renewal Project.
I have to admit that, as someone who follows this stuff for a living, even I am routinely confused by sheer number of different organizations that have different names, yet all seem to contain the same handful of Religious Right leaders.
It’s certainly not going to generate any news that this point, but I just figured I’d highlight this article just for future reference since it reports that Marlys Popma, John McCain’s evangelical outreach coordinator, attended a forum last week where she made the case for McCain alongside David Barton:
Popma and other surrogates from the McCain and Obama campaigns participated in an event at Christian Life Assembly in Camp Hill, Pa., last Wednesday.
“Blue Like Jazz” author Don Miller was on the Obama side. He has visited several Christian campuses on the campaign’s behalf and spoke at Messiah earlier that day.
Miller was joined by Shaun Casey, the Obama campaign’s national evangelical coordinator, and Paul Monteiro, national deputy director of religious affairs.
There’s a “passion for social justice among Christian college students,” Monteiro said. “Once we knew they were there, we worked with them.”
On the McCain side, Popma joined David Barton, founder and president of WallBuilders, and Renee Amoore, deputy chairwoman of the state Republican Party.
This event was held around the same time that Barton was stumping for McCain in Pennsylvania along with Fred Thompson and others, so it is pretty clear that at some point in recent weeks the McCain campaign decided that it would benefit electorally from associating itself with Barton and exploiting his right-wing connections and biased pseudo-history.
I mentioned yesterday that David Barton was out on the campaign trail, speaking at official McCain/Palin campaign events along with Fred Thompson, actor Robert Davi, and Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli and so it seemed like a good time to dust off this video we put together to accompany our 2006 report on Barton and his pseudo-history.
The focus of the report was on Barton's "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White" DVD, in which he examines the Democratic Party's historical hostility to African Americans and insinuates that similarly racist views are still held by the party today. Barton runs through a litany of Democratic sins - ranging from slavery to Jim Crow to segregation to the Ku Klux Klan - while praising the Republican Party as the party of abolition and civil rights ... until his history lesson suddenly ends after the Civil Rights Act of 1965, after which Barton makes absolutely no mention of the political transformation that overtook the country in its wake or the rise of the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy.”
The video concludes with Barton telling his audience that African Americans cannot be bound blindly to one party or the other, but must cast their votes based on the “standard of biblical righteousness … the principles of Christianity … and an awareness that voters will answer to God for their vote."
Apparently, the McCain camp thought it would benefit from potential voters hearing this sort of biased and fraudulent message from Barton himself during the final days of their campaign.
We knew that David Barton was out there doing his part to help elect Republicans, raising money for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, explaining to Christian audiences the importance of the Supreme Court and how the GOP and God both share the same agenda.
We also knew that he was supporting John McCain but we had no idea that he was actually out there on the trail on behalf of the McCain-Palin campaign:
Fred Thompson, former U.S. senator from Tennessee, told a local crowd Wednesday that the chance to talk about guns and God is his kind of event.
But though the title of the rally was "Guns & Religion," the politician/actor spent more time talking about the economy.
...
Thompson, actor Robert Davi, Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli and David Barton, president of the religious-based organization WallBuilders, spoke at the Wednesday afternoon rally at McCain/Palin headquarters in Springettsbury Township.
"I love the guns-and-God mantra, because both are God-given rights," Barton said, telling the crowd to encourage others to vote. "Get people of faith back in the polls."
Dawn Balcom of Springettsbury Township said it was nice to hear religion addressed.
"It was good to hear that these politicians are thinking God is important," she said. "When we get away from God . . . the whole country goes down."
Why is the McCain campaign associating itself with a right-wing pseudo-historian who believes that Christians should "start breaking fingers" of those who don't vote Republican and warns them they'll have to answer to God for their failure to vote properly.
Did they not learn anything from their Hagee/Parsely debacle?
While checking in to see what David Barton had planned for the last week of the election campaign, I was intrigued to see that he was scheduled to be at Cornerstone Church on the Sunday before the election:
Cornerstone just happens to be the mega-church founded and run by John Hagee, and if you check out their calendar, sure enough you find Barton listed as scheduled to speak at both services that day:
Presumably, Barton will be enlightening Hagee’s audience with speechifying regarding the importance of electing candidates who will ensure that their Supreme Court nominees deliver decisions that are "right on Biblical values” and delivering his standard presentation about the vital role “values voters” play in electing Republicans.
Last week we noted that the Right was none-too-pleased that the National Republican Campaign Committee had pulled its advertising from the re-election campaigns of both Rep. Michelle Bachmann (MN) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (CO) and that the Family Research Council had threatened that they would shut down their own efforts to raise money for NRCC if they didn’t change course.
Well, it looks like some Religious Right leaders aren’t waiting around for the NRCC to change its mind and have decided to raise money for them themselves, which is why David Barton is sending out emails begging donors to support Musgrave because they can’t afford to lose “her voice for our values in Congress”
I want to bring a special need to your attention. We are 10 days out from one of the most critical elections in our nation's history. While great attention has been focused on the Presidential race, numerous pro-family Congressmen are also currently running who desperately need your help!
One of these pro-family champions is Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. She is an asset to the pro-family movementand has been instrumental in helping secure many pro-faith and pro-family victories, including being the original sponsorof the Federal Marriage Amendment. But sheneeds your help today!!!
She is in a tight race against a pro-choice, pro-homosexual liberal and is under vicious attack from the secular left. She is the top target of the pro-homosexual movement because of her firm stance on protecting traditional marriage at the federal level.
In the past two elections, Tim Gill, a homosexual activist billionaire, has personally funneled several million dollars through numerous organizations to defeat Marilyn. He recently stated that one of his greatest frustrations in life has been his inability to remove her from office, so in this election he has pulled out all stops and is pouring even more into the race against her. The homosexual movement has made it their goal to take out the most visible leader in the pro-marriage movement. Current polling shows that they are very close in their goal of removing her.
She needs your help today, whether it's $5-$10 or whether it's the maximum of $2300 per person; you can make a difference! Marilyn has stood strong for all of us, and now we need to stand strong for her! We don't want to lose her voice for our values in Congress.
Also, if you have some time available and can travel to her campaign office in Greeley, CO, or to the Victory Centers in Greeley and Ft. Collins, please volunteer to make phone calls or block walk and encourage people to early vote. By Election Day, over 85% of the district will have already voted - so she needs your help TODAY!
...
I have known Marilyn for years and have worked closely with her on a number of faith and family issues in Congress. I personally and heartily endorse her candidacy and ask you to consider making a contribution to her campaign-- either with time or money. (Each individual may contribute up to $2,300, but contributions of any size will be very helpful.) Any contribution you make will definitely be investing money in the future of a healthy America.
Please help make a difference in this race, for she is running for all of us!
It's that time of the year again; that time when right-wing televangelists turn over their television programs to right-wing operatives in an effort to mobilize "values voters" for the benefit of the Republican Party.
Just yesterday we posted footage from Rod Parsley's "Breakthrough" featuring Wendy Wright and Janet Parshall and now we come to find out that Kenneth Copeland, one of the televangelists whose finances are being investigated by Sen. Chuck Grassley, has had right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton on his program all week for the same purpose:
During their discussion, Barton urged Copeland's viewers to take a look at the voter guides and report cards that various public policy organizations issue as they seek to make their choices, saying that often voter guides of "secular" organizations are extremly useful because if a group like the ACLU rates a candidate highly, then they know that that is not a candidate they want to support.
So in that vein, here is a clip of David Barton talking about the importance of the Supreme Court and how much of a difference the confirmations of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito have made to the Religious Right's agenda. Because Roberts and Alito have a "fear of God," it has led to decisions starting to come out "right on Biblical values," whereas the four "liberal" Justices, Barton declares, have "no fear of God, there's nothing in their behavior that tells me that they fear God." And, Barton insists, the next president will shape the course of the nation for the next fifty years with their Supreme Court picks because "that is where reighteousness is determined":
I mentioned the return of the Texas Restoration Project a few months ago and then promptly forgot about it. Fortunately, the folks at Talk 2 Action have a better memory than I do and actually attended the event and provide an inside report.
Back when he was running in the GOP primary, Mike Hucakbee praised right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton as perhaps "the greatest living historian on the spiritual nature of America's early days." But it seems that, since dropping out, his opinion of Barton has only increased because he is now calling him the "single best historian in America today":
According to candidate Mike Huckabee, history revisionist David Barton is the best historian our country has to offer the nation. Barton's best seller, The Myth of Separation of Church and State, violates the basic tenets of the Baptist faith Huckabee was ordained into and is still a member. This view by Huckabee about Barton was uttered at the Texas Restoration Project meeting in Austin, Texas, October 9-10th. Helping to host and speak at the event were Barton, Huckabee and Governor Perry - the state GOP official. On a first-to-call basis, the pastors of the state's churches, as well as their wives, were invited to come and stay free of charge in a $250/night Hilton Hotel room. Over 1,000 showed up, and it was announced that several hundred more wanted to attend, but could not because there was no room for them. Perry sits atop a state platform that wants to pull the nation out of the U.N., abolish the U.S. Department of Education, appeal minimum wage and do away with Social Security. Not to mention the platform affirms giving state money to religious schools and wants to dispel the myth of separation of church and state.
…
Huckabee and good buddy David Barton were up next, and between sessions provided photo opts for admiring pastors. Huckabee said this was a spiritual, not a political meeting, and he preached to the crowd. In spite of the get out the vote drive and lamenting of the false concept of separation of church and state, the mixture of pulpit and ballot continued … Huckabee introduced his friend David Barton as a man God raised up for the moment. Mike knew of no other man in the country having such a great impact on the land.
Next, Barton did his Christian-nation thing and stated the Bible had something to say about minimum wage and estate taxes. Evidently, that meant the text was against them both. A common religious right position in voter guides is that minimum wage is immoral. Barton told several stories of heroic Revolutionary War pastors who left the pulpit and led the men of the church into killing English troops. He lamented that this is what is needed today to restore the nation: That is, motivated and active pastors who lead out. Barton then said that separation of church and state, which he stated - is not in the Constitution - and only applies to the state interference in the church - a common religious right position.
…
Voter guides from Barton's organization were placed at the tables where we sat. There was a sign-up sheet to list name, email and church information. Morning speakers reminded us that the glory of God has been lost in the nation, and the Bible and prayer have been expelled from schools. The key question was what the church would do about these things. Barton proceeded to defend his position that the two key issues of the election centered around abortion and gay rights. He said the Bible taught that these were the key priority issues and poverty, environment, justice, civil rights and the prospect of an unjust war all sat as minor ethical issues compared to the other two. He explained that in the past few elections, laws have been enacted by Christians to limit abortions. That was - he admitted - until the 2006 elections. He conceded pro-life forces lost ground. His conclusion was that a get out the vote effort in 2008 could reverse this. David stated that what a person believed about abortion defined how one would vote regarding all other legislative issues. Barton reminded the group that judicial appointments will define our culture. He then explained to the pastors that for the past 50 years government has told pastors what to say in the pulpit. The Texan then complained that the government did a terribly inefficient job of helping the poor. It would better for the churches to hand out this money and do drug and prison rehab. He restated, "The church has got to be involved in the election."
We weren’t there so obviously we don’t know exactly what Barton’s presentation was like, but if you want to get a sense of how Barton typically uses his biased history of America to promote the Religious Right’s political and electoral agenda, you can watch him do so here.
David Barton never specifically mentioned Sarah Palin from the pulpit. But everybody knew what he meant.
"Christians, you've got to register. You've got to vote. You've got to vote your values," the Texan told parishioners who packed Genoa Baptist Church last week.
But this time around, it looks like his job might be a little more challenging because, even though the Religious Right loves Palin, they are still unsure about her running mate:
His warning, designed to push attendees at Tuesday's event to the polls, may be prescient. Ms. Palin's nomination initially energized Christian conservatives, the constituency that has helped Republicans win elections for a generation.
But in this key swing state and elsewhere, there's still a sense of impending political doom.
Ms. Palin is wildly popular with conservative evangelicals, but they're still lukewarm over John McCain, because of past disappointments, Republican miscues, Bush fatigue and especially the roiling economic crisis.
In fact, while right-wing support for the McCain campaign has skyrocketed since he tapped Palin, it looks like McCain himself is barely even figuring into the Right’s get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of his campaign:
Phil Burress, who heads the group, spearheaded passage of the Ohio marriage amendment in 2004. In June, he told Mr. McCain at a private meeting in Cincinnati that if he didn't pick an anti-abortion running mate, he would lose evangelical support – and the state of Ohio as a result.
"I know evangelicals, and they were sitting on their hands," he said. "The ship was just sitting there, nobody at the steering wheel and no engine running."
He's confident Ms. Palin changed things, but that might not be enough. Recent polls indicate Mr. Obama's lead is growing in Ohio.
Mr. Burress said he has faith. There's a bumper sticker his wife put on their car that says, "Palin Power."
"It doesn't even say anything about John McCain," he said.
It’s easy to get confused about John McCain – is he the “straight-talkin’ maverick” his supporters and the media love or is he the candidate who votes 90% of the time with George W. Bush, has a long record of anti-abortion zealotry, and caves to this party’s right-wing base?
Well, right-wing pseudo-historian, former Mike Huckabee supporter, and current McCain cheerleader David Barton has some pretty solid advice: ignore what McCain says and just look at his record:
“There was some talk about Christians staying home, but that’s over,” said David Barton, an evangelical Christian from near Fort Worth, Texas “And I’ve been telling my friends not to listen to Obama or McCain. Just see how they voted. McCain is right on judges, he’s right on life issues, he’s right on the marriage issue. We can talk about some things I didn’t like, but when it comes to Biblical teaching he’s the obvious candidate.”
Back in 2006, we wrote a report about the "Patriot Pastors" movement, various state level efforts by evangelical pastors to organize so-called “Restoration Projects” that would transform America by applying the significant resources of their churches to political campaigns. The most high-profile effort was in Ohio and run by Rod Parsley and Russell Johnson, with close cooperation from then Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, though efforts were underway in several other states as well, including Texas. While the forces behind the Ohio movement are lying low, with Parsley still smarting from being humiliated by John McCain and Blackwell busy with his various jobs with the Family Research Council, the Club for Growth, and Tom DeLay's Coalition for a Conservative Majority, the Texas Freedom Network reports that the efforts in Texas are still going strong, thanks to the committed backing of Gov. Rick Perry:
The governor’s disturbing mix of faith and militancy comes in an invitation to conservative evangelical pastors to attend a Texas Restoration Project event in Austin next month … The Pastors’ Policy Briefing on Oct. 9-10 in Austin will be the group’s eighth since May 2005. … According to the invitation, [Mike] Huckabee will be joining Gov. Perry at the Austin event next month. Other speakers will include David Barton, who is the former Texas Republican Party vice chairman and the founder of the Christian advocacy group WallBuilders, and Kelly Shackelford, head of Free Market Foundation, which is Focus on the Family’s Texas affiliate.
TFN has also posted the invitation sent out by Perry:
Both our nation and our Judeo Christian heritage are under attack by a force that is more dangerous than any threat our world has faced in recent memory. I am convinced that our ability to defeat the radical jihadists who threaten our nation will be significantly impacted by the prayers and leadership of America’s evangelical pastors.
"Rediscovering God in America” was created to inspire people of faith to engage the culture and bring America back to our worldwide standing as a beacon of hope, a city shining on a hill.
Because God entrusted you to care for and lead His flock, you can play a key role in restoring God to the center of American life, thus strengthening our nation to confront this looming threat.
While Congress occupies its time trying to legislate defeat in Iraq, we hope you will attend a Pastors’ Policy Briefing that will equip you to walk point in the war of values and ideas.
Rediscovering God in America-Austin is intended to remind us that excuses are not the proper strategy when facing evil and confronting enemies. Instead, we must rally godly people and seek God’s provision for the resources, the courage, and the strength necessary to win and, ultimately, glorify Him.
One thing that has always confused me is the Right Wing’s obsession with recounting the racist history of the Democratic Party and the anti-slavery origins of the Republican Party that inevitably seems to end right around the mid-1960s.
For example, we wrote a report about right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton a few years back that examined a video he produced called “American History in Black and White” in which he diligently recounts the atrocities committed by early members of what was then the Democratic Party and ties them into positions held by current members of the party:
Barton claims that Democrats hailed the Dred Scott decision because it affirmed “their belief that it was proper to have slavery and hold African Americans in bondage.” He then takes it a step further, making a direct comparison between this decision and modern Democrats’ support of reproductive choice for women, claiming “Democrats have largely taken that same position in unborn human life, that an unborn human is really just disposable property to do with as one wishes. African Americans were the victims of this disposable property ideology a century and a half ago, and still are today … For over a century and a half, Democrats have wrongly argued that some human life is merely disposable personal property and black Americans have suffered most under this philosophy.”
On and on he went, until he reached the for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, at which point his “history lesson” ended.
This tactic continues even today – just last week the Wall Street Journal ran a piece accusing the Democratic National Committee of posting a history of the party on its website that is “so sanitized of historical reality it makes Stalin look like historian David McCullough.” Not surprisingly, the WSJ piece received prominence on the website of the National Black Republican Association, whose leader, Frances Rice, has made it her mission to inform the world about what “Democrats have done in the past and are doing now to black people … They are keeping blacks in virtual slavery."
The obvious question raised by all of this is not why the Democrats are reluctant to discuss it, but why right-wingers who are obsessed with it never manage to explain the so-called “Southern Strategy” employed by Richard Nixon to win over traditional Southern Democrats who were angry by the party’s emerging pro-civil rights positions. As Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips explained it:
From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.
Ronald Regan’s strategist Lee Atwater was even more blunt about the reasoning behind the strategy:
“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”
Given that, beginning in the late 1960s, the GOP made a concerted and successful to court Southern voters who had traditionally been supporters of the Democratic Party which, as the Right loves to point out, was fundamentally racist, it has been confusing to understand how those who hammer this point rationalize this obvious disconnect. Usually, they do so by not talking about it.
But finally someone shed some light on this question when the NBRA’s Rice explained the history of the “Southern Strategy” at a sparsely attended conference earlier this month. You see, it was not that Nixon and the GOP were courting racist Southern voters; Nixon was really just trying to get the “fair-minded people in the South to stop discriminating against blacks”:
That strategy was designed to get the fair-minded people in the South to stop discriminating against blacks and to stop supporting a party that did not share their values. So those fair-minded ones who migrated to the Republican Party did so. They joined us, we did not join the racists.
If Rice's history is correct, how does she explain that both President Bush
and former RNC chair Ken Mehlman apologized for the Southern Strategy, with Mehlman admitting in 2005 that "Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
As we have noted several times in the past, David Barton of Wallbuilders likes to pass himself off as a historian committed to uncovering “America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built.” In reality, he is a Religious Right activist committed to spreading biased “history” for the benefit for the Republican Party – that is, after all, what they regularly pay him to do.
And so it is no surprise that he is out with a new document [PDF] just before the election designed to “help [Biblical voters] evaluate the candidates”:
According to the Bible (c.f., Deuteronomy 28; 1 Chronicles 21; 1 Kings 18), a nation’s righteousness is determined by its public policies and how well those policies conform to God’s standards …In America, the only way there will be God-honoring leaders is if God-honoring citizens elect them; so the first and foremost consideration in any election is whether the candidate will advance policies that promote Biblical standards of righteousness.
Barton asserts that while the Bible contains a “comprehensive system of 613 laws delivered through Moses in the Old Testament,” God prioritized what was most important by issuing his “Top Ten” list and that, while things like poverty, environment, health care, immigration, taxation might be important, they were not important enough to crack the top ten and are thus of lesser importance.
So what exactly does God consider the “highest ranking issues directly affecting national righteousness”? According to Barton, He cares primarily about judges, abortion, gays, and the public posting of the Ten Commandments:
This election will likely have a greater impact on the nation through the judiciary than any presidential election for the past three decades, for when the next President takes office in January 2009, six of the nine Supreme Court Justices will be at least 70 years old – and five of those six Justices have repeatedly struck down public policies friendly to Biblical values. Therefore, Biblical voters should make their selection for President based first and foremost on the type of judges he will appoint.
…
Defending the unborn must continue to remain a priority for Biblical voters. The right to life is the first of the three specifically enumerated inalienable rights set forth in our founding documents, and American government was established on the thesis that certain rights come from God and that government must protect those rights inviolable. Significantly, if a leader does not protect the inalienable right to life, then all other inalienable rights are likewise in jeopardy … where a candidate stands on the issue of abortion is of paramount importance not only for the sake of the unborn but also for the preservation of our other inalienable rights.
…
If a candidate is willing to accept, empower, and advance homosexuality, it is a clear indication that he does not embrace the moral absolutes of the Bible … While there are many areas specifically addressed by God’s moral law (e.g., adultery, pre-marital sex, etc.), only homosexuality is currently the focus of favorable political action. Therefore, where a candidate stands on that issue is one of the best indicators of whether he recognizes and embraces God’s moral absolutes.
…
Today, secularists have convinced many Americans to accept a compartmentalization of their faith, telling them that it is appropriate to acknowledge God at church, home, or in other private settings but not in public venues. If a candidate holds this position, it means that he is willing to disconnect God from what he does, and the entire nation is put at risk by leaders who compartmentalize faith. Biblical voters should select leaders who will seek to protect and expand rather than restrict or weaken the opportunity for the public acknowledgment of God and the inclusion of His principles in public venues.
It’s amazing how frequently God’s principles perfectly line up with the Religious Right’s political agenda.
Just last week we were noting that the recent surge of support among Religious Right leaders for John McCain seemed to hinge largely on his willingness to follow their advice and name Mike Huckabee as his running mate. But as decision-time nears and the campaign begins airing lists of candidates which don’t include Huckabee, these right-wing leaders sprung into action to, once again, make their opposition known to Mitt Romney, the presumed front-runner:
Prominent evangelical leaders are warning Sen. John McCain against picking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate, saying their troops will abandon the Republican ticket on Election Day if that happens.
They say Mr. Romney lacks trust on issues such as outlawing abortion and opposing same-sex marriage and because he is a Mormon. Opposition is particularly powerful among those who supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Republican presidential primaries earlier this year.
"McCain and Romney would be like oil and water," said evangelical novelist Tim LaHaye, who supported Mr. Huckabee. "We aren't against Mormonism, but Romney is not a thoroughgoing evangelical and his flip-flopping on issues is understandable in a liberal state like Massachusetts, but our people won't understand that."
…
David Barton, a former vice president of the Republican Party of Texas, said, "The key for Mr. McCain is to pick someone who opposes abortion but doesn't alienate any part of the general Republican voting coalition" as Mr. Romney does.
Longtime social-conservative leaders such as Phyllis Schlafly, Phil Burress, Donald P. Hodel and Mathew Staver said earlier this month that they can rally their voters around Mr. McCain largely on the issues of abortion and the judiciary, as long as they are confident that the vice-presidential candidate is pro-life. They are skeptical about Mr. Romney's views.
Mr. Barton, founder of the national pro-life group WallBuilders, said the downside for picking either Mr. Romney or Mr. Huckabee is that evangelicals still would vote for Mr. McCain on Nov. 4 - given the alternative of Mr. Obama - but not work as hard organizing and getting out the vote.
"Romney would bring to the ticket as much enthusiasm from supporters as Huckabee would bring, but Romney's would be from fiscal conservatives and Huckabee's would be evangelicals," he said.
Of course, Barton and just about every other person mentioned in this article just so happened to sign on to the Colorado letter that essentially warned McCain that he’d better pick Huckabee or else, so it is not as if they are disinterested observers.
Barton’s suggestion that Romney would generate a lot of excitement among fiscal conservatives is a little suspect given that the best that organizations like Club for Growth could say about him was that they were “reasonably optimistic that [he] would generally advocate a pro-growth agenda." It’s laughable to think that Romney would match among fiscal conservatives the rabid enthusiasm that Huckabee has had throughout the process from Religious Right leaders.
Even so, what Barton and the other Religious Right leaders quoted in the article seem to be doing is daring McCain to pick a side: us or them; bringing to a head a clash between social and fiscal conservatives that has been brewing ever since Republicans lost control of Congress back in 2006.
McCain was happy to campaign with Hagee and Parsley, until the media started to pick up their extreme views—thus risking McCain’s “moderate” image among many independent voters.
So what happens if and when people start hearing about McCain’s newfriends? If Hagee and Parsley are too much for McCain, voters may begin to wonder, what about these right-wing activists, some of whom are even further out there?
Does McCain endorse David Barton’s partisan pseudo-history of America as a “Christian nation”? Does McCain share Phil Burress’s view that Ohio’s anti-gay marriage amendment should have invalidated the state’s domestic violence law? What are McCain’s thoughts on Tim LaHaye’s warning that “Brilliant Jewish minds have all too frequently been devoted to philosophies that have proved harmful to mankind”? Does McCain believe, like Phyllis Schlafly, that women cannot be raped by their husbands, that the U.S. government is secretly plotting to merge with Mexico and Canada, or that Mexican immigrants are “invading” the U.S. and spreading disease? (For that matter, does this mean Schlafly has successfully “worked over” McCain?)
McCain will be tempted to ditch them, as he did Parsley and Hagee, but that only managed to anger the Religious Right. Mat Staver, who organized the recent pro-McCain meeting, complained of McCain’s abandonment of the televangelists he’d courted, “He threw them under the bus.” Right-wing strategist Mark DeMoss called it a “slap in the face to evangelicals who are already somewhat suspect of Senator McCain.” But keeping his Religious Right friends along may be a slap in the face to his poll numbers.
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