Posts on Lou Sheldon

During the recent Values Voter Summit, Gary Bauer warned that a dirty bomb was going to be detonated in Washington, DC at some time in the future and only John McCain could prevent/respond to it. 

But apparently Bauer was too late, as the Traditional Values Coalition declares that one has already been detonated in California:

In a deliberate act of judicial tyranny, the California Supreme Court dropped a dirty bomb on our entire nation. And its shock-wave impact is absolutely devastating---especially to every state that doesn’t yet have a marriage amendment.

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The impact of the homosexual marriage ruling in California will be devastating to every other state in the union without a marriage amendment in their constitution, if Prop 8 fails. The homosexual agenda is clear: They intend to use California as a staging area for an assault on the rest of the nation.

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Think of all the unintended consequences that we cannot even foresee at this time. Where will it end?

It’s your children, your grandchildren, their beliefs, your beliefs, your money, and your liberties that are at stake this election. Let’s work together to protect them. Let’s restore marriage to its Biblical and Holy significance of 1 man and 1 woman.

Let this be a lesson to all of us - when we think that the Right's rhetoric cannot get any more paranoid or overwrought, we can always count on TVC to surprise us. 

Considering that the battle over Proposition 8 is being fought right in Lou Sheldon's back yard, it was only a matter of time before the Traditional Values Coalition patriarch got directly involved: 

The campaign for a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage is going to local clergy.

On Tuesday, it made a stop in the Whittier area. The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition that is backing Proposition 8, gave a group of ministers some tips on campaigning. About 23 were present.

"We can give information on Proposition 8: why it's important, why we need it and why it's not discriminatory," Sheldon said in the meeting at the Zoe Christian Fellowship.

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"Homosexuals have the right to do what they please, but don't hijack a name that has been identified through history," he said.

"Let's be adult and understand that marriage is consummated between a man and a woman," Sheldon said. "Two men can't consummate a marriage. Two women can't."

I think Sheldon will be surprised to learn that gays and lesbians are fully capable of consummating marriages, once they are given the opportunity. 

In our quest to chronicle the increasingly over-the-top response that Sarah Palin is generating in the Religious Right, we'd be remiss if we didn't highlight this quote from notorious right-wing curmudgeon Lou Sheldon:

While Palin's pick is designed in part to woo disaffected Clinton voters, Palin overnight has become the darling of conservatives. Before her speech, "I thought I died and went to heaven,'' said the Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder of the California-based Traditional Values Coalition. The coalition is planning a nationwide get-out-the-vote effort.

Sheldon is the right-wing version of "Mikey" from the old Life Cereal commercials, in that he hates everything ... but he loves Sarah Palin.  That ought to tell you something.

With the passing of right-wing luminaries such as Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy in recent months, coupled with the aging of many of the Right’s traditional leaders, the movement itself appears to be in flux and some are getting worried about just what will become of it in the future.  Just last week, James Dobson voiced these concerns while addressing the National Religious Broadcasters Convention:

“It causes me to wonder who will be left to carry the banner when this generation of leaders is gone. The question is, will the younger generation heed the call? Who will defend the unborn child in the years to come? Who will plead for the Terri Schiavos of the world? Who’s going to fight for the institution of marriage, which is on the ropes today.”

The emerging conventional wisdom is that the Religious Right is on the verge of being replaced by a “new evangelical” movement that shares the old-guard’s opposition to gays and abortion, but also cares about issues like poverty and the environment.  The standard-bearer of this “new breed” is Mike Huckabee who, as he puts it, drinks “a different kind of Jesus juice” than the traditional leaders and routinely says things like this: 

I don’t see [the right-wing movement] going into decline. I see it going into a maturing process. I think the issues are going to broaden and force Evangelicals to expand their horizons of concerns to poverty, disease, issues of education and homelessness. These are issues that I think are going to become increasingly important along with the environment as part of an overall focus that you’re going to see from - I would use a broader term - values voters - that would include not only Evangelicals but also Catholics and conservative Jewish voters as well.

Of course, just because a bunch of young upstarts think that caring about the environment is important doesn’t mean that the old-guard has any interest in broadening their agenda.  As we noted last year, when the National Association of Evangelicals started to voice concerns about the environment and global warming, right-wing stalwarts like Dobson, Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, Gary Bauer, Rick Scarborough, and Paul Weyrich dashed off an angry letter essentially demanding that the NAE fire its own Vice President over it.

The NAE didn’t back down, but the Right didn’t give up.  Instead, they formed their own organization, the American Environmental Coalition, and now seek "to bring balance to the debate by being an alternative source of reliable information to Americans who seek the best way forward for our country.” 

It has been nearly three years since fourteen senators - seven Democrats and seven Republicans – hammered out a deal that preserved the use of the filibuster on judicial nominees and, judging by an article in the New York Times, the Right still hasn’t gotten over it:

Back in 2005, Senator John McCain of Arizona and fellow members of the so-called Gang of 14 were hailed as heroes in some quarters when they fashioned an unusual pact that averted a Senate vote on banning filibusters against judicial nominees.

Now Mr. McCain’s central role in that effort, which cleared the way for confirmation of some conservative jurists, is cited as one reason for lingering distrust of him among many conservatives. The power to appoint federal judges is seen as one of the most crucial presidential roles by many on the right, and some continue to believe the agreement undermined the Republican leadership at the precise moment the party was about to eliminate the ability to use procedural tactics to block judges.

James C. Dobson, an influential conservative leader, noted Mr. McCain’s role in the bipartisan Gang of 14 in his announcement that he could not support the lawmaker as the Republican nominee under any circumstances. Other conservatives still resent it as well.

“When people hear he was part of the Gang of 14, it leaves a bad taste in their mouths,” said Phil Burress, president of the Citizens for Community Values, based in Ohio.

Considering that, thanks to the deal, President Bush managed to seat right-wing ideologues such as William Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown, and Priscilla Owen on the federal bench – not to mention John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court – a lot of people have been wondering just what the Right is so upset about and why they insist on holding McCain’s participation against him.  

In short, they were outraged, and seemingly continue to be outraged, that Senate Republicans failed to take advantage of an opportunity to jettison tradition in order to squash Democrats beneath their feet. 

The “nuclear option” -- as the proposed attempt to do away with the filibuster was known despite Republican attempts to rechristen it the “constitutional option” -- was first floated back in 2003 in response to filibusters against Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen.    Immediately, the Right rallied behind the idea, with groups like Committee for Justice, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Center for Reclaiming America, Concerned Women for America, and the American Center for Law and Justice all serving as vocal advocates. 

When, two years later, their attempts to destroy the filibuster and squash the Democrats were seemingly thwarted by the "Gang of 14," the Right was apoplectic, as we chronicled in the days that followed the announcement:

Even though the Republican primary process hasn’t yet come to a close thanks to Mike Huckabee’s stubborn refusal to withdraw and allow the “coronation” of John McCain, some on the Right seem to be looking ahead and preparing for the general election against the presumed Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. 

TVC - whose leader, Lou Sheldon, had backed the failed candidacy of Mitt Romney - explains:

[I]t is essential that voters understand exactly what Barack and his wife Michelle believe in – and what they plan for America if elected as President and First Lady.

As more information becomes available about this first-term Senator with no discernible accomplishments in the Senate, the more concerned voters are becoming.

TVC informs us that, in his past, Obama not only had “a Communist mentor,” but also “a socialist mentor” and “a black power mentor.”  That would be bad enough, but it is nothing compared to his wife Michelle, who gave what TVC calls a “Hitler-like” speech.  TVC declared that the speech contained “frightening authoritarian statements” about how her husband might “rule our nation.”

What scared TVC was this:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

You have to stay at the seat at the table of democracy with a man like Barack Obama not just on Tuesday but in a year from now, in four years from now, in eights years from now, you will have to be engaged.

We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another -- that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation."

Whether or not you support her husband’s candidacy, Michelle Obama’s speech strikes us as more akin to JFK’s “ask not” speech than to something from a Nuremberg rally.  But then the Right has had many years of experience launching scurrilous accusations against Hillary Clinton and her husband, and they’re just getting started on the Obamas - though so far they have managed to allege that he is secretly a Muslim while also saying that his “Christianity [is] woefully deficient,” comparing him to Karl Marx and Fidel Castro while his wife “spits like a cobra” and is plagued by “narcissism.”

But TVC has clearly set a high bar, managing to cite Hitler, Muammar el-Quadaffi, and the communist threat all in one attack piece.  Who’s gonna top that?

It looks like The Traditional Values Coalition’s front-group, the Christian Seniors Association, is again mailing out its bogus “U.S. Taxpayer Census” forms in an attempt to extort donations from confused senior citizens:

Local seniors who contacted this newspaper said they found the letter they received from the Christian Seniors Association confusing, saying at first glance it appears to be a government mailing of some kind.

On the front of the document, in large block letters, are the words "U.S. Taxpayer Census" and a seal similar in design to the U.S. official seal. (The official seal of the United States, which features an eagle holding arrows in one claw and olive leaves in the other, differs in detail from the design on the letter).

Also printed on the front of each letter are the words, "Census Document #" (followed by a 11-digit number) and the words "assigned to:" (followed by the recipient's name).

Inside, the form further identifies itself as a "U.S. Taxpayer Census on the Social Security Preservation Act (HR 219).

In smaller print at the bottom of the first page of the document, the mailing is identified as "a special citizen action project of Christian Seniors Association, a division of Traditional Values Coalition."

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The monetary appeal portion of the letter has check boxes next to suggested donation amounts of $15; $25; $50; $100; $250; $500 and "other."

Alternatively, seniors are invited to donate $8 to cover the "cost of tabulating my census and delivering results to Congress," if the recipient feels they are unable to make "a substantial contribution" in the amounts suggested above.

It is no surprise that TVC would stoop to this sort of fundraising tactic considering that, according to their most recent tax filing, their “total net assets” are -$4,288,151.  

Rudy Giuliani announces that anti-Affirmative Action crusader Ward Connerly will be among those representing his campaign in the California Republican primary election, while Mitt Romney announces that Lou Sheldon will be among his delegates.

"As a Christian minister, understanding fully as an evangelical Christian, this man has those values and belief systems that will absolutely give this nation the direction that it needs," said Traditional Values Coalition founder Lou Sheldon---but "this man" is Romney, not minister Huckabee. More effective: Jay Sekulow, ACU's David Keene, and Mark DeMoss conference-calling 20,000 households.

A word of warning to those who live in Florida:  your state is going to be over-run by right-wingers this September. 

On September 20-22, a who’s who of the Right will be in Tampa for the Family Impact Summit.  Featuring the likes of Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Don Wildmon, Richard Land, Katherine Harris, and Bob Knight, the conference will offer a wide array of panels on everything from the “Homosexual Agenda,” “Homosexuality & Youth,” and “Homosexuality & Ministry” to workshops on “New and relevant research on homosexuality.” 

In between the gay-bashing, there will also be panels on “Christian Citizenship” and “Community Decency,” as well as keynote addresses from Bauer, Perkins, Ken Blackwell, and Harry Jackson.  

What you won’t find at this summit, as of yet, is GOP presidential candidates – even though most of them are reportedly scheduled to be attending the “Values Voter Debate” in Fort Lauderdale on September 17, which is being hosted by a separate, but not mutually exclusive, group of influential right-wing leaders.  

The debate is being sponsored by the people who brought us the “Values Voters’ Contract With Congress,” which was itself launched at Vision America’s “War on Christian and Values Voters Conference” in 2006 and supported by right-wing stalwarts such as Phyllis Schlafly, Alan Keyes, Lou Sheldon, Janet Folger, D. James Kennedy, Rod Parsley, and others.

The contract called on Congress to pass an array of specific legislation - such as the Constitution Restoration Act and the Pledge Protection Act - as well as general legislation that would “ensure that speech and lawful religious expression are never punished as a ‘hate crime’” and protect Americans against “judges who legislate from the bench subvert [and] our republican form of government” in order to, among other things:  

AFFIRM the national relationship with God in our places of worship, schools, mottos, and public spaces

SECURE our national interest in the institutions of marriage and family

SECURE our fundamental right as parents to the care, custody, and control of our children

SECURE our God-bestowed right to life

SECURE an environment of decency that is free from pornography and obscenity

Seven of nine Republican hopefuls have reportedly accepted an invitation to “Values Voter Debate,” though it the organizers have not disclosed who is and is not attending.  They certainly have high hopes for their event, noting that low voter turnout in the primary election means that “if just a fraction of the values voters come out to vote in the primaries…WE will pick the candidate who will win the nomination.”

And picking the GOP candidate is especially important because what they really have their eye on the Supreme Court and "it is now ‘fourth and goal.’ One more judge. One more president. One more chance. The question is, will you take it?” 

One of the most notoriously anti-gay groups on the Religious Right has taken its “traditional values” in an unusual direction – joining the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to counter a bill in Congress that would set stricter fuel-economy standards. From the AP:

The lawmakers were joined by leaders with the United Auto Workers, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, who said families needed roomy, safe vehicles.

We’ve seen the Religious Right’s expansion of their agenda -- to pension policy, terrorism, and tax cuts – before, at least around election time, when right-wing activists worked to promote the Republican Party. But this issue isn’t so clearly partisan, making the participation of Sheldon – called “Lucky Louie” by corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who allegedly sent TVC tens of thousands of dollars to work on behalf of his clients – all the more mysterious.

Mitt Romney has been aggressively courting the Religious Right for months, slowly recruiting supporters from among the cadre of full-time activists. Earlier this year he scored Pat Robertson’s superlawyer Jay Sekulow, along with Gary Marx of the Judicial Confirmation Network and James Bopp, a prominent anti-abortion attorney.

Last week Romney’s campaign announced the formation of its National Faith and Values Steering Committee, a list of 50 better- and lesser- known religious-right figures. Among the co-chairmen of the committee are Sekulow, Marx, Bopp, Matthew Spaulding of the Heritage Foundation, Barbara Comstock of the Susan B. Anthony List (an anti-abortion PAC), and Jack Templeton, head of the Templeton Foundation and Let Freedom Ring – suggesting the kind of “values” Romney hopes to be absorbing from this caucus.

Most newsworthy was the endorsement of Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition and one of the most fervently anti-gay activists in the country. Nicknamed “Lucky Louie” by imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who directed a gambling company to donate generously to TVC in exchange for support on legislation, Sheldon is the author of “The Agenda: The Homosexual Plan to Change America,” an agenda he describes as “an attack on everything our Founding Fathers hoped to give us,” consisting of Hitler-like propaganda designed to “recruit” children. “As Homosexuals continue to make inroads into public schools, more children will be molested and indoctrinated into the world of homosexuality. Many of them will die in that world,” he wrote in one “special report.”

"When I give my support for a candidate, I am giving the green light, if he wins, all the way down the line in terms of so many moral and social issues," Sheldon recently said. Sheldon joined other big-name religious-right leaders in a meeting with Romney last fall, and he recently met with the candidate for five hours, leaving with a promise that Romney would swear his oath of office on the Bible, not the Book of Mormon. “My thinking is that Mitt Romney is a person with the experience and with the Jude[o-]Christian moral values,” Sheldon told CBN’s David Brody, adding that he’d “been around Mormons long enough to know that … they are sincere about” Jesus.

Other religious-right activists on Romney’s committee include Christian Coalition board member Drew McKissic, Jay Sekulow’s son Jordan, anti-immigration writer James Edwards, and leaders or activists associated with the Alliance Defense Fund, Iowa Christian Alliance (formerly the Christian Coalition of Iowa), Heartbeat International, Legacy Law Foundation, and Citizens for Traditional Values.

Rudy Giuliani has already scored “negative endorsements” from right-wing leaders such as James Dobson, Richard Land, and Richard Viguerie and it looks as if he can now add the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins to that list:

"Speaking as a private citizen, no, no, I could not support (Giuliani)," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which has about a half-million members. "The 20 years I've been involved in politics, the life issue has been at the very top. How could I turn my back on that?"

Perkins said that should Giuliani win the nomination, he would vote for a third-party candidate who reflected his values. "It wouldn't be the first time," Perkins added in an interview last week.

A potential Giuliani win in the primary also appears to be a grave concern to a few other right-wing figures:

"When I give my support for a candidate, I am giving the green light, if he wins, all the way down the line in terms of so many moral and social issues," said [Lou] Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, which represents 43,000 churches. "I'm personally not supporting Giuliani," he added. Sheldon is backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the primaries.

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"Where Mayor Giuliani is today, I absolutely could not support him” …said Pat Mahoney, executive director of the Christian Defense Coalition.

But that whole dynamic could change, says Mahoney, with just two words – “and those two words are Hillary Clinton.”

Mahoney, like Sheldon, said that if Giuliani pledges to support conservative "strict constructionist" jurists -- who do not believe the Constitution mandates a federal right to abortion -- to the Supreme Court, the prominent social conservatives could vote Republican in the 2008 election. Sheldon added that support for a third-party candidate is a "wasted vote."

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"I have talked to many Christian leaders privately, and I don't know of any faith-based evangelical or Catholic organization, pro-family, pro-life, that could support Rudy Giuliani and stand with him," Mahoney said. "But on a personal level," he added, should Giuliani face a Democrat in the general election, "then what are you faced with? You are faced with appointments to the Supreme Court that could be two or three. It is a moral and spiritual dilemma."

So not one right-wing leader is willing to endorse Giuliani, but apparently their fear of Hillary Clinton and for the future of the Supreme Court might just be enough to get some of them to abandon everything they claim to stand for.

Mahoney claims that the Right is facing a “moral and spiritual dilemma,” but what they are really facing is a political dilemma because their primary concern is that if they refuse to back Giuliani and he ends up winning not only the GOP nomination but the presidency, their hold on the Republican Party will have been dealt a devastating blow.

And the Right’s dilemma is not just limited to a potential Giuliani nomination – it plagues them with all of the current Republican frontrunners. If they don’t back Romney, Thompson, McCain or whoever becomes the GOP nominee and that candidate wins the White House, the Right is going to be left out in the cold. But if they do back one of the current frontrunners, they will in essence be admitting that their political power is more important than their self-described principles.

Ironic as it may be, the Right’s best hope for 2008 might just be to stand back from the presidential campaign and election altogether and hope that the GOP’s nominee loses, at which point they will be well-positioned to trot out their standard line about how the Republicans lost because they abandoned their right-wing base and quickly re-establish themselves as the GOP’s source of electoral power.

Due to hate-crimes bill. Dobson, Perkins call for action. More from Sheldon, Barber and LaBarbera. CWA, FRC, and Dobson applaud veto threat.

And his alliance with virulently anti-gay activists.