Gary Bauer

Bauer Clarifies for Thompson

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 8/23/2007 2:59 pm
Last week, perpetual presidential water-tester Fred Thompson was asked by CNN if he would “actively push a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage?" His answer was pretty clear:
Yes, yes, I think that with regard to gay marriage you have a full-faith-and-credit issue. I don't think one state ought to be able to pass a law requiring gay marriage, or allowing gay marriage, and have another state be required to follow along, under full faith and credit. There's some exceptions and exemptions for that.
Shortly thereafter, he issued a “clarification”:
In an interview with CNN today, former Senator Fred Thompson’s position on constitutional amendments concerning gay marriage was unclear. Thompson believes that states should be able to adopt their own laws on marriage consistent with the views of their citizens. … Fred Thompson does not support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
So does Thompson support or oppose this proposed constitutional amendment? Nobody really seems to know – except, of course, Gary Bauer:
American Values president Gary Bauer believes Thompson's campaign fumbled the ball, and he calls the flap the "growing pains" of a campaign that is trying to get started. "A number of us have met privately with Senator Thompson, and he's made it absolutely clear that he opposes same-sex marriage," says Bauer. During that conversation, Bauer shares, the former senator voluntarily explained that while he is a federalist -- that is, he favors states making most of the important decisions affecting them -- he also realizes there are some things that cannot be left to the states. "And [he said] one of those is marriage," says the American Values president. "[He said that] marriage, if it's going to be between a man and a woman, has to be between a man and a woman in every state." Bauer also points out that when Thompson served in the U.S. Senate, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act. … Bauer expects "further clarification" from Team Thompson in the next few days that will make if "absolutely clear that [Thompson] does support a federal marriage amendment." And although he acknowledges that such legislation will be almost impossible to pass, Bauer believes the pro-family movement will want to support a candidate who favors such an amendment.

The Right Set to Converge On Florida in September

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 8/14/2007 9:12 am

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?” 

Religious Right Claims Others Can't Be Christian, Have Values

Submitted by Anonymous on Friday, 8/10/2007 10:03 am

The Family Research Council is launching a project aimed at convincing its supporters before the 2008 election that liberal politicians “are spouting God-talk” in order to “confuse people of faith” and hide their “true agenda.” Invoking the Religious Right’s recent favored phrase for its imagined constituency – as well as the “Swift Boat” campaign of 2004 – the so-called “Values Voters for Truth” campaign is an attempt to vilify liberals – and, obviously, Democratic candidates – as enemies of Christianity who are undertaking a conspiracy to “deceive and split values voters.” From a recent fundraising letter from FRC Action:

Our relentless effort to reveal the facts about the Left’s true agenda is already under way. It will not stop until the last vote of the 2008 election has been cast. The Values Voters for Truth campaign will partner with organizations in all 50 states—and at the national level. We will mobilize values voters, engage them in the war of ideas, and keep them informed and involved.

We will rally churches to the cause. And by God’s grace, we will neutralize our opponents’ deceptive tactics.

As an example of this supposed “fraud,” the letter cites a Democratic presidential candidate who spoke of his “belief in Christ” and also supports civil unions for gay couples. Similarly, the letter warns that a candidate noting a “biblical call to feed the hungry” also voted against an anti-abortion bill. A third candidate is denounced for the “hypocrisy” of wanting to let gay couples adopt children. According to FRC, these supposed contradictions indicate that Democrats discussing their faith and values is merely “lip service,” part of a “campaign of deception” that led directly to the Democrats winning control of Congress in the 2006 elections.

The Never-Ending “War on Christians”

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 8/1/2007 4:07 pm

Somehow, over the course of the last several years, loud voices on the Right have managed to convince huge numbers of Christians in thriving congregations that they are somehow under attack by all things secular -- from progressives, feminists and the culture in general to the government and the courts.

A key technique in this bogus "us-against-them" rabble-rousing is planting the idea that Christians are victimized on every front. Right-wing activists, pundits, and leaders seek to spin any and all developments in a manner that suggests they and all Christians in America are being constantly discriminated against and harassed.

At Vision America’s “The War on Christians and Values Voters” conference in 2006, right-wing activists spent two days telling one another horror stories about how people were supposedly being arrested simply for sharing their faith or losing their jobs for standing up to a government hostile to Christianity, citing ousted Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore and ousted Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt as the two most high-profile examples – Klingenschmitt ever went so far as to compare himself to Abdul Rahman, the man who faced a potential death sentence for converting to Christianity in Afghanistan.

Since then, the idea that Christians are under attack has been a standard rallying cry for the Right, cropping up most recently in their opposition to hate crimes legislation which they claim will lead to “open persecution” of Christians and pastors being dragged from the pulpit and thrown in jail.

So ingrained has this idea become on the Right that they are always on the look-out for new evidence that Christians are being victimized – and columnist, pundit, and blogger Michelle Malkin claims to have found the latest example in the group of South Korean Christians being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan:  

Across Asia, media coverage is 24/7. Strangers have held nightly prayer vigils. But the human rights crowd in America has been largely AWOL. And so has most of our mainstream media. Among some of the secular elite, no doubt, is a blame-the-victim apathy: The missionaries deserved what they got. What were they thinking bringing their message of faith to a war zone? Didn't they know they were sitting ducks for Muslim head-choppers whose idea of evangelism is "convert or die"?

I noted the media shoulder-shrugging about jihadist targeting of Christian missionaries five years ago during the kidnapping and murder of American Christian missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham in the Philippines. The silence is rooted in viewing committed Christians as alien others. At best, there is a collective callousness. At worst, there is outright contempt -- from Ted Turner's reference to Catholics as "Jesus freaks" to CBS producer Roxanne Russell's casual insult of former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer as "the little nut from the Christian group" to the mockery of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.

So the fact that media coverage has been round-the-clock in Asian nations but not round-the-clock here in the US has less to do with the fact the victims are, you know, from South Korea than it does with the fact that US media is openly hostile to Christians? 

You really have to marvel at the Right’s ability to use the kidnapping and murder of South Korean Christians in Afghanistan in order to suggest that it is really Christians here in America that are under attack.  

Supreme Court's Rightward Lurch Will Motivate Right in 2008

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 8/1/2007 9:26 am

The Supreme Court’s past term made clear its lurch to the right following the appointment of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, as outlined in a recent People For the American Way Foundation report. Awareness of this fact has spread from legal analysts to the general public: A new Washington Post/ABC poll shows less than half of Americans think the Court is balanced, and 31 percent think it’s too conservative – up from 19 percent two years ago. This was the context for Sen. Chuck Schumer’s speech at the American Constitution Society last week. “There is no doubt we were hoodwinked,” he said of the confirmation hearings.

Nevertheless, right-wing activists maintain that, despite their victory in confirming Roberts and Alito and the obvious rightward tilt of the last term, the Supreme Court remains a “bastion” of liberalism. "After decades of liberal judicial activism on so many issues, the court's position remains decidedly on the left,” said Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Gingrich Skirts Armageddon Issue

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 7/19/2007 5:04 pm

This week in Washington, DC, Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) held its annual convention to promote the religious-right’s support of Israel. Amid an evening featuring Gary Bauer and Rod Parsley and the bashing of the United Nations, European Union, State Department, and Jimmy Carter as enemies of the state of Israel, rumored presidential candidate Newt Gingrich provided a relatively innocuous keynote address. Well, relative in the sense that Gingrich outlined his hawkish post-9/11 worldview as opposed to discussing Israel’s role in the impending rapture.

Most of the CUFI constituents in the audience appeared to agree with Hagee’s views regarding the rapidly approaching judgment day.  As we highlighted earlier this year when John McCain was courting CUFI, Hagee’s apocalyptic foreign policy views aren’t exactly mainstream.  So what explains Gingrich’s presence at an event hosted by Hagee, whose judgments are shaped by a belief in a biblically predestined war between Israel and Iran, and the worldwide rule of the Antichrist in the form of the head of the European Union?

Gingrich, who offered up a slightly modified stump speech, making mention of the need for strength and perseverance in the face of war and references to the importance of America’s Christian heritage, is apparently looking to build right-wing support for a potential presidential bid without publicly embracing the conferees’ most extreme ideas.

Catholics Against Rudy, But For Thompson?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 7/16/2007 4:36 pm

A few months ago, the New York Observer reported that various right-wing Catholic activists were gearing up to target Rudy Giuliani’s campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.  

One of those efforts, Catholics Against Rudy, is in the process of gearing up while the other, headed by Joseph Cella of Fidelis, doesn’t yet have much to show for its bold goals:

Mr. Cella says that the organization will try to provide a comprehensive, Web-based “clearinghouse” of issue-based opposition research, and that it will also engage in the distribution of more traditional negative literature, as when the group recruited a handful of volunteers to network and pass out its anti-Rudy materials at the South Carolina debate earlier this month.

“More is afoot—not just from us, but others,” said Mr. Cella, who has also served as an editor at the popular conservative Web site Redstate.com. “It will be edgy. Creative. Hard-hitting.”

Cella and his organization, Fidelis, seem to exist primarily to level accusations of “anti-Catholic” bigotry against Democrats, which is why his anti-Giuliani work was interesting … and which makes this development all the more intriguing:

Now the Christian right is eyeing former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, who is thought to be on the verge of entering the race. And Thompson is waging a rigorous behind-the-scenes effort to win its support.

U.S. News has learned that [Fred] Thompson recently hired Bill Wichterman, who served as conservative outreach director for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Joseph Cella, president of a conservative Catholic group called Fidelis, to lead the effort. The aides are arranging more meetings between Thompson and conservative Christian leaders and have launched a rapid-response operation to fend off attacks on Thompson's conservative credentials.

But Cella is not the only right-wing figure that Thompson has approached - and he seems to be winning a lot of converts:

The Right's "Muted Reaction" to Thompson's Lobbying

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 7/16/2007 3:22 pm
The Politico reports that right-wing leaders are none-too-concerned about reports that Fred Thompson lobbied for an abortion-rights group. Gary Bauer says it is a "nonissue" and Tony Perkins says he's "really not" concerned and that the issue "is becoming so old.”

Bauer Reiterates Support for Mosque Monitoring

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, 6/25/2007 11:44 am

After men were arrested for plotting to attack the Fort Dix army base, right-wing activist and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer called for an investigation into U.S. mosques, warning that Saudi money was fomenting extremism across the country. “Let the ACLU howl about ‘religious freedom,’” wrote Bauer. Now Bauer is applauding a Justice Department order that cleared out prison chapel libraries of books ranging from “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” to Christian tracts to Islamic texts. The Bureau of Prisons also called for audio and video monitoring of prison worship areas.

No word from prison evangelist and religious-right commentator Charles Colson – he’s been busy warning that “Islam is a vicious, evil … Islamo-fascism is evil incarnate.”

Seeming to echo those sentiments, Bauer’s praise for the crackdown on inmate religion is limited to its effects on Muslims, and he goes further, warning of “the extremists who are not behind bars” and calling for the government to monitor mosques. To justify spying on houses of worship, Bauer asserts that this is something Christians aren’t bothered by:

Bauer says he and most Christians do not fear someone from the federal government sitting in their church and listening to a typical sermon, so mosques should not be bothered by it either.

Mark Your Calendars

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/25/2007 11:15 am

Prepare yourself, because the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, American Values, and the Alliance Defense Fund announced that they will be hosting a follow-up to last year’s “Values Voters Summit.”

Apparently not only are they committed to mobilizing their activists for 2008, they are also hoping to influence the primaries as well, which would explain why they’ve scheduled the event a full year in advance of the actual election:

FRC Action President Tony Perkins and cosponsors Dr. James Dobson, Gary Bauer and Alan Sears will once again be joined by a distinguished line-up of speakers addressing grassroots leaders from across the country.

"This event is a call to action for voter participation, education and training and a rallying event for people who want to transform the political landscape on issues such as the sanctity of life and marriage, religious freedom, health care, radical Islam, judicial activism, immigration reform, geopolitics, the media and much more," said FRC Action President Tony Perkins.

But more importantly, the organizers state that “this year, all 2008 presidential hopefuls and a number of noteworthy conservative leaders will be invited to speak.” 

Does that include Democratic candidates?  That remains to be seen.  

Rest assured, we’ll be keeping an eye on developments to see just which “presidential hopefuls” agree to join the likes of James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Gary Bauer at this year’s summit.  

Bauer References Manhattan Project in Attacking Immigration

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 6/20/2007 3:54 pm

In a recent anti-immigration e-mail rant to his supporters, Gary Bauer assailed the federal government for failing to protect the border against a supposed “invasion”:

My friends, this is not the hallmark of a serious nation at war, intent on defending its homeland. If these same bureaucrats were running the government during World War II, America would not have developed the atomic bomb until the 1970s.

Bauer’s position on border enforcement notwithstanding, his remark curiously alludes to one of the greatest immigration success stories in American history. Many of the principal scientists involved in the Manhattan Project and the building of the atomic bomb were foreign-born immigrants, including the Italian Enrico Fermi, German-born Hans Bethe, and Hungary-native Edward Teller. The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr was here under what one could call a “temporary worker program.”   

As Bauer’s own example points out, those born outside of America have made valuable contributions to U.S. society. Who knows, maybe without immigrants, the U.S. might not have developed the atomic bomb until the 1970s.

Theologian-in-Chief

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/18/2007 5:10 pm

One of the key issues facing GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney in the primary is whether evangelical Republican grassroots voters will be willing to cast a vote for a Mormon:

Here's the problem with electing a Mormon president, as Jason Thurman sees it: "I don't believe he would be guided by God."

Thurman, 26, is tidying the annotated Bibles in the Shepherd's Fold bookstore. Over by the rack of Christian CDs, his co-worker Marty Thomas raises a similar concern.

"When it comes right down to it," says Thomas, 40, "a Mormon's strength is human. A Christian person's strength is superhuman. I want [a president] who has that extra on his side."

In an attempt to counter this problem, Romney met with various right-wing leaders last year in an attempt to ease their concerns about his religion:

Romney, who is ramping up preparations for a 2008 campaign, huddled privately at his Belmont home last Thursday with about a dozen evangelicals, including conservative activist Gary Bauer, president of the group American Values, and Richard Land, a prominent leader in the Southern Baptist Convention.

The meetings have touched on several themes, participants say, but two topics being discussed are Romney's religious beliefs and how he should address his faith as the campaign progresses.

…

At last week's meeting at Romney's home, Land said, he told the governor that voters want "a commander in chief, not a theologian in chief."

Romney has continued to emphasize the idea that the President is "commander in chief, not a theologian in chief" and it has obviously paid off to the extent that last week he announced the backing of several high-profile right-wing leaders such as James Bopp, Jay Sekulow, and Lou Sheldon who have quickly begun parroting  this talking point:

Sheldon says Romney has "an across the board appeal" to evangelical conservatives, business, and the average American worker. "He's not running for the head of any ministeriam or denomination or the pope -- he's running for a secular office that is called for secular issues," explains Sheldon. "And he has, I think, the moral and ethical basis to be a strong conservative in that office."

So Romney’s Mormon faith shouldn’t be a problem for evangelical voters, or any other voter for that matter, because he’s running for a secular position.  Of course, these right-wing leaders only seem to feel comfortable saying this after they’d had a chance to personally grill Romney about his faith:    

"He reads the Bible regularly. He has said -- and I asked him -- that he has received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior," [Sheldon] declares. "He believes that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, only Son of God divine, and was crucified, buried and raised from the dead for our behalf. So, I think as he addresses those issues, that's certainly going to ignite good feeling [among Christians]."

Or as CBN’s David Brody reported:

Reverend Lou Sheldon, Chairman of Traditional Values Coalition and one of the members of Mitt Romney's Faith and Values Steering Committee, told The Brody File that he asked Mitt Romney point blank whether he would put his hand on the Bible or the Book of Mormon if he is ever sworn in as President of the United States.

His answer? The Bible.

Sheldon told me he spent nearly five hours with Mitt and Anne Romney and came away very impressed.

After all that time grilling Romney about his religious beliefs, it seems a little odd for Sheldon to turn around and dismiss others’ concerns about the candidate’s faith as irrelevant, especially since Sheldon described the presidency as a “secular office” only after having intensely questioned Romney about the tenets of his faith and determining that they meet Sheldon’s approval.

Gary Bauer’s Amnesia

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/11/2007 5:15 pm

As we noted a few months ago, Gary Bauer has somehow managed to magically distance himself from his ties to John McCain’s campaign to such an extent that he is now routinely quoted discussing McCain’s current difficulties making in-roads with the Right.

For instance, Bauer made an appearance in a recent McClatchy article on McCain’s faith:

McCain "seems to have a difficulty in discussing it in terms that people relate to," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading conservative evangelical organization. "I think people want a sense of where someone stands in their relationship with the Lord. I think George Bush was able to do that in the way he communicated, using terms that evangelicals are familiar with."

…

Perkins and Gary Bauer, key players in advancing the Christian conservative agenda in Washington, said they knew virtually nothing about McCain's religious life.

So Bauer now claims to know “virtually nothing” about McCain’s faith?  That certainly didn’t seem to be much of an obstacle when he endorsed him back in 2000 or went on “Hannity and Colmes” to flack for him:

But that whole speech was an attempt to appeal to members of the Christian Coalition by saying over and over again, "I am pro-life. I'm pro-family. I want to stop abortion. I want to stop the gay rights movement. Here's my own personal faith," et cetera, et cetera.

The speech in question was McCain’s infamous “agents of intolerance” speech - which Bauer played a role in drafting, by the way – where McCain also declared:

This is my faith, the faith that unites and never divides, the faith that bridges unbridgeable gaps in humanity. That is my religious faith and it is the faith I want my party to serve, and the faith I hold in my country. It is the faith that we are all equal and endowed by our creator with unalienable rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the faith I would die to defend.

Maybe the two never discussed their faith in-depth back in 2000, but that didn’t stop Bauer from proudly endorsing and defending McCain in his campaign against George W. Bush.  Yet seven years later,  Bauer seems to have completely forgotten all about it.  

Moderators, Huckabee Miss Point: Whether Creationism Taught in Public School

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 6/6/2007 5:44 pm

In last night’s Republican presidential debate, moderators returned to the subject of evolution, pressing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee:

Huckabee gave an elegant answer to the inept question -- “I’m not planning on writing the curriculum for an eight-grade science book. I’m asking for the opportunity to be president of the United States,” he said. The idea that the president won't set science curriculum seems to echo the conservative view of federal versus state policymaking authority, but in practice the president may have a role doing just that.

In the midst of a heightened period of debate two years ago over teaching “Intelligent Design” creationism in public school science class, culminating in a federal judge repudiating the Dover, Pennsylvania school board, President Bush spoke out in favor of injecting creationism into curriculum, helping to legitimize ID proponents’ case. “With the president endorsing it, at the very least it makes Americans who have that position more respectable, for lack of a better phrase,” said Gary Bauer.

And the president’s role may even extend beyond shaping the terms of debate to setting actual policy. During congressional debate over Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind education plan, among the provisions considered was the so-called Santorum Amendment, containing language designed to make ID an integral part of science standards across the country. Although the amendment was rejected, confusion around the legislation caused many ID supporters (including Santorum) to imply that it was law. At the very least, this shows that a future president could potential be in position to implement an anti-evolution policy for public schools.

As we noted after the last debate, Huckabee expressed support for teaching creationism when governor of Arkansas. Last night, while Huckabee seemed to state that the theory of evolution is incompatible with belief in God, he correctly noted that his personal belief (much less his understanding of science) does not necessarily bear on public policy. But the policy question of whether creationism belongs in public school science class, on the other hand, is very relevant to the job.

(Via Ross Douthat.)

McCain’s Continuing Struggles to Win Over the Right

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 6/1/2007 12:53 pm

US News and World Report’s Dan Gilgoff reports that two staffers hired by John McCain’s presidential campaign to make inroads with the Right have been fired and are now blasting the campaign’s “contempt for Christians”:

Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes of religious voters without having to develop serious ties to faith communities. The aides, who were fired in early April after roughly three months on the job, said the campaign staff declined to return scores of their phone calls and E-mail messages, denied them access to leaders of the McCain campaign, and pressed them to collect church directories—a controversial tactic—as the centerpiece of a strategy to woo "values" voters.

"In the end, you came away with the strong sense that they had contempt for the faith-based community," says Marlene Elwell, one of those fired staffers. Elwell, a prominent Christian-right activist, was hired by McCain in December 2005 to be national director of his "Americans of Faith" coalition. "The way we were being treated it was as if we had leprosy."

…

[T]he other fired staffer, Judy Haynes—a former top Christian Coalition official hired to work under Elwell—had an assessment similar to Elwell's, saying in a separate interview that the campaign exhibited "a contempt for Christians."

Elwell and Haynes say that they were routinely denied access to McCain’s campaign manager and senior strategist and couldn’t get approval for their budgets or activities, claiming that the campaign preferred to simply try and collect church directories so that they could, in Haynes words, “rape and pillage the church [membership] lists.”

The McCain campaign, of course, denies this and claims to have regular contact with a variety of right-wing leaders:

The McCain campaign's Heckman said that, far from exhibiting hostility to religious conservatives, McCain speaks regularly with such prominent evangelical figures as former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Southern Baptist Convention public policy chief Richard Land, and televangelist John Hagee. Heckman, himself a veteran of Bauer's 2000 presidential campaign, also noted that McCain has hired former Christian Coalition field director Guy Rodgers to help with national religious outreach and Marlys Popma, an evangelical Christian and former head of Iowa Right to Life, as a top Iowa staffer.

(Not Enough) Focus on the Family

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 5/31/2007 12:38 pm

Gary Bauer penned a rather odd op-ed in today’s Christian Science Monitor complaining that Americans are too attached to their pets: 

We're treating animals as humans, and in some cases preferring pets to people. But an excess of affection per se isn't the problem – it's the lopsided moral framework that it reveals.

As one would expect, any piece written by Bauer undoubtedly will suggest that whatever issue he’s discussing is in some way really a sign of some sort of social breakdown:

It's partly due to the growing share of people choosing pets over children.

Census Bureau data reveal that the proportion of childless women 15 to 44 years old reached an all-time high of 45 percent in 2004. Moreover, the National Center of Health Statistics confirms that the percentage of women who choose to be "child-free" has swelled 160 percent in a generation.

…

Standard reasons for choosing pets over people include the rising costs of raising children, and careers and social standing taking precedence over family life.

Such an attachment to pets is dangerous, Bauer suggests, because pets inhabit “a different moral universe than man” and are incapable of demonstrating forgiveness or compassion … or something like that:

Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. And though capable of monstrous acts, human beings also have the ability – unique in creation – to demonstrate heroic forgiveness and compassion. Witness Holocaust survivor and professor Liviu Librescu, who heroically gave his life during the Virginia Tech shootings. Witness, too, the tremendous outpouring of sympathy for the loved ones of those killed.

Some of those most deeply affected by the shootings even extended the hand of forgiveness to the killer. Clearly, even in the face of brutality, man – when he appeals, as Lincoln admonished, to the better angels of his nature – is capable of exhibiting a humanity toward his fellow man that should make countless thousands rejoice.

Your pet did not survive the Holocaust or give its life to protect students at Virginia Tech, nor did it grieve or have sympathy for those who died and so, apparently, you shouldn’t be so attached it.

How on Earth did Bauer convince the Christian Science Monitor to run this?  

The Sudden Emergence and Disappearance of Families First on Immigration

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/22/2007 4:54 pm

In early January, the Washington Times reported on the emergence of a new immigration coalition, Families First on Immigration - headed by Manuel Miranda and consisting of such right-wing stalwarts as Paul Weyrich, Don Wildmon, Gary Bauer, and Lou Sheldon - that was promoting what it called the “holy grail” of compromise on immigration reform.  

Families First on Immigration’s proposed “holy grail” compromise consisted of granting citizenship to those already in the country illegally who were related to U.S. citizens while simultaneously amending the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship provision.  Miranda hailed the concept as “a real compromise" that was both “consistent with Christian teachings and with the rule of law.”  

Since then, Families First on Immigration hasn’t been heard from, with searches of the Lexis and Factiva databases returning a grand total of one mention of the group since late January.    

And that one mention was this recent Washington Monthly profile of Miranda, which helpfully explains why there probably haven’t been any other mentions of his stillborn coalition:

For one thing, it has no full-time staff—in fact, there don’t appear to be any staffers at all besides Miranda. It also seemingly has no mailing address, Web site, official phone number, or public e-mail address …This time, Miranda is attempting an intervention rather than an attack, and already there are signs that his proposed compromise may be too clever by half. Richard Viguerie, for instance, objected to the limited legalization Miranda proposed in his January letter, stating that any Republican seeking the presidential nomination must hold a firm line on immigration. “I know what Manny’s trying to do; that’s why I signed on to begin with. But there’s a line here,” Viguerie says. “Any Republican candidate who tries to compromise on [amnesty] will lose in 2008, and I and a lot of others will work very hard to make that happen.” And last month, when Miranda told the news organization Inter Press Service that if the Minutemen, the anti-immigration volunteer border patrol, “agreed to our fundamental principles, they could join on,” he was swiftly criticized by Hispanic evangelical leaders, who represent the fastest-growing segment of the evangelical population. “It’s great that white evangelicals are finally speaking out on this issue,” says Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr. of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. “But so far, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with what we’re hearing.” Miranda, who has never found a political dustup he couldn’t win, may finally have met his match.

Rule Number One: Know Your Right-Wing Leaders

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 5/21/2007 2:39 pm

Gov. Mitt Romney is well-positioned to capitalize on the fact that several right-wing leaders have already rejected several other GOP presidential hopefuls – a position that might be solidified if he can get the endorsement of James Dobson:  

It wasn't quite an endorsement, but Mitt Romney must see promise in comments conservative icon James Dobson made about him yesterday.

Dobson, the influential leader of the Christian organization Focus on the Family, praised Romney on a radio program and said he may end up supporting him.

"I mean he's very presidential and he's got the right answers to many, many things," Dobson told conservative commenator Laura Ingraham on her show. Dobson said he hasn't decided whom to back, but that Romney "is still on the list."

But if Romney hopes to take advantage of this position, he first needs to brush up on his understanding of which right-wing leader he's busy pandering too: 

At the fund-raiser for Mitt Romney at the posh 1818 Club on Friday, the candidate was making the introductions to the room.

Romney gestured to Ralph Reed and said, “Why it’s good to see Gary Bauer here.” (For the detached, Bauer is a former presidential candidate with ties, like Reed, to the Religious Right.)

Romney then caught himself. “Oh, I’m a little mixed up here,” he said. But Romney still couldn’t place Reed’s face — and had to move on.

After the event, Romney approached Reed and apologized for misremembering him.

Ralph Reed (Left) and Gary Bauer

And just what is Reed doing at a Romney fundraiser anyway?  Is that any way to repay Rudy Giuliani for his support?

2008: Allott of American Values Group Hits Giuliani on Abortion

Submitted by Anonymous on Tuesday, 5/1/2007 11:59 pm
Gary Bauer staffer not impressed by “personally opposed, but” – or by Romney. American Spectator: Giuliani win would “hopelessly marginalize” Religious Right. York: He can split the middle. Vanity Fair: He’s nuts.

The Amazing Revival of Gary Bauer

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 4/13/2007 10:04 am

Earlier this week, Gary Bauer of American Values, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and Mark Earley of the Prison Fellowship, met with The Christian Science Monitor to discuss the candidates running for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, among them John McCain:

And why is Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona struggling in his second run for the presidency, despite his solid conservative voting record on social issues? It's all about a speech he delivered in 2000, in which he referred to two religious leaders – Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell – as "agents of intolerance."

Bauer says that comment was interpreted among social conservatives as an attack on them and their involvement in politics, not just on the two men named. "Obviously, he's more conservative on these social issues than Giuliani is, but there isn't anything comparable in Giuliani's rhetorical record where he went after Christian conservatives in a rhetorical way," Bauer says.

It is exceedingly odd that Bauer would cite McCain’s “agents of intolerance” remarks as the primary reason McCain is having so much trouble winning over the Right, considering that Bauer had defended McCain at the time.

For those who don’t remember, Bauer endorsed McCain on February 16, 2000.  Just under two weeks later, McCain delivered his “agents of intolerance” speech and that same day, Bauer appeared on Fox’s “Special Report with Brit Hume” and defended the speech, saying that McCain was not targeting Christian conservatives:

I do believe that if you're a conservative voter, a traditional voter, if you're pro-life, if you're pro-family, there's enough -- plenty in Senator McCain's record to justify a vote for him. Over the weekend, he said he would overturn Roe versus Wade. When he asked how -- when he was asked how, he said by appointing judges that understand the Constitution. Roe versus Wade was unconstitutional.

He said today that faith-based voters are an important part of any opportunity we have to deal with the major problems facing the country. I hope after the firestorm of today is over with that we can focus on the fact that he's reaching out to traditional conservative and Christian voters, and I think he'll get a fair share of them.

Not long thereafter, Bauer began claiming that even though he had been in the audience during McCain’s speech, he had had nothing to do with its language:

Today, he explained: ''I didn't get a chance to see that speech until it was too late to do anything about it. It had already been passed out to the press.''

Mr. McCain's aides challenged the statement, saying Mr. Bauer not only reviewed the speech in advance but also added a paragraph to it.

As the Washington Post reported on March 26 of that year, Bauer was anything but a passive spectator:

Then came what Bauer calls "this very unfortunate thing." Bauer had seen a draft of McCain's speech on the plane--he swears he thought he was on his way to a veterans event--but because it had already been distributed to reporters, he couldn't delete anything. He did add some lines, to soften the blow, praising Dobson and Charles Colson. He later defended the speech as making a distinction between certain leaders and grass-roots Christians.

Yet seven years later, Bauer has managed to position himself in a right-wing leadership role commenting on McCain’s problems with the Right, somehow neglecting to mention his own direct involvement with McCain and the very incident he now cites as responsible for the candidate's woes.       

The above-mentioned March 2000 Post article was one of many that took a look at Bauer’s future after McCain lost the primary race to George W. Bush, wondering what would become of him now that he had become persona non grata to the Right. And at the time, Bauer was unrepentant:

"I think I made the right decision and if I had to do it over again, I'd do it again," Bauer said

Well, luckily for you Gary, McCain is again running for president, so here’s your chance.   

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Gary Bauer Posts Archive

Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 09/02/2010, 5:48pm
The effort by the Pacific Justice Institute to force California to defend Prop 8 has been rejected. Chinese students will now be learning about abstinence from Focus on the Family. Gary Bauer blames the Discovery Channel hostage situation on the Left. This may be one of the dumbest WorldNetDaily articles I have never seen, and that is saying something. Speaking of WND, this first person tale from Glenn Beck's rally written by Victoria Jackson absolutely has to be read. AZ Gov. Jan Brewer did not get off to a good start in her debate last night. This... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 09/01/2010, 5:46pm
Sen. Lisa Murkowksi has finally conceded to Joe Miller in the Alaska GOP primary. Vanity Fair has a long profile of Sarah Palin which I just don't think I can tolerate reading. GODTV will be airing The Call. Speaking of Lou Engle, he says Glenn Beck is a "moral voice" not a "spiritual voice." Concerned Women for America finally addresses the important issues regarding Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, and "cougars." Finally, the paraphrased quote of the day from Gary Bauer: "Bauer adds that the media unfortunately did a... MORE >
Bauer: Obama, The Left, and Islamic Terrorists All Share The Same Agenda
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 08/31/2010, 5:22pm
In a new column in Human Events, Gary Bauer explains that, at heart, President Obama, progressives, and Islamic terrorists all have the same agenda, which is to destroy America and its Judeo-Christian values:  Progressives and Islamists are indeed on the same side. Their common disdain for Christianity explains why left-wing judges in America find any inkling of Christianity in the public square unconstitutional, while Islamist judges in the Middle East deem it executable. Their common view that life is expendable explains the left’s embrace abortion-on-demand and why the... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 08/30/2010, 5:30pm
Tom Coburn says he'd never vote for Newt Gingrich. Peter LaBarbera loves Ryan Sorba. Gary Bauer is suddenly very concerned about tax dollars going toward the construction of religious buildings. Joseph Farah continues his crusade against GOProud. Chuck Baldwin calls for revolution. Cliff Kincaid goes after every conservative that doesn't oppose gay marriage. Focus on the Family promotes The Call. Hey, did you know the Christian Coalition was still issuing scorecards? They are. Finally, the dissidents from the late D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge... MORE >
Compare and Contrast: Sarah Palin's Star Power
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 08/27/2010, 3:00pm
Gary Bauer marvels at Sarah Palin's star power: Gary Bauer, chairman of American Values, thinks it is evident that Palin still has a lot of star power. "Sarah Palin is the only figure in the Republican Party that can go into any mid-size city in America and put 10,000 people in an arena -- so she's a force to be reckoned with," he notes. While Julie Ingersoll actually attends fundariser headlined by Palin last night in Jacksonville, Florida: This was a fundraiser for Heroic Media, a faith-based non-profit that publicizes alternatives to abortion. Originally planned for an... MORE >
Reed Unveils More Speakers at Faith And Freedom Conference
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 08/26/2010, 3:59pm
Earlier this month I wrote about Ralph Reed's upcoming Faith and Freedom Conference and Strategy Briefing to be held in Washington, D.C., September 9-11 which Reed is calling the "the political equivalent of NFL minicamp." Today, Reed sent out an email urging activists to register and provided the first look at the line-up of scheduled speakers he has landed:    Gary Bauer, President, American Values Ken Blackwell, Senior Fellow of Family Empowerment, Family Research Council Glen Bolger, Political strategist and pollster Jim Bopp, Legal Counsel... MORE >
Gary Bauer Officially Declares "Mosque Exclusion Zone" to Be 1.7 Miles
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 08/23/2010, 5:05pm
Those who have been busy pointing out the hypocrisy of those right-wing activists who hail the fundamental importance of defending the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom while simultaneously leading a crusade against the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" have been fond of asking just how large the "mosque exclusion zone" is supposed to be. Well, Gary Bauer has an answer - 3000 yards:  Liberal talking heads often suggest that opposition to the mosque at Ground Zero is just thinly veiled bigotry. They contend that the opponents of the mosque would oppose the... MORE >
Conservatives Issue Declaration of Tea Party Solidarity
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 08/04/2010, 11:42am
Given that Tea Party activists are, by and large, conservative Republicans, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that conservative Republicans support the Tea Party. Which is now giving rise to pointlessly absurd things like this declaration of Tea Party solidarity: Save America...STOP Obama Tyranny National Coalition Chairman Dr. Rick Scarborough announced the successful conclusion of a petition drive: "In Support of The Tea Parties And Against Defamation." Signers include such notable conservative leaders as Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Gary Bauer (American Values),... MORE >