Marilyn Musgrave

A number of prominent women leaders of the Religious Right have come together for the American Prayer Initiative, which is “designed to help draw ‘we the people’ of this nation back to the One upon whom she was founded.’ The group includes the National Day of Prayer’s Shirley Dobson and Vonette Bright, talk show host Janet Parshall, Liberty Counsel’s Anita Staver, Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance, Susan B. Anthony List’s Marilyn Musgrave, activist Rebecca Hagelin and Susan Allen, wife of Virginia’s George Allen. The group offers members a specific prayer for every day of each month until Election Day, including prayers condemning homosexuality and the separation of church and state.

One message asks participants to pray for God’s “healing for those who struggle with same-sex attraction” and to “replace unnatural affections”:

We pray for healing and restoration of true manhood and womanhood in America. We ask for Your wisdom and protection against attempts to re-define our very identity as men and women.

We pray for Your design for abundant and fulfilled manhood, womanhood and marriage to gain preeminence in America.

We pray for a full restoration of the image and definition of manhood and womanhood in America.

We petition You, God for Your healing for those who struggle with same-sex attraction. May they come to know Your power, Your mercy and Your love as You replace unnatural affections with ones You Yourself designed.

Another is a prayer to oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage:

We pray that the union of one man and one woman will be embraced by all societies as the sole form of legitimate marriage and the proper basis of family.

We ask that the power of Your hand intervene to transform and heal the hearts of those who would attempt to re-define marriage.

The group also sends a message criticizing the influence of judges and proponents of the separation of church and state:

We ask for leaders, a judicial system and judges who adhere to the original intent of our founding documents and their many connections to Biblical principles.

We pray for a true understanding of justice according to Your Word We pray for Your protection from attempts to redefine justice for political gain.

We ask You to convict, transform and protect those who are out of Your will. We ask You to encourage, strengthen and protect those who honor and follow You.

We ask You for judges who will follow constitutional principles rather than ruling according to pre-chosen outcomes or relying on international law.

We pray that courts will recognize parents’ fundamental rights to the care, custody and control of their children.

We ask for Your guidance for accurate rulings over first amendment issues, and an awareness in our country that the words, “separation of church and state” are found nowhere in any one of our founding documents. We ask for a reversal of rulings which have inaccurately established “separation” as a Constitutional principle.

There is even a prayer against a media looking “to bring our country down by bringing our culture down”:

We ask you, Lord, to open greater and greater opportunities for Your Gospel to flow freely across our airwaves.

We ask, Lord, for You to grant Americans the wisdom to discern truth from deception.

We pray for those in the entertainment industry that they may better serve the families of our country by creating programs and movies that are uplifting in nature and extol positive virtues.

We especially pray Your blessings upon those in media, entertainment, the arts and journalism who are driven by loyalty to You. We ask for favor and acceptance for their work.

We ask You to raise up, equip, and abundantly provide for Your true disciples in the media, the arts, entertainment and journalism.

We pray for honesty in journalism.

We pray for those who would intend to bring our country down by bringing our culture down.

We ask you to foil the plans of those who would bring others down in any form.

We ask for Your transforming power in the lives of those who would divide, deceive and destroy.

After losing her re-election bid last November, right-wing former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave quickly teamed up with the Susan B. Anthony List to launch a new anti-choice project called "Votes Have Consequences" that vowed to target pro-choice politicians for defeat:

Former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave will lead a new antiabortion initiative dubbed “Votes Have Consequences” that will target members of Congress in the 2010 election cycle who support abortion rights.

In a case of supreme irony, Musgrave intends to rip a page from the hardball playbook used by the Defenders of Wildlife. The environmental group was credited with helping to defeat the three-term Republican congresswoman with intense local organizing and a $1.6 million barrage of TV attack ads — a strategy that was roundly criticized by Republicans.

Musgrave and her new boss, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, told the Coloradoan they would mimic the same scorched-earth tactics:

“We need to know that the person that we defeat has a scalp that we can hold up high and say their pro-abortion leadership is why they lost,” Dannenfelser said.

But Musgrave's ties to the Susan B. Anthony List continues to deepen, as she has now donated $50,000 to a new effort to get young-people involved in the anti-choice movement called the Young Leaders Board ... or maybe its the Youth Leaders Board, they don't seem to be sure:

Today the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund (501(c)(3)) launched its first project, the Young Leaders Board, a new outreach effort to engage young people in the pro-life movement. Former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) donated $50,000 from her congressional campaign committee, Musgrave for Congress, to launch the board. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) will serve as the Board's Honorary Chairwoman.

I am so pleased to support the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund's youth outreach efforts by supporting the new Youth Leaders Board," said Marilyn Musgrave, Director of Regional Outreach for the Susan B. Anthony List. "As technology advances and sonograms continue to offer compelling visual evidence of the humanity of unborn children, we're finding that the younger generation is more pro-life. I'm confident the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund will effectively marshal the energy and enthusiasm found among young pro-lifers to be a voice for women and the unborn for years to come."

The Youth Leaders Board will be comprised of young pro-life women leaders from across the country. The Board's early focus will be youth leadership training, with a special emphasis on communications, in order to train effective pro-life spokeswomen. The Board will also permanently integrate a youth perspective into existing Susan B. Anthony new media outreach efforts, like Lia's Challenge, the organization's recent YouTube youth video contest.

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) will serve as Honorary Chairwoman of the Youth Leaders Board.

"One of my priorities in Congress is to encourage women to get involved," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). "Through the use of new media and other communications tools, I look forward to helping the SBA List's Young Leaders Board reach out to young, pro-life women."

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers is a member of the House Pro-Life Women's Caucus. She serves as Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the fourth-highest ranking Republican and the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House of Representatives. She also works to recruit women candidates for Congress through the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

Former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave joined the Susan B. Anthony List (501(c)(4)) in March as Director of Regional Outreach to run the organization's new pro-life voter education effort, Votes Have Consequences.

Once they get this figured out, we hope they let us know because it'll be a lot easier for us to track this effort if we know which of these two names they actually plan on using.

After getting tossed out of office last November, Marilyn Musgrave disappeared from the scene, refusing to congratulate her opponent or even concede defeat and instead went AWOL.

But she has now resurfaced, having hooked-up with the Susan B. Anthony List as the face of their new effort that intends to target members of Congress who do not share the group’s anti-choice agenda.

David Brody has the scoop along with an interview with Musgrave in which she proclaims it “a new day in politics for the pro-life movement”:

The new project is called “Votes Have Consequences” and the group has brought former U.S. Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave on board as the project’s Director and to raise money for it.

"Votes do have consequence and this project is going to make sure we are not always on the defensive. We're going into districts where individuals are vulnerable and we're just going to make sure people know how these individuals have voted and what their record is."

"We're going to be assertive. We're going to be aggressive and this is a new day in politics for the pro-life movement."

The Susan B. Anthony List will be targeting certain members of Congress who are out of step with their district on the life issue. No specific Congressmen have been identified yet but the group plans to launch an aggressive TV, Radio and print campaign against them very soon. They don’t want to wait until 2010. They believe the issue needs to be addressed right away because pro-life groups have all too often taken a back seat approach to getting involved early in congressional races.

Interestingly, the same election that bounced Musgrave from her Colorado seat also saw the state’s anti-choice “personhood” initiative get absolutely trounced at the polls as well.  In fact, during the last election, there were three anti-choice initiatives on the ballots in various states and each one went down in defeat by substantial margins.

But apparently that isn’t stopping Musgrave and the Susan B. Anthony list from seeking to make this losing issue the centerpiece of its election strategy.

A few weeks ago, the Right swung into action to try and save a couple of their imperiled "shining stars" in Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. 

The Family Research Council lit into the National Republican Campaign Committee for pulling its advertising from their races, as did David Barton who then took it upon himself to raise money for Musgrave himself. 

As it turned out, Bachmann barely managed to hang onto her seat, but Musgrave did not:

Betsy Markey won a sweeping victory over incumbent Rep. Marilyn Musgrave on Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat in two generations to represent Northern Colorado in Congress.

So at least the Right can take solace in knowing that they manged to keep at least one of their shining stars in office, while we can take solace in the fact that there will be one less right-wing anti-gay zealot on the Hill. 

Speaking of which, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern also managed to hang onto her seat:

FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT NO. 84

SALLY KERN REP 7,230 57.95%
RON MARLETT DEM 5,247 42.05%

Seriously, how big of an anti-gay bigot do you have to be for it to actually cost you your seat in Oklahoma? Apparently, an even bigger one than Kern which, I dare say, is nearly impossible.  

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 sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. But she needs 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!

God bless!

David Barton

With the reintroduction of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the House and the prospect that it may pass in a Democratic Congress, religious-right groups are waging a sizeable campaign to portray the bill as part of a mythical persecution of Christians. Although hate-crimes laws expand penalties for violent crimes causing bodily injury or death (as well as attempts through firearms and explosives), the Religious Right is labeling them “thought crimes” laws the “only effect” of which “is to gag people of faith.” Although federal law has punished hate crimes based on race for more than a decade, the Religious Right is incensed at the prospect of using the law to protect gays as well.

This reaction follows a pattern of asserting that gay rights – or a so-called “homosexual agenda” – will lead to the “repression” of religion in America, an anti-gay marketing effort typified by last year’s “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, where speakers from Mitt Romney to Tony Perkins claimed that, in the words of Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund, “The homosexual agenda and [freedom of] religion are on a collision course.” “They know they must silence the church,” warned Perkins. At that time, the issue was same-sex marriage; the co-sponsor of the federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), said that “"If we have gay marriage, our religious liberties are gone!”