Rick Santorum

Value Voter Recap: We're All Tea Partiers Now (Including God)

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Tuesday, 9/21/2010 10:43 am

The so-called Values Voter Summit, organized by the Family Research Council and sponsored by a number of right-wing groups, brought more than 2,000 activists (their count) to Washington D.C. for two solid days of speeches, workshops, networking, and a chance to spend time with others who passionately hate President Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership. Addressing the crowd were a number of GOP presidential hopefuls, including Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Rep. Mike Pence (who eked out a narrow victory over Huckabee in the straw poll). Not surprisingly, conference speakers echoed the themes heard at the smaller Faith and Freedom conference convened by Ralph Reed just one week earlier.

Here were the top themes emerging from these Religious Right political conferences.
 
1) We’re All Tea Partiers Now (Including God)
 
The Faith and Freedom conference and Values Voter Summit signaled the Religious Right’s full embrace of (or effort to co-opt) the Tea Party movement and its activists’ anti-Washington energies. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a superstar in both the Religious Right and Tea Party movements, railed at Tea Party critics: “If you are scared of the Tea Party movement, you are afraid of Thomas Jefferson, who penned our mission statement [the Declaration of Independence].”
 
The events were also designed to attack the notion that the Tea Party movement is, or should be, focused only on economic issues and not on moral ones. This is more than the ongoing effort to solidify a working electoral partnership among fiscal, social, and national security conservatives. This is an ideological campaign against the very idea that one can legitimately be a fiscal conservative without embracing the Religious Right’s “family values” agenda on issues such as legal abortion and marriage equality. At the Values Voter Summit, there was little patience for libertarians who consider themselves economically conservative but socially liberal. Sen. Jim DeMint, greeted as a folk-hero for his success at backing Tea Party challengers to establishment GOP candidates, took on the idea directly, saying “you can’t be a true fiscal conservative if you do not understand the value of a culture that is based on values.” 
 
Others echoed the theme. A Heritage Foundation video declared that faith is necessary for liberty. Rep Mike Pence, the dark-horse winner of the summit’s straw poll, said America’s darkest moments have come when economic arguments trumped moral principles. Newt Gingrich declared that activists have to go back to making the moral case for free enterprise, not the economic case. David Limbaugh decried “economic justice,” which he called a leftist euphemism for “confiscation.” 
 
At a Values Voter Summit panel on the Tea Party movement, two activists described their work as being inspired in part by instructions they received from God in the early morning hours, like Glenn Beck; one insisted that her activism was not just about taxes but about getting America to turn back to God.
 
2) Nothing is more important than the 2010 and 2012 elections.
 
Nearly every speaker said that the 2010 election is the most important in our lifetime. Speakers insisted that President Obama, his administration, and Democratic congressional leaders are not only wrong, they are evil and are out to destroy the American experiment in limited government and individual liberty.  It is simply not possible to overstate the level of anger and hostility directed toward Obama (described as an America-hating narcissistic Marxist), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 
 
Activists were told they must fast, pray, and work hard to defeat Democrats this November. The Family Research Council urged people to visit the website of Pray and A.C.T, a campaign led by Jim Garlow, who has been a rising star on the Religious Right since leading religious organizing on behalf of California’s anti-gay Prop 8. Ralph Reed is promising to share with local activists a massive new database of faith-based and fiscally conservative voters that he is building. 
 
Activists were also told that they must plan to keep sacrificing their time, energy and money for the next two years to make sure that Obama is defeated in 2012. Former Sen. Rick Santorum told activists not to expect dramatic improvements even if they win big in November: things won’t really change for the better as long as the White House is in Obama’s hands. Activists were warned that these two elections may be the last chance to stop the nation’s slide toward socialism and the end of America as we know it.
 
Right-wing speakers are optimistic about the possibility of delivering both the House and Senate into Republican hands and electing a conservative Republican president in 2012. FRC’s PAC held a fundraiser Friday night for Christine O’Donnell, the new Tea Party-backed GOP Senate candidate from Delaware, and other like-minded candidates.   Ralph Reed said that voter registration and focused turnout campaigns being waged by his and other right-wing groups would turn this from a good election cycle for Republicans into a historically sweeping one. And there’s particular excitement that Florida GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio could be the face of the GOP’s future: right-wing strategists see him as Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama rolled into one appealing, Latino-vote-getting package.
 
3) Repealing Health Care Reform the Top Legislative Priority
 
According to several Values Voter Summit speakers, health care reform legislation signed into law by President Obama wasn’t really about health care at all. It was about extending the power of the federal government into tyrannical realms. Repealing “Obamacare” before it fully goes into effect is the top legislative priority of movement leaders. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was one of several speakers who called the legislation unconstitutional, saying that if the legislation was allowed to stand, it would effectively spell the end of any limits on federal power. 
 
4) Muslims Replace Immigrants as a Top Target
 
While previous conferences have portrayed unchecked illegal immigration as the most dire threat to America, this year’s speakers picked up on the right-wing generated furor over a proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan – the inaccurately dubbed “Ground Zero Mosque” – to make repeated bitter denunciations of Islam. Immigration was not completely ignored: Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, in a list of complaints, denounced the White House for being an administration “whose idea of a rogue state is Arizona,” and the Heritage Foundation sponsored a workshop on “The Real Cost of Illegal Immigration.” But the real energy was in attacking Islam, which was a primary focus of remarks by Bill Bennett and Gary Bauer.
 
5) Pursuit of Happiness With an Asterisk: Gays Need Not Apply
 
Not surprisingly, all the talk about individual liberty being at the core of our national identity did not extend to the freedom of gay and lesbian Americans to pursue happiness by marrying the person they love. Several speakers exhorted attendees to help mobilize conservative voters in Iowa to turn out for upcoming retention elections and vote against Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled that denying gay couples the freedom to marriage violated the state’s constitution. The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, who insisted that there is no confusion about what is right in the sight of God and what is evil in the sight of God, said that politicians who support, defend, and promote “counterfeits” to marriage (which include not only marriage equality but also civil unions and domestic partnerships) are doing something evil and deserve condemnation. Fischer repeated Religious Right claims that LGBT equality and religious liberty are incompatible: “we are going to have to choose between the homosexual agenda and religious liberty because we simply cannot have both.”
 
The federal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law which forbids gay members of the Armed Forces for serving openly and honestly, was also high on speakers’ minds. Sen. James Inhofe urged people to call their senators in advance of a scheduled vote on a defense authorization bill that would include language to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as well as language that would, in his words, turn military hospitals into abortion clinics. 

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 9/21/10

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 9/21/2010 10:39 am

Your update on the potential 2012 Presidential candidates for 9/14-9/21:

Mitch Daniels

2012: Newt Gingrich says Daniels should run for President (Courier & Press, 9/21).

Economy: Attends Chamber of Commerce event in Indianapolis (WIBC, 9/20).

PAC: Leadership PAC runs ads encouraging IN voters to support Republicans (Politico, 9/19).

Newt Gingrich

Religious Right: Demands ban on Sharia Law’s use in US Courts (TPM, 9/18).

Health Care: Calls for HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius’ resignation, compares her service to “Soviet tyranny” (Politico, 9/18).

GOP: Headlines fundraiser for the Minnesota GOP (Star Tribune, 9/17).

Obama: Gingrich attacked by critics for pushing over the top anti-Obama rhetoric (NY Daily News, 9/20).

Mike Huckabee

Obama: Criticizes President’s treatment of Christians (Newsmax, 9/17).

GOP: “Thrilled” about the defeat of “establishment” candidate in primaries (Huffington Post, 9/20).

2010: Expects a Republican wave in home state of Arkansas (Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 9/20).

Sarah Palin

Iowa: Speaks at Iowa’s Ronald Reagan Dinner, tells Fox News she may “give it a shot” to Presidential run (NY Daily News, 9/18).

2012: Wins straw poll of presidential prospects at RightNation convention (Chicago Sun-Times, 9/20).

2010: Tweets to Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell with a warning against “appeasing nat'l media” that’s “seeking ur destruction” (The Hill, 9/19).

Religious Right: FRC head Tony Perkins suggests that Palin is a “cheerleader” rather than a presidential candidate (Politico, 9/18).

Media: Claims that journalists disrespect fallen troops when they “tell lies” about her (Des Moines Register, 9/17).

Poll: Rasmussen survey says slight majority of Americans identify more with Palin’s views than Obama’s (Rasmussen Reports, 9/20).

Tim Pawlenty

2010: Fundraising for GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Walker in Wisconsin (AP, 9/20).

Economy: WSJ profiles Governors like Pawlenty and others who visited China (WSJ, 9/20).

Mike Pence

Religious Right: Indiana Congressman wins a plurality of votes at Values Voter Summit’s 2012 straw poll (MSNBC, 9/18).

2012: Speaks to conservative Hillsdale College about the Presidency (EducationNews, 9/21).

2010: Defends Christine O’Donnell in Delaware from attacks (CNN, 9/20).

Mitt Romney

New Hampshire: Romney’s Leadership PAC endorses and donates to victors of GOP primaries (Politics Daily, 9/18).

Religious Right: Lashes out at Obama’s economic and social policies, “counterfeit” values at Values Voter Summit (Religion Dispatches, 9/20).

Poll: Leads 2012 pack with 22% support from Republicans (Public Policy Polling, 9/12).

2010: Going to Florida to stump for Gov hopeful Rick Scott (Daily Sun, 9/20).

Rick Santorum

South Carolina: Tests message in early primary state (Daily Caller, 9/16).

Religious Right: Says that families don’t exist in poor neighborhoods (CBS News, 9/17).

Values Voters' Angry Afternoon Tea

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Saturday, 9/18/2010 11:38 am

The afternoon of the first day of the Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, continued the morning’s themes: denunciations of the Pelosi-Reid-Obama axis of evil and celebrations of all things Tea Party – and the insistence that the religion and values agenda of the Religious Right is inseparable from the Tea Party’s limited government goals.

Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum kicked off the session with a reprise of his current stump speech, a denunciation of secularism and an assertion that we can’t have economic freedom without virtuous people, and we can’t have virtuous people without lots of religion in our public life. Like other speakers, he called this November’s elections the most important of our lifetime.
 
Gary Bauer made it clear he was vying for “angriest man” honors, hectoring the audience with bitter complaints about liberals treating the Constitution like toilet paper and the president trying to “set one class against another in the rawest class warfare.” He insisted that “this country is in shock about what’s being done to our nation.” The country is “sick and tired of being lectured by liberal elites.” Bauer claimed, ridiculously, that “almost none” of America’s elites believe the 9-11 attacks were caused by radical Islam. When he attacked Obama and Bloomberg for defending the rights of Muslims to build a cultural center in New York, shouts of “traitor” were heard from the audience. (In contrast, there was only scattered tepid applause when Bauer described as “foolish” the Florida pastor who threatened to burn copies of the Koran.) Bauer ended with a graphic recounting of the violence that took place on the 9-11 flight brought down by the passengers, and demanded that people show the same kind of mettle in taking back America.
 
Delaware’s new GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell urged people to remember how despondent they felt in the early days of the Obama administration, when conservatives were told, she said, to curl up in a fetal position for eight years. “Well,” she exulted, “how things have changed.” O’Donnell also railed against the “ruling class elites” who look down on Tea Party activists and insisted, “there are more of us than there are of them.” She said Tea Partiers are shouting back at these would-be masters, “You’re not the boss of me!” She encouraged people to keep fighting. “We aren’t trying to take back our country, we ARE our country.”
 
The afternoon’s “surprise guest” was not Sarah Palin, as some had speculated, but Dale Peterson – the guy from Alabama whose choppy, quick-edited, gun-toting ad running for agriculture commissioner became a YouTube sensation. Peterson was seemingly meant to be the authentic voice of Tea Party America. He said Obama hates America and is doing all he can to bring down America. Peterson later told journalist Sarah Posner that he doesn’t believe President Obama was born in the U.S.
 
A Tea Party panel brought together three activists who told stories about their own transformations from being moms and conservatives who minded their own business to becoming activists.  Activists Katie Abram and Billie Tucker said their Tea Party work was guided by God waking them up early in the morning with instructions, the same way, one said, God does with Glenn Beck. Tucker describes a disagreement among organizers of their local tea party group. When one argued against adding moral issues to the mission, Tucker responded, saying “God did not wake me up for four months at four in the morning to say, ‘Billie, we’ve got a tax issue.’ He woke me up because he said my country doesn’t love me like it used to love me.”
 
Amy Kremer of Tea Party Express said her group’s mission was focused on fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets; she credited Rick Santelli’s rant about the mortgage meltdown with lighting the fire. Kremer, who worked for Joe Miller’s Senate campaign before heading to Delaware to campaign for Christine O’Donnell, urged activists to focus on the fall elections. “The time has come to put down the protest signs and pick up the campaign signs and engage,” she said. “If we’re going to truly effect change it’s going to be at the ballot box.”

Schlafly: We Spend More Money Supporting Unmarried People Than On National Defense

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 9/17/2010 4:36 pm

Bryan Fischer broadcast his "Focal Point" radio program live from the Values Voter Summit today and promised that Rick Santorum would be on as a guest during the second hour ... but Santorum never showed up and Fischer never provided an explanation of what happened?  Is it possible that Fischer is even too extreme for someone like Santorum to be agree to be seen with him?

Of course, that was not a problem for Phyllis Schlafly who sat down with this Fischer to discuss the tensions between fiscal conservatives and social conservatives over the focus of the conservative agenda, with Schlafly making the case that social issues are important for economic reasons ... like the fact that the "largest sum of money, even bigger than national defense, is spent on supporting people who are not married":

Strong Morning Tea for Values Voters

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Friday, 9/17/2010 2:09 pm

 

We, the morning people, started the day with a breakfast hosted by Liberty University and Liberty Counsel, which promised to help us oldsters understand the Millennial Generation (defined here as born since 1980). Schooling us were two Millennials, Rev. Johnnie Moore, a VP and campus pastor at Liberty, and Dr. Johsua Straub, from the American Association of Christian Counselors.
 
Millennials, it turns out, are distrusting and disillusioned and have a “mangled” foundation of truth, based on their parents’ divorces and the cultural sewer they have grown up in, yet they’re still optimistic and passionate about trying to make a difference in the world.
 
The good news, say Moore and Straub, is that Millennials believe in God, are anti-abortion, and have moved away from the Democratic Party since 2008. The bad news is that many of them have fled organized religion, have little taste for partisan politics, tend to cohabit with partners before marriage, and support gay couples’ freedom to marry. The key to engaging Millennials, they say, is not with a hard political message, but with a “relational” approach. Everyone in attendance was urged to find their own “Timothy” and devote time to being a mentor.
 
So clearly the audience for the Friday morning session was not the turned-off-by-politics Millennials described at breakfast. Friday’s session was a parade of harsh partisan attacks on Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama,and anyone who supports their America-destroying values. The session featured Religious Right and Tea Party folk heroes like Sens. James Inhofe and Jim DeMint and Rep. Michele Bachmann, as well as potential presidential contenders Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Rep. Mike Pence. Huckabee backers handed Huck PAC stickers and signs to people on the way in, hoping to boost his showing in the presidential straw poll.
 
The overriding theme of the morning – other than speakers trying to out-do each other in their hatred of “Washington” and the Democratic leadership – was the impossibility of separating the anti-government message of the Tea Party from the “traditional values” message of the Religious Right.   One speaker after another hammered home the message: the breakdown in family values creates dysfunctional people that have to rely on government services we can no longer afford. Sen. DeMint declared that you can’t be a true fiscal conservative if you don’t accept that our culture is founded in Judeo-Christian values.
 
Get used to hearing about American exceptionalism, because that’s the rhetorical glue that right-wing leaders are using to bind economic and social conservatives. America is unique because we don’t want government to take care of us, and we can only survive that way if Americans turn back to God, oppose abortion, and keep gay couples from getting married. An interminable Heritage Foundation video declared that “faith is necessary for liberty.”
 
And don’t even get started on gays in the military. Sen Inhofe used his time to urge people to contact their senators and oppose an upcoming defense authorization vote because it will include language repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and permitting abortion in military hospitals.
 
Also on display were typical cheap shots at “Washington elites,” like those who Michele Bachmann said believed that Values Voter participants should be feared because they’re people of faith, and boringly predictable jingoism like Mitt Romney’s concluding applause line that America is a force for good and we’re just not going to apologize for it. Now that’s bold. Just imagine what we’ll hear from Rick Santorum and Gary Bauer this afternoon. Not to mention Christine O’Donnell.
 
 

2012 Candidates Weekly Update

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 9/14/2010 10:31 am

Although there are no announced Republican candidates for President, the race for 2012 is already underway with a number of candidates testing the waters. RightWingWatch will begin bringing you weekly updates on new speeches, events, controversies, and activities of potential 2012 contenders.

Haley Barbour

2012: Claims that his lobbyist experience will help him as President (US News & World Report, 9/14).

Civil-rights: Odd history from Barbour on Ole Miss integration (McClatchy, 9/9)

Mitch Daniels

2012: Meets with GOP fundraisers and “well-connected Republican figures” (Politico, 9/14).

Newt Gingrich

Obama: Claims that Obama represents “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview citing a D’Souza article in Forbes which says Obama’s agenda is to fulfill the dreams of his father, whom D’Souza calls a “philandering, inebriated African socialist” (WhoRunsGov, 9/12).

2010: Predicts GOP majority in House and Senate, Reid loss (CNSNews, 9/13).

Government: Floats government shutdown if GOP wins majorities (GOP12, 9/12).

Abortion: Gingrich adviser blames legal abortion for unemployment (RightWingWatch, 9/13).

Education: Scheduled to appear on Rev. Al Sharpton’s new show on education issues (Hollywood Reporter, 9/13).

Mike Huckabee

2010: Fundraises for Rob Portman and Steve Chabot in Ohio (Business Courier, 9/13).

2012: Set to address the Michigan Chamber of Commerce on economy, education, and health care (WLNS, 9/14).

Sarah Palin

2010: Holds fundraiser for Rand Paul in Louisville on Thursday (Kentucky Enquirer, 9/13); records robocalls for two Mama Grizzlies: Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire before primaries.

GOP: David Plouffe claims “Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck” lead the Republican Party. “All of these Republican candidates have to pledge allegiance to them, their intolerance and their backwards thinking” (New York Times, 9/13)

Right-wing: Says Statue of Liberty meant to be a “warning” to the US “not to go down the path of other countries that adopted socialist policies” (FireDogLake, 9/13).

Park51: Imam Rauf cites Palin for encouraging a “growing Islamophobia” (NY Daily News, 9/12).

George Pataki

New Hampshire: Tells Bedford audience that “government is intimately involved in creating the problems,” responsible for stoking the economic crisis (Union Leader, 9/13).

Health Care: Writes Op-Ed calling for repeal of Health Care Reform (USA Today, 9/13).

Tim Pawlenty

New Hampshire: Sends six staffers from leadership PAC to the Granite State (AP, 9/14)

Economy: Visits Shanghai World’s Fair, says of China: “They're not racing us to the bottom. They're racing us to the top” (Minnesota Post, 9/13).

Mitt Romney

2010: Fundraiser in the works for GA Senator Johnny Isakson (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 9/13).

Rick Santorum

2012: Calls for infusion of religion into politics, rejects JFK’s 1960 speech defending the separation of church and state (RightWingWatch, 9/13).

Obama: Claims the President is “condescending” to GOP leaders (GOP12, 9/13).

Santorum: I'm no JFK

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Monday, 9/13/2010 8:27 am

Rick Santorum, ousted from the U.S. Senate by Pennsylvania voters in 2006, has been busy denouncing “islamofascism” from his perch at the right-wing Ethics and Public Policy Center. Now he seems to be plotting a run for the presidency. Santorum, a Catholic, is pushing himself into the public eye with an attack on John F. Kennedy and one of that president’s most famous speeches, in which the nation’s only Catholic president told a gathering of Protestant ministers in Houston that he believed in the separation of church and state.

Last week, Santorum traveled to Houston to make his own speech, which repeated standard Religious Right straw-man arguments about supporters of church-state separation trying to ban religious people from public life.  Those are old and oft-told lies. What’s new is the Catholic Santorum pinning the blame for America’s supposed descent into secularism squarely on JFK.
 
Santorum reprised those remarks on Saturday night at Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, with some additional Tea-infused red meat: Government entitlement programs are the equivalent of a schoolyard pusher getting kids hooked on drugs.  If “Obamacare” is not repealed, America will cease to be America. It will be <shudder> France.
 
Denouncing Kennedy was not Santorum’s only noteworthy line of attack. He also took on Americans of the World War II generation, describing how the “greatest generation” stayed out of the war while Europe fell and Britain was bombed, while the Pacific Rim fell to Japan, and turned back a boatload of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. That generation was only great once it was awakened by Pearl Harbor, said Santorum. This generation, he said, has an even tougher job (!).   Waking up Americans is this generation’s Pearl Harbor moment, he told his audience, and you are Paul Revere. It’s a seriously mixed metaphor, but everyone knew what he meant. They have to drop everything to save America between now and 2012.
 
Santorum, whose presidential ambitions face what some political commentators have delicately called a “Google problem,” is still full of righteous self-pity about how he has been beaten up for standing for his faith. I guess that’s the most comforting explanation he can give for his 18-point defeat at the hands of the voters.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 9/10/2010 5:21 pm
  • FRC, TVC, and CWA react to the DADT ruling. Shockingly, they disagree with it.

  • It seems unclear whether Terry Jones has actually canceled his "Burn a Koran Day" tomorrow, though Rob Schenck met with him and says he doesn't think he'll go ahead with it.

  • Sean Hannity has joined the Values Voter Summit.

  • Rick Santorum set to deliver a big speech on faith in the public square on the 50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy's famous speech addressing his faith and the need to separate church and state.

  • Hey, guess what?  The World Trade Center had a Muslim prayer room in it. Didn't they realize how insensitive that was?

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 8/13/2010 5:31 pm
  • Pat Mahoney declares victory in his protest against the DC city government and Planned Parenthood.

  • I think it is hilarious that Rick Santorum is seriously contemplating running for president.

  • Carly Fiorina says she opposes efforts to alter the 14th Amendment to remove birthright citizenship.

  • FRC and CWA don't like the new birth control pill.  What else is new?

  • A bunch of right-wing bloggers have chosen "the 25 worst figures in American history." Number 1 is Jimmy Carter, who is apparently worse than Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy combined, since they didn't even make the list.

  • Finally, quote of the day from Bryan Fischer: "[S]ecular fundamentalists are easy on Islam for the simple reason that they share with Islamic fundamentalists a deep and abiding hatred for America and its traditions and values."

Huckabee and Parsely Team Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 8/3/2010 10:31 am

Back when he was running for president, John McCain infamously rejected the endorsement of Rod Parsley ... but it is safe to assume that Mike Huckabee would never do the same.

Today, Parsley is releasing his newest book, "Living on Our Heads: Righting an Upside-Down Culture" which, according to this video, has been blurbed by both Rick Santorum and Huckabee.

But Huckabee has gone a step further in appearing just last week as a guest on Parsely's "Breakthrough" program to help him pitch this new book and overall lament that Christians are coming in for all sorts of abuse in today's culutre while Muslims are off limits:

Huckabee: Political correctness has taken root in this country in a frightening kind of way. It's okay to be completely antagonistic toward a Christian. One can say anything. It can be vile, vulgar, it can be indecent. But say anything unkind toward a Muslim, and you'll be muzzled for it.

This is strange, it's bizarre. I never would have imagined as a child growing up that the day would come when Christians were considered so out of the mainstream that they were ostracized and in many ways put aside as if their freaks. But the reality is that there is still a great majority of people in this country who believe in God, who believe in the Bible, who attend church and who personally identify themselves as Christians, even a great number who identify themselves as Evangelical, Bible-believing Christians.

So the first thing we do is quit apologizing, quit hiding, be bold, be strong, not obnoxious, but be present, be salt, be light. And by the way we should know that salt irritates, and light sometimes gets in the way of those who prefer to live in the darkness. Anybody who has been caught doing something in the dark by the sudden flash of the flashlight knows that it is usually met with a very strong negative reaction. I think what we're seeing in our culture is that the presence of true, Bible-believing Christians is like that flashlight coming on, catching somebody doing something in the dark and the reaction is dramatic.

Parsley: Governor, thank you so much. Let's really thank Governor Mike Huckabee for being with us. I sure look forward, Governor, you've got to come and join me right here on the Breakthrough set. You made me a promise and I'm going to hold you to it. God bless you.

Huckabee: Well pastor, I look forward to being with you. I appreciate your friendship and I'm excited about your new book and I hope that it will have a dramatic impact, not just for your immediate congregation but for viewers and followers across the world.

Parsley: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Parsely is looking forward to having Huckabee in studio and Huckabee is looking forward to joining him ... and I am looking forward to recording it and posting it as continuing proof that Huckabee is a Religious Right true believer. 

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 7/27/2010 5:41 pm

Jim and David's Excellent Right-Wing Adventure

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 7/6/2010 4:30 pm

Several months ago, we noted that Jim Garlow and David Barton were leading a 12 day tour of the East Coast where participants would learn all about the Christian history of our nation and its founder and visit "the sites of the 1st and 2nd Great Awakening, while praying for the 3rd."

This "Next Great Awakening Tour" wrapped up in Washington, DC on July 4th and, as we noted last week, it was during this tour that both Barton and Garlow were featured on Glenn Beck's television program.  As it turns out, participants in this tour also got to participate in a taping of Beck's program and met with several Republican and Religious Right leaders, according to updates from Garlow's Skyline Church blog:

Day 2 ... we went on to New York City that night, where we were met by Mike Huckabee. He shared with our group for over an hour.

Day 4 ... [W]e went back to New York City [and] the women of our group went to the Glenn Beck Show for the taping of the Friday broadcast entitled, “Women of the Revolutionary War.”

Day 5 ... David Barton and I and our wives left Ocean Grove and were driven back to New York City to go to the taping of the Glenn Beck Show, along with a number of other pastors. Then we met with Glenn Beck for three hours after that taping.

Day 6 ... David and I flew back to New York City to be on the Glenn Beck Show with a group of about 7-8 pastors / Christian Leaders. Lance Wallnau flew in from Dallas to speak to the group in Philadelphia. Lance Wallnau was, as usual, exceptional in his laying out of how to see the culture transformed.

Day 7 ... we traveled to Washington, DC, where we met with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Immediately following that we went to the Fairmont Hotel where Senator Rick Santorum gave one of the most impassioned speeches I have ever heard.

Day 8 – Saturday, July 3 – began with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich addressing our group. He was profound. Newt has the capacity to focus on macro-ideas in a way like no other. From there we made our way to Mt. Vernon, beloved home of George Washington. Rick Tyler, spokesman for Newt Gingrich and Founding Director of Renewing American Leadership, spoke to the group via the intercom on the way to/from Mt. Vernon, clarifying the nature of participation in civil governance.

We then went back to the Capital and met in the Longworth Congressional Building (home of the offices of the House of Representatives) for a talk by Congressman Bob McEwen entitled, “Politics: As Easy as PIE.”

On Day 9 – Sunday, July 4 – we attended Hope Christian Fellowship (Beltsville, MD), where we had arranged for Maggie Gallagher, the articulate founder of the National Organization for Marriage, to speak to our group, followed by the morning service, for which Bishop Harry Jackson – one of America’s most courageous pastors – had prepared a sermon appropriately entitled “The Next Great Awakening.”

At one point, Garlow and his wife were allowed to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ... which, of course, made him realize that Elena Kagan should not be confirmed to the Supreme Court:

Later I found myself inwardly agitated as I began to reflect on the tragedy of Elena Kagan – an outspoken critic of the military [in spite of her attempts to deny it now] – being considered for a position on the Supreme Court. How unfortunate for our nation.

Santorum: Obama's Not a Real American

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 6/25/2010 2:49 pm

Rick Santorum, making his gazillionth visit to Iowa this year as he plots a 2012 run for the White House (because that really is the next logical step after being losing his Senate seat in 2006)  took some time out to talk with Craig Robinson of "The Iowa Republican" and explain why President Obama is not a real American: 

“Obama is detached form the American experience. He just doesn’t identify with the average American because of his own background. Indonesia and Hawaii. His view is from the viewpoint of academics and the halls of the Ivy league schools that he went to and it’s not a love of this country and an understanding of the basic values and wants and desires of it’s people. And as a result of that, he doesn’t connect with people at that level.

He connects with the soaring rhetoric, and the great promises and this ideological utopian vision. He didn’t connect with people because he felt their pain or he cared about them or he understands them. It’s been, to me, a very important understanding of who this guy is, and I think that’s become evident through this crisis.”

And then, just for good measure, Santorum also weighed in on the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, saying that the only mistake McChrystal made is "that is he criticized Obama" and Oamba "just simply cannot stand criticism."

Via the Iowa Independent.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/15/2010 5:36 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 5/5/2010 5:32 pm
  • Rick Santorum has endorsed Jay Riemersma, warning that otherwise "our country could slip away under your watch."

  • Americans United for Life is giving Rep. John Boehner the 2010 Henry J. Hyde Defender of Life Award.

  • Fox News is refusing to run an ad on climate change on the grounds that it is "too confusing."

  • Tammy Bruce has joined GOProud's Advisory Council.

  • For some reason, Janice Shaw Crouse provided written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the hearing on the Violence Against Women Act.

  • Finally, Concerned Women for America does not approve of efforts to decriminalize marijuana in Washington DC: "Women and mothers have enough to worry about without the easy availability of marijuana added to the list."

A Slightly Less Intolerant Rick Santorum?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 4/21/2010 4:27 pm

CBS News profiles former Senator Rick Santorum as he mulls over the idea of making a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 despite the fact that, just four years ago he was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by 18%.

Interestingly, it looks like Santorum might be trying to downplay his rabidly anti-gay history, even going so far as to try and distance himself from his infamous "man on dog" comment:

In an interview, Santorum said he was hurt by the reaction to his comments and insisted he had been mischaracterized. His interviewer, he said, had engaged in a "hatchet job" that clouded the fact that he was simply making a legal argument that "if the court created a right that sexual activity was all based on consent, then consent can be consent to do anything." Santorum said his focus was not on gay sexual activity specifically, and went on to stress his work to fight AIDS worldwide.

(In an e-mailed statement, Associated Press Media Relations Manager Jack Stokes said, "Our story was accurate then, and it has withstood the passage of time." You can see a transcript of the interview here.)

That isn't to say Santorum, a strong opponent of same-sex marriage, has exactly changed course. But he does seem to want to avoid controversy. Asked about his position on homosexuality, Santorum said, "I have no problem from a public policy point of view with homosexuality."

Asked about his personal feelings on the subject, Santorum said, carefully, "I have personal feelings on a lot of things." He added that people have a right to do what they want in the privacy of their own home. "There are things that people do that I think are good, there are things that are bad, that really doesn't matter much," he stated.

But while Santorum might be trying to sound a bit less intolerant when it comes to gays, the same cannot be said for his views regarding evolution:

At the same time, Santorum has resisted leftward drift when it comes to the controversial social issues that once made him such a prominent target. Asked about his position on evolution, Santorum requested a definition of the term more than once; he then suggested that the question actually concerned "Darwinism."

"Look, I believe that we were created by God," Santorum said. "That we have a soul. Now, if you can square that with evolution, fine. I don't know. I'm not an expert in evolution. What I can say is that I believe that we are created in the image and likeness of God, that we have a soul, and that we are not just a mistake. A mutation. I think we are something that God put on this earth, and have a divine spark, as Abraham Lincoln said."

"My feeling is the bottom line is I think it's important for society to understand that we are not just animals," he added. "…if we are just animals, and we're no different than any other animal out there, then the world is a very different place. And our expectations of others are very different. And I don't think it's true. And I don't think it's healthy."

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 4/12/2010 5:42 pm
  • Think Progress: Huckabee Compares Gays To Drug Users, Says They’re Unfit To Adopt Kids Because ‘Children Are Not Puppies’.

  • Alvin McEwen: The Friends of Mike Huckabee.

  • Sarah Posner: The Endurance Of Christian Reconstructionism.

  • Crooks and Liars: Rick Santorum Explains Right Wing Anger: Obama Wants to Change Us From Being a Judeo-Christian Nation.

  • Zachary Roth: Tea Party NY Gov Candidate's E-Mails Exposed: Racism, Porn, Bestiality.

  • Jim Burroway: Joyce Meyers: Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill “Profoundly Offensive, Dangerous, and Disturbing Attack”.

  • Media Matters: Why is Fox News calling tea partiers Nazis?

  • TPM: Virginia AG Cuccinelli: 'A Tea Partier Before There Was A Tea Party'.

  • Finally, John McCain goes after J.d Hayworth with a new ad: 

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 4/12/2010 5:30 pm
  • Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Steve King are BFFs.  Why is that not surprising?

  • Why is Sen. Scott Brown's daughter now a contributor to "The Early Show"?

  • Rick Santorum says the only reason he endorsed Arlen Specter last time around was because Specter promised to support President Bush's SCOTUS nominees.

  • Focus on the Family has kicked-off a 12-city tour aimed at educating couples on how to strengthen their marriage, parenting skills, and family life.

  • Harry Jackson defends Michael Steel, saying Steel deserves more time to get things organized.  Seriously.

  • Quote of the day I from Dave Welch on standing up to gays: "We must stand boldly, declare God's standard of morality for the good of the people and take back the ground that has been yielded to the forces of spiritual darkness by cleaning house at every level of government, education, media and the arts. However, as it will be with God's judgment, we must start in the house of God. "

  • Quote of the day II comes from those who don't want to see Rick Green on the Texas Supreme Court: "Let’s not jeopardize that good work by electing someone who is likely to attract criticism and ridicule for himself and our entire judiciary."

The Resurrection of Ralph Reed

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 3/15/2010 10:30 am

Religion Dispatches' Sarah Posner has a really good article on Ralph Reed and his miraculous resurrection through his Faith and Freedom Coalition which contains a lot of useful information, a lot of which I was totally unaware of, like the fact that Tim Phillips, which whom Reed c0-founded Century Strategies after leaving the Christian Coalition, is now the president of Tea Party activist firm Americans for Prosperity and that Reed's new organization is apparently cannibalizing his previous organization to create his new organization:

Reed’s FFC is essentially a retread of the Christian Coalition which, under Reed’s leadership, was investigated by Congress, the Federal Election Commission, and ultimately (after Reed’s departure) had its tax-exempt status denied over its engagement in electoral politicking. But Reed, who has managed to survive the Christian Coalition meltdown, his two-timing of evangelicals through his business association with Abramoff, and his 2006 loss in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia, is sifting the remnants of the Christian Coalition infrastructure to build FFC.

O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Church in Pompano Beach, Florida, and a Christian Coalition of Florida board member, said that the board voted last year to “come under the umbrella of” the FFC. For an organization that was low on funds, said Dozier, it was “a great opportunity that we felt we couldn’t pass up.”

Now Dozier also serves on the FFC board, and says that the affiliation brings “more fundraising capabilities. With Faith and Freedom and with Ralph being known as he is, we can get more conservatives involved and coming to functions that we have in order to raise funds,” both locally and nationally. “It costs a lot of money to print voter guides,” he chuckled.

Also rather amazing is the fact that nobody in the movement is particularly concerned about Reed's Jack Abramoff-related double-dealings:

Yet Reed continues to elicit effusive praise from fellow evangelicals. The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody claims FFC “is indeed poised to be a major player in the 2010 and 2012 elections.” About Reed’s association with Abramoff, [Iowa Christian Alliance president Steve] Scheffler told RD, “if you look at the whole explanation it was a nonissue, it was the press that made something out of nothing that was there.” He added that Iowa activists were “excited” that Reed was the master of ceremonies for the Iowa Christian Alliance’s fundraiser this week, at which Rick Santorum was the keynote speaker.

Cindy Costa, the Republican National Committeewoman for South Carolina and former Christian Coalition activist, told RD that Reed is a “fine gentleman” and “helpful to the conservative movement.” After an FFC organizing event in Tennessee last week, Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the FFC “one of the most important forces for sound public policy in America in the coming years.” And GOP operative Chip Saltsman, forced to pull out of the race for Republican National Committee chair last year after he distributed a “Barack the Magic Negro” CD, added that FFC “has already been effective in identifying and turning out conservative voters and we’re pleased to bring it to Tennessee.”

But rest assured that even though Reed might be seeking to tie his current activism to the Tea Party movement, he isn't abandoning his Religious Right foundation:

Reed went on to claim that not running the country on a Judeo-Christian moral code is actually contrary to democracy. “So really, when you really get right down to it, James,” he said, “democracy doesn’t really work at all unless there is a citizenry animated by a moral code that derives from their faith in God. That’s what makes the whole thing work because otherwise, the government has to tell everybody what to do.”

I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 3/9/2010 7:00 pm
  • Tomorrow, Ralph Reed will announce whether or not he has decided to run for Congress in Georgia.

  • Last week, Marco Rubio joined Tony Perkins, Harry Jackson, and others for a Watchmen on the Wall event in Florida entitled "iMPACT 2010: Unleashing the Voice of the Church."

  • It looks like WorldNetDaily's conference is out to bring all of the right-wing crazies together under one roof.

  • Someone is running robocalls in Iowa accusing Rick Santorum of being a "pro-life fraud."

  • Ken Hutcherson blasts Focus on the Family for supposedly forcing James Dobson out and for not hiring him to take over, even though he wouldn't have taken the job anyway.

  • Quote of the Day I from the Liberty Counsel's Steve Crampton regarding LC's fight to prevent a lesbian high school student from taking her girlfriend to the Prom: "In all candor, while we know nothing about the complaining student here, we believe this is part of a larger agenda to implement homosexual rights in the schools."

  • Quote of the Day II from Janice Crouse on gay marriage: "In actuality, homosexual unions have a very short lifespan; many of the same-sex “marriages” in Massachusetts are already being dissolved. Further, the health risks associated with homosexual practice are very real and very much in evidence in the emergency rooms of hospitals. There is no denying: Homosexual sex is dangerous and destructive to the human body. Both HIV and HPV are epidemic among homosexual men. Domestic violence is a common problem — twice as prevalent among homosexual couples as in heterosexual ones. Indeed, legally creating a union does not enable two men or two women to become “one flesh,” nor does a legal ceremony give the union sanctity. Instead, the ceremony creates a sham that will devalue all marriages."
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Rick Santorum Posts Archive

Dobson Salutes Santorum for 'Standing up for Righteousness'
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Wednesday 12/21/2011, 11:45am
On December 16, Rick Santorum and his wife Karen joined James Dobson on his radio show Family Talk in a program, broadcasted today, where the Focus on the Family founder gushed that Santorum and his wife “epitomize what a Christian family is all about.” Today’s show comes a day after Santorum received the endorsement of leading Iowa Religious Right figures, and weeks following Michele Bachmann’s appearance on Family Talk, where Dobson hailed her and her husband as “role models.” The conversation stayed clear of over political rhetoric and mostly focused on... MORE >
Bob Vander Plaats Endorses Rick Santorum, 'The Huckabee in this Race'
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 12/20/2011, 1:20pm
Bob Vander Plaats of The Family Leader, who led Mike Huckabee’s victorious Iowa campaign in 2008, endorsed Rick Santorum for president today. Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center also endorsed Santorum. Speaking as an individual and not on behalf of his organization, Vander Plaats lauded Santorum as the “Huckabee in this race” and a “champion of the family.” Echoing Huckabee, who frequently reminded Religious Right voters, “I come from you,” Vander Plaats concluded, “I believe Rick Santorum comes from us, he’s not to us, he comes... MORE >
Gingrich, Santorum, and Bachmann All Sign Radical Personhood USA Pledge
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 12/14/2011, 5:38pm
Last month, the radical "personhood" amendment in Mississippi was trounced in the polls, with 58% of voters rejecting the Religious Right's effort to implement draconian anti-choice restrictions in the state. But that has not stopped supporters of this "personhood" movement from moving ahead with plans to try and pass similar amendments in states across the nation.  And now Personhood USA has announced that Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich have all signed the organization's pledge to support and promote both state and federal "personhood... MORE >
GOP Candidates Line Up to Attend Huckabee's Anti-Choice Premier
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 12/08/2011, 1:52pm
Lately, Mike Huckabee has been making the rounds on right-wing radio promoting a new anti-choice documentary he produced with Citizens United called "The Gift of Life" which profiles anti-choice activists as well as those who were "saved from the abortionist": Huckabee is scheduled to premier the film in Iowa next week and he invited the candidates seeking the Republican nomination to join him for the event where each would be given five minutes to address the audience and flaunt their anti-choice credentials ... and so far, four candidates have accepted the invitation:... MORE >
Santorum: Single Moms Not Marrying Their Boyfriends so They Can Collect Welfare
SUBMITTED BY: Josh Glasstetter, Monday 12/05/2011, 1:45pm
Dear Single Moms on Welfare: Watch out! Rick Santorum is on to your trickery.  At Saturday’s GOP presidential forum hosted by Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum sounded off the many ways that the federal government supposedly opposes marriage. In particular, he highlighted the supposedly common phenomenon of single welfare mothers who aren't marrying their live-in boyfriends so they can get extra goodies from the government: I’m sure everybody, a lot of folks listening here tonight, are gonna know people who are, who father and mother are living together, but they’re not... MORE >
Santorum Calls For Public Schools To Undermine The Teaching Of Evolution
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 11/29/2011, 6:15pm
During a meeting with the editorial board of the Nashua Telegraph, Rick Santorum urged public schools to begin teaching claims that undermine evolution, no matter their scientific veracity. He blamed “the left and the scientific community, so to speak,” for the inability of schools to teach about the role of God or a Creator, and said that “maybe the science points to the fact that maybe science doesn’t explain all these things.” Such attacks on the teaching of evolution are nothing new from Santorum, who attached language in the Conference Report of the No Child... MORE >
Santorum: God's Law And Civil Law Must Be The Same
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 11/21/2011, 4:54pm
During The Family Leader's Thanksgiving Family Forum in Iowa on Saturday, forum moderator Frank Luntz's first question to Rick Santorum was "what's the number one value that America has lost and how would you get it back?" Santorum's response was that America has lost the recognition that this nation was founded on the principle that our rights come from God and that, as such, we are also required to abide by God's laws ... which, he explained, was totally unlike Sharia: Now, unlike Islam where the higher law and civil law are the same, in our case, we have civil laws but our... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 10/27/2011, 5:38pm
Rick Santorum goes after Herman Cain on the issue of abortion and using quotes from various Religious Right leaders to drive home the point.   The Rick Perry campaign has hit upon a novel possible solution to addressing the candidate's poor debate performances: skipping future debates.   Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones is running for president.   FRC's latest prayer target: "Pray that DOMA will be preserved! May the people elect a President and Congress next November who will pass, and may the states ratify a Federal Marriage... MORE >