Posts on New Hampshire

At press conference earlier today in Washington, two of the GOP’s elder statesmen – former senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman – tried to convince reporters that vote fraud is a serious problem and could call the election into question. What they failed to say is that there is no evidence of widespread vote fraud.

On the other hand, there is undeniable proof of countless acts of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. All you have to do is open a newspaper to know that.

Today in New Hampshire, the former head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for New England was indicted for lying to investigators about his role in a successful effort to jam the phones of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and its allies on election day in 2002.

And today in California, a former Republican congressional candidate pleaded not guilty after being indicted for obstructing an investigation into a letter sent by his campaign to 14,000 legally registered voters with Hispanic surnames informing them that “they could be deported for voting if they were in the country illegally or were an immigrant.”

We trust that Danforth and Rudman will hold another press conference tomorrow, this time to talk about the proven threat of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. But we’re not holding our breath.

Just before the New Hampshire Primaries, the Christian Defense Coalition (perhaps best known for anointing the seats in the hearing room before the confirmation hearings of John Roberts and Samuel Alito) announced that it would be taking part in something called "The New Hampshire Awakening" – an effort to ensure that “the voice of the innocent children that have been brutalized through abortion be heard loud and clear at the start of the Presidential Primary season.”

As part of their pre-Primary activities, they even planned a “non-partisan” prayer vigil to which all candidates were invited.  As their letter of invitation stated:

The prayer vigil will be non-partisan and we are inviting all Democrat and Republican Presidential candidates to attend. During the evening, we will take time to pray for each candidate individually. We will offer the same prayer for each person, asking God to give the candidates wisdom, guidance, courage and faith. Since this is the first in the nation Presidential Primary, it is imperative that we look to God for His direction and blessing as the primary season begins.

Presumably, none of the major candidates showed up (though the CDC claimed that Ron Paul had agreed to attend) which is probably just as well, since it would have only interfered with the CDC’s plans of targeting the Democratic candidate’s campaigns by forming a “life chain outside of the New Hampshire campaign office of Senator Hillary Clinton” and disrupting a Barack Obama campaign really:  

About 20 pro-life protesters made the leading Democratic presidential candidate confront the issue of abortion on Monday when they interspersed themselves in a rally he held at the Rochester Opera House. Obama had just begun speaking at the Monday night event when the pro-life advocates waved signs and chanted.

The protesters, members of the Christian Defense Coalition and the youth-oriented group Survivors, shut down the Obama campaign rally chanting "abortion is an Obama-nation."

The chant was a play on the phrase "abortion is an abomination."

Randall Terry continues to protest and get arrested outside of Rudy Giuliani's NH office and demands to know "Why Are [the] Clergy Silent?"

Not every religious-right leader has fallen in love with Mike Huckabee. Although Christian Coalition founder and “700 Club” host Pat Robertson has a lot in common with Huckabee, whose surge in Iowa in some way mirrors Robertson’s run in 1988, Robertson is a firm backer of Rudy Giuliani, as he made clear last week.

Perhaps responding to Huckabee’s recent rise in South Carolina and even in Florida—Giuliani’s stronghold—Robertson has taken a break from meteorology to hit the campaign trail (by radio, anyway). On a Panama City, Florida station, Robertson emphasized that terrorism is his first priority, followed by the economy—no mention of those social issues that make James Dobson so angry:

BURNIE THOMPSON: “[G]lad to have you and I’ll tell you, Mayor Giuliani really does want Bay County’s vote. He’s been on talking with northwest Florida and I know that Florida’s very important to the Mayor. But I’ve got to tell you Dr. Robertson, I’m sitting with a very conservative Republican friend of mine who’s an evangelical Christian and his question he said ‘Please ask Dr. Robertson why, why would you endorse … Mayor Giuliani’”

ROBERTSON: “Well it’s real simple. I think the overriding issue in our society is going to be defense against terrorism. We’re in a war against militant Islam and I think we have to defend the American people. I think that’s the overriding issue and the second issue has to do with whether we’re going to destroy the economy or whether we’re going to build it up and have a future for our children.”

And on a Savannah, Georgia—Hilton Head, South Carolina station, Robertson promised right-wing Supreme Court appointments:

EDWARDS: “[H]e also is an administrator and most of the other people running for president have never run anything.”

ROBERTSON: “Well I felt that too. You know the United States government is the biggest corporation---executive decisions that a president has to make. … And especially the thing that strikes me also is his selection of judges. He has promised the American people, promised me, promised others that he’s going to put in judges after the stripe of Scalia, Thomas …”

Where does that leave Giuliani nemesis Randall Terry, who protested Robertson’s endorsement at the D.C. office of the televangelist’s Christian Broadcasting Network? Terry headed in the opposite direction, holding “vigils, literature drops, pickets and more” in New Hampshire “to expose the agenda of Rudy Giuliani.” Terry’s “literature” includes a fake pamphlet for the campaign of a white supremacist named Smith—“A Candidate with the courage to deal with the disaster of free Negroes, and the ‘white man’s right to own!’” The punchline: It’s a thickly-veiled metaphor for Giuliani, of course.

Should a Christian vote for someone who supports slavery? No!

Should a Christian vote for a racist who supports segregation? No!

Then how can a Christian vote for a candidate that supports the murder of children by abortion?! …

Don’t be seduced! If you vote for Rudy or Hillary or any pro-choice candidate, you share in the sin of child-killing, and betray the very Law of God. … Do the right thing: vote according to principle, not party; life, not death.

Giuliani denies involvement.

“We have opened Pandora's box, and I think we have unleashed a witch's brew of lethal legal issues.”

Conservative movement stalwart Phyllis Schlafly, scourge of the ERA and founder of the Eagle Forum, has made clear her dissatisfaction with the ideological performance of Republican presidential candidates. But Schafly apparently falls into the school of thought that the fierce competition among candidates for right-wing favor gives activists the opportunity to “get involved and try to change the candidates’ perspectives now,” as Richard Land put it. And so she told supporters in New Hampshire, the early primary state, “You have the opportunity here to work these guys over. … We’re trying to pin them down.”

And so the Eagle Forum published a list of questions for its supporters to ask candidates on the trail, ranging from Schlafly’s theory of “supremacist judges” to the John Birch-esque “North American Union.” She says her plan is working, according to “Swift Vet” co-author and fellow “North American Union” enthusiast Jerome Corsi:

Sen. John McCain's new attention to, and possibly new position on, illegal immigration is being credited to a grassroots program implemented by Phyllis Schlafly, who is training Eagle Forum leaders how to question presidential candidates on key national issues. …

In the 109th Congress, McCain co-sponsored with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, S.2611, a "comprehensive immigration reform" bill supported by the Bush administration that included provisions calling for "guest workers" and a "pathway to citizenship."

But after facing intensive questioning in Iowa about immigration issues, McCain is widely reported to be considering a change in his position, requiring illegal immigrants to return home before applying for citizenship, suggesting a compromise measure similar to that proposed by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. …

"What McCain probably has not realized," Schlafly told WND, "is that Eagle Forum has made sure that the grassroots are well informed about immigration and other issues. It may be a surprise to presidential candidates like McCain, but the Eagle Forum grassroots are not going to accept the typical politicians' platitudes."

WND asked Schlafly if she thought the questioning from Eagle Forum leaders was the reason McCain appears to have shifted his immigration position. "Yes," she responded, "because I doubt McCain has been asked these specific questions. The specific questions force the candidates to face up to the issues in a practical and meaningful way."

As of this writing, the Eagle Forum questionnaire is missing one prominent cause the group has adopted: its prediction of America’s impending Nazification.

Calls for Bank of America boycott.

Not happy with McCain, Giuliani, or Romney. Tells NH activists to “pin them down.” Also: She urges revival of parental notification law that Supreme Court struck down in part.

McCain endorsed by CWA-Iowa founder, while Tancredo hires former New Hampshire Christian Coalition head.

For 43 states.

Going into the final two weeks before the election with their party facing daunting losses, their appeal to Christian conservatives dimmed, and their anti-gay mobilization tactics falling flat, the Religious Right is looking at the New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex unions as a glimmer of hope that they might maintain their influence in Congress.

"Pro-traditional-marriage organizations ought to give a distinguished service award to the New Jersey Supreme Court," said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The House Republicans’ summer-long immigration road show continues, with so-called hearings in New Hampshire on Thursday and Illinois next Tuesday. Meanwhile, a hearing planned for upstate New York has been cancelled for unknown reasons. Perhaps even members of the House committees behind the hearings have begun to sense the futility of such political exercises.

At one hearing last week in Georgia, Rep. Charlie Norwood lashed out at a witness from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service who wasn’t making the congressman’s points properly:

"What I wanted was witnesses who agree with me, not disagree with me," Norwood said after presiding over an immigration hearing Tuesday in Gainesville.

On Wednesday, the Augusta Republican took center stage over two congressional colleagues at a hearing in Dalton, telling a federal bureaucrat with whom he didn't agree that he would be calling her boss to complain.

Alison Siskin, an immigration specialist with the Congressional Research Service, said studies have been unclear about whether illegal immigrants have had much impact on government health care.

"The studies are all over the place," she said. "There are not studies that have shown rampant abuse."

Norwood told Siskin he was "disappointed" in her testimony, and that he planned to complain to her superiors.

“Facts are stubborn things,” said John Adams, and some studies show immigrants use less, not more health care than others. Perhaps Norwood, who said he did not learn anything new from the hearings he held, prefers Ronald Reagan’s version: “Facts are stupid things.”