Values Voters Summit

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on Friday to discuss The Response. During the show, Matthews played a number of videos, first posted on Right Wing Watch, of Response organizers Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer, John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church, and John Benefiel of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network.

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Lynn said Perry’s links to such extreme figures don’t represent “guilt by association” but “guilt by construction.” Perkins, on the other hand, tried to distance the import of Bryan Fischer, saying, “Look, he has a talk show on the American Family Association.”

While Perkins may be trying to downplay Fischer’s role at the AFA, he knows full well that Fischer isn’t just some radio talk show host but is in fact the public face of the American Family Association. In fact, his official bio lists him as the “spokesman for AFA.” He represented the AFA at Perkins’ Values Voters Summit and had a prime speaking slot, although as Kyle notes Fischer is not a listed speaker this year. Fischer is the group’s Director of Issues Analysis for Government and Public Policy, hosts AFA’s flagship radio program Focal Point and is the go-to voice of the AFA for inquiring journalists. Perkins himself co-hosted Today’s Issues with Fischer on AFA radio.

Perkins acknowledged that he knew the background of Fischer and other organizers, commenting, “Look, I don’t, as I said before, not everybody that’s on that platform agrees with what others have said or what they hold to believe.”

But no one has suggested that Rick Perry agrees with Bryan Fischer’s argument that gays and lesbians should be banned from holding public office, Mike Bickle’s claim that Oprah is the harbinger of the Antichrist or John Benefiel’s belief that the Statue of Liberty is a demonic idol. The problem is that a sitting governor and likely presidential candidate is effectively endorsing and promoting individuals and organizations with such far-right and extreme views in an exclusively fundamentalist Christian prayer rally.

While Perkins attempted to give Perry cover about the extreme views of the prayer rally organizers, The Response represented the extent Republican leaders and Religious Right groups will go to jockey for the support of even the most fringe figures and elevate their voices.

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.

You have to admit that it is rather amazing that an unknown, one-term governor of a sparsely populated state can not only be tapped as a major ticket vice-presidential candidate but can, in doing so, simultaneously become the new de facto leader of the conservative movement:

Gov. Sarah Palin has seemingly overnight become the leading candidate for future leader of the conservative movement in the nation - regardless of whether she and running mate Sen. John McCain capture the White House in November.

Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin, the governor of Alaska, were invited to address this weekend's Values Voters Summit in Washington but are expected to be no-shows, leaving only Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as two of the biggest political names scheduled to address the conclave of social conservatives.

Yet, neither the former Massachusetts governor nor the former House speaker tops the list of people conservatives are talking up as the next top leader of their movement.

Asked who that leader would be, Mr. Gingrich gave The Washington Times a two-word answer: "Sarah Palin."

Even more amazing is that Palin, with almost no discernable record of actually pushing or accomplishing anything on the Right Wing's agenda during her short time in office, has somehow managed to displace proven right-wing stalwarts like Tony Perkins and Mike Huckabee as the new leader of the movement: 

[Tony] Perkins has his admirers, but he and Mr. Romney look almost puny going up against Mrs. Palin - at least for now.

"The movement has a reasonably strong bench but no clearly identified leader coming from that bench right now," said Let Freedom Ring President Colin Hanna. "Tony Perkins is as close to being that next generation of leader as anyone."

Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly, conservative cause prompter Richard Viguerie and Free Congress Foundation President Paul M. Weyrich - all considered movement founders - each gave The Times the same two-word answer to the question about the emerging leader of the right: "Sarah Palin."

"None of the above names - Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee, DeLay - will be the conservative movement's leader in the coming years," Mr. Viguerie said. "Governor Palin's VP nomination is huge. It changes conservative, Republican and American politics for the next 20 years."

Perkins and Huckabee have dedicated nearly their entire political careers to advancing the conservative agenda and yet, in the span of two weeks, have seen their rightful positions at the movement's forefront entirely usurped by someone who, just two weeks ago, nobody had ever heard of.  

Guest Post from Pam Chamberlain of the Public Eye The Values Voters Summit is in its second day here at the Omni Shoreham, the grande dame of D.C. convention hotels, freshly painted and efficiently handling the 1000+ attendees. National press has tended to represent the event as the sound bite opportunity that such events have become. Planners claimed to have drawn 100 members of the media, and especially on Friday, they took up most of the back of the Diplomat Ballroom, spilling into the corridors and exhibit hall. It’s more than just a media event, though. It is a pep rally, designed to mobilize committed conservative activists to work hard in the coming electoral campaigns, despite their possible hesitation about the Republican Party. Sitting in the audience, I alternately feel as though I’m in church or watching TV. Many of the speakers are pastors or elected officials, and they know how to hold the interest of a crowd. The audience is knowledgeable about scripture and can quote chapter and verse along with the person at the podium. Repeatedly, individuals testify to their faith from all corners of the hall. Nobody seems to be taking notes, and my busy scribbling makes me self-conscious. The “congregation” is, in fact, an important part of this ritual, feeding on the energy of the speakers and building consensus around a litany of topics, summarized by the event’s sponsors as Family, Faith and Freedom. The stage itself is a TV set, decorated in red white and blue drapes, with elaborate lighting effects and logo backdrops, two huge video monitors, and a central stage with two imposing Ionic columns and twin American flags. Speakers enter from behind a curtain and walk across to the podium (Dobson referred to it as a “pulpit”) accompanied by musical introductions chosen to match their messages. The production quality is impressively high. One of the most popular events was a 20 minute “talk show,” with the FRC’s Tony Perkins, James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, and Alan Sears, President of the Alliance Defense Fund comfortably perched on stools, amicably chatting. Perkins was the host, and in the course of the “program” I felt Dobson was publicly passing the torch of leadership over to Perkins, signaling a new era for the American Christian Right. (When talk-show host Sean Hannity referred to Dobson as the man who vetted his bachelor jokes, William Bennett corrected him by reminding us that Perkins was running the show.) Testifying to how up-to-date this movement has become, the exhibits are media-savvy, with some form of CD, DVD or web-related handout in every booth. Rev. Donald Wildmon, whose ministry consists of boycotts of corporations his American Family Association perceives as being gay friendly -- like Ford – says he can mobilize 380,000 emails, representing ten percent of his database, in a matter of days. The organizers may have thought they were introducing Wildmon to their audience, since he was given the podium at a special luncheon to describe his 150 person outfit in Tupelo, MS. But when he asked how many were already on his email alert list, a good 40% raised their hands. His hard-edged brand of non-aplogetic gay-bashing apparently has already been accepted by supporters of the FRC who were simultaneously being asked by other speakers to show their compassionate sides. The Shoreham is not the only institution here with a face lift. This wing of the Christian Right is positioning itself to influence elections and win both the war on terrorism and the war on liberal culture.