For the last several days, the Right has been up in arms over this audio clip of Virginia Senate candidate Mark Warner warning that the state was on the verge of being taken over by the Religious Right
“Next weekend, you’re going to see a coalition that has just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state.
“And if they have their way, will take over state government, made up of the Christian Coalition, made up of right-to-lifers; but it’s not just the right-to-lifers, it’s made up of the NRA; but it’s not just that, it’s made up of the home schoolers; but not just that, it’s made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of different views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to them and what it means to be an American.
Not surprisingly, it is being shopped around by Warner’s opponent, Jim Gilmore, who is currently getting crushed in the polls.
So offensive were Warner’s remarks, apparently, that the Family Research Council felt compelled to issue a statement:
Today, FRC Action decried comments made by Democrat Party Senate candidate Mark Warner. Warner, who served formerly as Governor of Virginia, was recently recorded speaking at a Democratic Party event. In his speech, Warner accused pro-lifers, homeschoolers, and members of the National Rifle Association, as threatening to “what it means to be an American.”
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“You have to wonder what Mark Warner finds so offensive about these groups,” said FRC Action Executive Director David Nammo, “Is it the open practice of one’s faith or the insistence on the right to bear arms that threatens Warner’s America? The protection of innocent human life or the desire of parents to educate their own child? Perhaps Mark Warner should explain to the citizens of Virginia what parts of the Constitution he does agree with since it is clear he holds much of it suspect.”
Oddly, nobody at the Family Research Council seems to know how to do any basic “research” – or understands the meaning of the words “recently recorded” – because, if they did, they’d realize that they probably should have issued this statement back in 1994 when Warner actually said it in relation to right-wing efforts to elect Iran-Contra criminal Oliver North … or at least back in 2001 when the the RNC and Gilmore first tried to use the quote against him:
RADIO ATTACK AD DRAWS ANGRY DENIAL BY WARNER ; NATIONAL GOP SPOKESMAN DEFENDS COMMERCIAL
31 October 2001
The Richmond Times-DispatchRepublicans launched a sharp-edged radio advertising attack on Mark R. Warner yesterday, saying the Democratic gubernatorial candidate views abortion foes, home-school advocates and “people of faith” as a threat to the nation.
Warner angrily denied the claim and demanded the GOP pull the commercial.
The 60-second ad is produced and paid for by the Republican National Committee, led by Gov. Jim Gilmore. It features a conversation between a man and a woman during which the woman suggests that Warner considers social and religious conservatives as “wanting to radically change American life, and said our views were threatening.”
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The commercial is based on remarks attributed to Warner seven years ago, shortly before Virginia Republicans met in Richmond to nominate Iran-contra figure Oliver L. North for the U.S. Senate.
North went on to lose to incumbent Democrat Charles S. Robb. At the time, Warner was chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia.
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Referring to the expected nomination of North, a favorite of the Republican Party’s conservative activists, Warner, according to a state GOP-supplied transcript, reportedly told the National Jewish Democrat Council on May 25, 1994:
“Next weekend, you’re going to see a coalition that has just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state.
“And if they have their way, will take over state government, made up of the Christian Coalition, made up of right-to-lifers; but it’s not just the right-to-lifers, it’s made up of the NRA; but it’s not just that, it’s made up of the home schoolers; but not just that, it’s made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of different views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to them and what it means to be an American.
