The Religious Right's True Colors

In recent years, when Pat Robertson has made statements like "We should assassinate Hugo Chavez" or Gays and lesbians are to blame for 9/11" or "Cities that reject intelligent design deserve to receive a hurricane", evangelicals would always claim that his influence has been lessened over the years and he is no longer relevant.

On the August 23, 2005 episode of Fox News' Special Report, Hume declared, "The televangelist Pat Robertson's political influence may have been declining since he came in second in the Iowa Republican caucuses 17 years ago. And he may have no clout with the Bush administration."

Morton Kondracke echoed Hume, exclaiming that "Pat Robertson's day has long since passed."

Therefore, I guess the least relevant evangelical leader in America just endorsed Rudy Giuliani. (Hey, how's that "We deserved 9/11" business square with that?)

I'm not sure what his import is anymore. His influence in creating the law school, Regent University, attended by the likes of Monica Goodling and dozens of other Bush Administration Justice Department officials, is considerable. My point is that this will suddenly be seen as "the most important endorsement EVAH" after years of hearing that Robertson is a crazy old coot and an afterthought. Just a window into how the media works.

Robertson is a partisan political operative, not a religious leader, and this endorsement kind of proves it, as it goes against all appearances of principle on what he's considered to be core issues like abortion and gay rights. Other social conservatives are looking in other directions, like Sam Brownback, who chose his Senate colleague John McCain.

"John McCain is the only candidate who can rally the Reagan coalition of conservatives, independents and conservative Democrats needed to defeat Hillary Clinton or any other Democrat in the general election next year," Brownback said in a statement.

He praised McCain for spending a lifetime "standing up for human rights around the world, including a consistent 24-year pro-life record of protecting the rights of the unborn."

I guess none of that matters to Robertson, who would rather choose the candidate most likely to eat a terrorist and spit out the bones. Ultimately I think these endorsements mean little compared to boots on the ground and organization in the early states. What they are is a window into the real concerns of the so-called "religious right."

I'd Really Like To Believe The Hype.

When it was floated over the weekend that some Christian conservatives were thinking about a third-party effort should the socially moderate (but a warmonger to the extreme) Rudy Giuliani be nominated by the Republicans, I thought "GO THIRD-PARTY PEOPLE!" And Rasmussen has polled it, adding to my shouts of "GO THIRD-PARTY PEOPLE!"

If Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination and a third party campaign is backed by Christian conservative leaders, 27% of Republican voters say they’d vote for the third party option rather than Giuliani. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that a three-way race with Hillary Clinton would end up with the former First Lady getting 46% of the vote, Giuliani with 30% and the third-party option picking up 14%. In head-to-head match-ups with Clinton, Giuliani is much more competitive.

People do seem to be forgetting that there's enough money behind this Unity 08 nonsense that there is likely to already be a third-party candidate on the ballot that reflects a center-right perspective, that would almost certainly draw votes away from the Republicans. This would just make that more so. Judge Roy Moore would absolutely get 10-15% of the vote against two New Yawkahs, and could win Alabama. It would be a disaster for the GOP.

Which is why I think it's a lot of hype. Dobson and Robertson and those guys are political operatives first, and I could hardly see them willingly giving away the power they've accumulated over the Bush years.

UPDATE: I'm happy to be wrong about this, and according to SpongeDob, I am:

After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous.

There's a little wiggle room here, but not much. You almost want to see Rudy get the nomination, now.

"...and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for 9/11."

ACT I:

REP. RON PAUL, R-TEXAS, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They attack us because we've been over there, we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East. I think Reagan was right. We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics.

RUDY GIULIANI, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's an extraordinary statement of someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11.

-Rudy Giuliani, GOP debate, May 16, 2007

ACT II:

JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters -- the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats -- what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact -- if, in fact -- God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system..

JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged". In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time - calling upon God. ~~~

PAT ROBERTSON: Amen.

Jerry Falwell & Pat Robertson, September 13, 2001

The punch line:

Giuliani Gets A Standing Ovation At A Christian College

Mayor Giuliani's battle to win over social conservatives in the Republican Party may not be the impossible task that many political pundits have predicted.

That certainly appeared to be the case yesterday at Regent University, the Christian college founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, where Mr. Giuliani's message of leadership and strength on terrorism met with a standing ovation.

-JoinRudy.com, June 27, 2007

And a comment:

Steve Benen could not be more right. The Mayor of New York City on September 11th, the guy who's made "9/11" his middle name, just visited a school founded by a radical theocrat who blamed Americans for the deaths of 3,000 of its citizens. This should be the first, last and only question for Rudy Giuliani at every press event. "Do you agree with Pat Robertson that the ACLU and feminists and abortionists and gays and lesbians are responsible for 9/11?" If the guy's so consumed with talking about the terrorist attack, let's talk about it. Why are you validating the work of Pat Robertson, who has recently said that the perpetrators of 9/11 were "just a few bearded-terrorists who fly into buildings” and who thinks that "activist liberal judges" are a greater threat to America?

Forget Giuliani’s ridiculous Clinton smear; this is what matters. Reporters should be confronting Giuliani with Robertson quotes and asking a) whether he agrees with them; and b) whether presidential candidates should lend their credibility to fringe fundamentalist extremists.

In 2000, when Bush visited Bob Jones University, it became a controversy — why would a credible presidential hopeful sanction BJU with a high-profile appearance? The questions dogged Bush for weeks. There’s no reason Giuliani shouldn’t face similar scrutiny now.

I’m curious, if a top-tier Democratic candidate publicly appeared with a radical extremist who blamed 9/11 on Americans and encouraged a terrorist attack on the State Department, do you think it might become a big deal?

A smart activist would start attending Rudy's campaign events with a "Mullahs for Giuliani" sign. Look, despite what everybody thinks, Giuliani can still win the Republican nomination on an explicit "electability" argument. His negatives in the swing states are extremely low, and he's very competitive where the race will count. The time for defining Rudy, yoking him to the likes of Pat Robertson, saying irresponsible things like "Giuliani blames Americans for 9/11" and also responsible things like "Giuliani left the emergency command center at the World Trade site despite it being a terrorist target in 1993" and "Giuliani didn't fix the radio communication problem between police and firefighters which caused many unnecessary deaths on 9/11" and "Giuliani was more concerned with making people think the city was on its feet again than protecting Ground Zero rescue workers who are getting sick and dying"...

That time is now.