Article VI Blog

« McCain: Quiet About His Faith. Is This A Problem? | “Spies” In Obama’s Church: A Lesson for Us All On Having It Both Ways »

They Are Back And It Is Ugly

Posted by: John Schroeder at 05:26 am, April 7th 2008 &mdash 5 Comments »

And I Thought It Could Not Get Any Uglier . . .

. . . but alas it has. There is a sizable, and very well reported, “Anti-Mitt for Veep” effort out there. It is definitely coming from social conservatives (read “Evangelical”) circles. The story centers on Paul Weyrich’s “confession” that he should have backed Huckabee, which we reported on last week, but it is gaining momentum as actual campaign efforts are rolled out. There is a lot of coverage, mostly in political blogs. Here is some more or less straight reporting:

And then there is some interesting commentary on the story:

So what is going on? This absolutely defies reasonable political calculus. McCain is no friend of social conservatives. It would make sense to lobby for the running mate that was most in line with social conservative opinion in order to maintain influence in a McCain administration. Even worse, this effort posits no viable/better social conservative alternative. It simply opposes Romney, who does seem to have been on a bit of a trial run for the job - traveling with McCain and making several TV appearances in the last week or so.

Of course, this anti-Mitt campaign contends that Romney is no social conservative, but the EFM link above puts the lie to that contention. I think a couple of pull quotes from all the coverage linked above tell the real tail. From Jonathan Martin, who broke this story:

Under the rubric of an obscure PAC called Government Is Not God, a coalition of longtime Romney opponents and past supporters of Mike Huckabee have created a website and are buying print ads that resurrect the former Massachusetts governor’s past abortion and gay rights stances. [Emphasis added.]

And from the CNSNews story:

“I know (Romney) to be a very dangerous and deceitful person,” Gregg Jackson told Cybercast News Service about his reasons for helping draft and signing the open-letter style ad. [Again, emphasis added.]

Given that a great deal of anti-Mormon sentiment hid inside the Huckabee campaign and the “Mormons lie” meme that we tracked throughout the campaign, the religiously-bigoted motivations behind this seem almost transparent.

What I find most interesting about this is the complete misunderstanding that Evangelicals seem to have of how the politics of all this works. They fail to understand the coalition nature of politics in America - they seem to think that somehow they can bully the Republican party. They also seem to approach this as an all-or-nothing game. Well, right now they are getting nothing.

In essence what is happening here is they are threatening to stay home if they do not get what they want for the VP slot. They figure that they would cost the Republicans the election if they stay home, which is very possible. What they fail to realize is that a fully Democratically controlled government, executive and legislative branches would harm them FAR MORE than it will harm Republicans in general. The Republican party will just rebuild a winning coalition without them, and be back next cycle. Evangelicals will find themselves on the outside looking in - a special interest group with some influence and no power.

But that analysis also reveals what may be the real bottom-line here. All these Evangelical leaders have constituencies and it is those constituencies that grant them influence, voice, power and money. Apparently those constituencies would rather be that special interest group than a member of a winning and powerful coalition, and so these “leaders” are confronted with a need to maintain the paycheck versus gaining actual influence. What a way to make a living.

It is a form, if you will pardon the phrase, of political masturbation. It takes power to actually accomplish anything in politics, power is gained by participating in the coalition; but the way they are playing it they just get to listen to themselves state their positions over and over and over again without any actual progress towards achieving their goals.

It’s a crying shame.

Lowell adds: There is a nastiness, stridency, and outright disingenuousness to this story that seems to combine the very worst of attack politics and religious conservativism run amok. As Nancy says at EFM:

Not supporting Gov. Romney because he didn’t fight gay “marriage” enough is like not supporting Elvis because he wouldn’t dance.

And yet this anti-Romney campaign loudly insists on pushing a version of the facts that turns the truth on its head. In essence, we are seeing a “big lie” tactic. That’s what the hard left does, folks, not conservatives. Or at least I thought so until now.

By the way, the people behind this “movement” endorsed Huckabee in January.

For Your Book Reading Pile…

An interview with the author of God in the White House. A little left leaning, but very worthy.

A book review of Jesus for President. The review opens with a quote from the book:

We are seeing more and more that the church has fallen in love with the state and that this love affair is killing the church’s imagination. The powerful benefits and temptations of running the world’s largest superpower have bent the church’s identity. Having power at its fingertips, the church often finds “guiding the course of history” a more alluring goal than following the crucified Christ. Too often the patriotic values of pride and strength triumph over the spiritual virtues of humility, gentleness, and sacrificial love.

Things are not quite the either/or picture they present there, nor do these ideas have to be as liberalizing as they seem in intimate, but the idea of substituting political action for actual Christian ministry is profound and a large part of my motivation here.

Late addendum by Lowell: On the lighter side of the “anti-Mitt for VP” effort, here’s Jim Geraghty’s take on the newspaper ad that group ran in Arizona, warning McCain not to choose Romney:

I get the feeling that if a social conservative doesn’t want John McCain to do something, running one of those unregulated political ads is not the most effective way to deter him. Reverse psychology might be in order; get all of McCain’s least favorite Republicans together to endorse the idea, and there’s a good chance he would do the opposite.

Ah, politics.
Sphere: Related Content

Posted in Political Strategy, Reading List, Religious Bigotry | 5 Comments » | Print this post | Email This Post

Recently:

5 Responses to “They Are Back And It Is Ugly”

conservativeinbama on 07 Apr 2008 at 7:57 am #

I believe the real reason why they all support Huckabee is not just because of him being the Anti Romney or the Baptist Preacher, but because of his “Abolish the IRS” shtick. If the IRS is abolished then that would mean the end of the 501-C-(3) provisions which prevent the “politicking at the pulpit”, something several of his supporters straddled a fine line to do this election year.

Getting rid of that provision would allow for what I think would be a hijacking of the GOP and reforming it into a Christian Democratic Union. The Democrats would finally gain a permanent majority in all Three branches of government should that ever happen.

I do hope that if Sen. McCain wins in Nov. it will be without the support of these Extreme social conservatives. It is one thing to be supportive of Soc. Con. issues but it is ridiculous when Presidential candidates have to give speeches outlining their religious beliefs just to appease these people.

The Constitution does Not allow for a religious litmus test they certainly applied.
HaroldHutchison on 07 Apr 2008 at 9:06 am #

Looks like they are trying to hang a “Mormons Need Not Apply” sign on the Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominations.

At this point, there is no other possible conclusion that I can draw, particularly given the past comments of a number of these signers. As such,it is forcing me to re-evaluate whether I can trust the religious right, or if it isn’t time for the GOP to come up with a new coalition that will leave them on the outside looking in.
CarlH on 07 Apr 2008 at 10:05 am #

Someone over at “Government Is Not God PAC” needs a quick lesson on the first law of holes! It just gets worse: The NO Mitt Ad And Mormonism

Is it just my Mormon thin skin or is this variations on the “Some of my best friends are Mormon–well, at least one of them anyway”?

The irony of William Murray decrying Mormon “dishonesty” in defense of his groups over-the-top disingenuous mischaracterization of Romney’s record is just too rich!
HaroldHutchison on 07 Apr 2008 at 11:43 am #

CarlH - My response is simple:
Who do I believe, Mr. Murray, or the statements from signatories that I have read with my own eyes?
Boise Leon on 08 Apr 2008 at 12:52 pm #

Veepgate may be related to other incidents to block Mitt Romney from getting into power. I have no doubt the signers of the warning letter to McCain have been used, especially Paul Weyrich who seems to be very befuddled at this time. The signers of that letter did not come up with the plans or the funds to mount such a campaign. The charges were so outlandish, the reported $2.5 million standing behind the effort has evaporated due to the rush of free publicity. Because of the nature of PACs, we may never know whose plan it was, but I would suspect Soros is in there somewhere. The charges are blatantly false, but I don’t suppose anyone is afraid of being judged for false witness. It can all be blamed on the other guys who signed up.

For the past two years I have been trying to figure out who is behind what. As soon as word started getting around about the possibility of Mitt running for president I set a Google search subscription to gather all the information in the media. It wasn’t long before I saw an item about the polygamous group in the Shortcreek area of southern Utah. A man named Warren Jeffs who was the leader of the polygamous sect had been put on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. His crime was listed as: Evading arrest. His crime in Utah was mismanagement of trust funds regarding property donated by church members for communal use. Other people on the FBI list were Osama bin Laden, some terrorists, a convicted murderer and some bank robbers, all of which seemed to be dangerous men and threats to America. The wanted poster did not list any crimes other than evading arrest. Arizona had tried to convict several members of the community but could not complete a trial because of lack of witnesses. Some of the men pleaded to lesser bogus charges to avoid years of jail time awaiting trial. Habeas Corpus did not seem to apply in Arizona or Utah and so people could be held indefinitely while the State tried to build a case.

Shortly after the first Most Wanted poster came out additional news release came out listing a $50,000 reward for the “capture” of Warren Jeffs. A short time later another press release listed an additional $50,000 reward making a total of $100,000. Now, Mr. Jeffs is not a tough guy who packs a weapon. He is a very frail 50 year old man who speaks very softly and with a slow halting meter. He was loved by his followers and virtually hated by everyone else for his religious practices of arranging marriages, expelling unruly boys and dissolution of families to maintain control over his flock of believers.

Fifty five years ago the State of Arizona created a disaster in a community called Shortcreek, Arizona. Although in Arizona, Shortcreek has no roads connecting it to Arizona, only to Utah and Nevada. Residents in Shortcreek believed they had no connection to the United States and they had found a place of refuge to practice their faith. The Arizona National Guard was employed to route every citizen including children and transport them through Utah, Nevada and Arizona hundreds of miles into the State or Arizona and began to forcibly separate children from their mothers and fathers. News teams from major magazines and news papers did picture stories of crying children and mothers and incensed the American population to object the savage treatment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Creek_Raid

Arizona was so embarrassed by the incident that they never attempted to interfere with the community for over 50 years. By 2006 the Attorney Generals of the State of Utah and Arizona received a grant from the US Dept. of Justice to create a program of cooperation between the states to deal with victims of violence and child abuse in polygamous communities. They created a document called The Primer outlining the culture of the various communities and listing any criminal codes in each state that might be helpful to control abuses.

http://www.attorneygeneral.utah.gov/polygamy/The_Primer.pdf

It is a well known fact that neither attorney general wanted to create a crisis in their state opposing polygamy and that the focus was on violence against women and children.

Within about 6 weeks a Nevada Patrolman stopped a vehicle with temporary plates to check registration. Warren Jeffs was recognized as one of the occupants and was arrested on the strength of the FBI most wanted poster. He was held in Nevada only to discover that Arizona did not have a case open to prosecute Jeffs in a timely manner and Utah did not have anything but a civil suite that would warrant a no bail cause. There existed on the books a new statute that had never been brought to court called “Rape by accomplice”. Based on that, Jeffs was first transferred to Utah under heavy armed guard and incarcerated in solitary confinement and held without bail for 16 months in a jail called Purgatory near Hurricane, Utah. During that time he collapsed and had to be treated in a hospital from fasting and ulcerated knees from praying. He seemed to suffer a mental breakdown and tried unsuccessfully to do an end run on his attorney to deliver a message to the judge that he was no longer the leader of his church and he had never had authority to hold his position in the church. In a bizarre side line to the case a reporter who snapped a picture of the note from across the court was prosecuted for the action.

Back to what puzzles me. I contacted the Arizona prosecuting investigator about the details of the FBI action. He could not explain it. He had asked his superiors about that and there is no clue to how he got on the Ten Most Wanted list or who put up the two rewards. Let us try to connect the dots. In June, 2006, Mitt had announced his intention to run for POTUS. So, had John McCain. Mark Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General and Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General had joined hands taking years in the making to create a policy to avoid incidents along polygamy lines that would compare with the mistakes made in 1953. Utah supported Mitt Romney by 90% and Mark Shurtleff, AG of Utah, supported McCain. Any press releases by Mitt Romney were matched by press releases regarding Jeffs, even when there was no event. Google activity for Mitt Romney listed Provo, UT, Boise, ID and Malmo, Sweden as the three highest request areas. Utah successfully convicted Jeffs (on appeal) but did not inform the jury that the main witness (victim) had a $10 million dollar lawsuit against the FLDS trust. Arizona has taken custody of Jeffs and has not been able to get cooperation from their key witnesses and have dropped those cases.

The publicity cow has almost run dry and there is no more news about Jeffs. But, wait! A sheriff in El Dorado, Texas has taken over 200 prisoners in an FLDS compound. The first children were bussed away from the compound in Baptist Sunday School busses. A judge issued a warrant to cross the Holy of Holy threshold of an FLDS temple in search for a 16 year old girl who placed a 911 call accusing a 50 year old man under probation in Arizona of marrying and impregnating her. The man has been contacted and says he does not know the girl. Yes, and 200 people have been arrested in Texas. For a while this situation seemed like it would rival the Waco debacle, but the FLDS in El Dorado do not seem to be suicidal or heavily armed, in fact they are probably having a picnic being martyrs and having their civil rights trampled on. El Dorado will not be Waco, but it will be the next publicity cow to replace Jeffs in Purgatory Prison.

Meanwhile there are a bunch of “social conservatives” trying to ruin the good name of
Mitt Romney and not caring where exactly the money came from. Considering that McCain will suffer collateral damage, it is most likely from the liberal left. What Republican can profit from such a dumb move? Certainly Mike Huckabee is not involved.

So, where is the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post when we need some investigative reporting? (Whisper): Follow the money.