Subject: 3 -- PAT ROBERTSON ANGRILY AND BOLDLY FORWARD (ON A LIMB)
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 14:02:13 -0500

PAT ROBERTSON ANGRILY AND BOLDLY FORWARD (ON A LIMB)
by Paula Xanthopoulou

If you wanted to know where the Christian Coalition stands after this
election cycle, you had to watch the 700 Club yesterday. 

There was, of course, Spin Kontrol from Executive Director  Ralph Reed. He
said that "the Republicans have one group to thank for the fact that they're
still in control of both Houses of Congress tonight" -- as born-again
evangelicals "prevented a very poor Presidential performance from turning
into a meltdown down the ballot." 

(In the next breath Reed said polls showed that 28 percent of voters were
born-again Christians or pro-life Roman Catholics who voted for Bob Dole by
only a 56-33 margin, because Dole "didn't talk enough about morals."  By the
same token, one could say that the Christian Coalition simply does not
represent all those people and/or did not deliver the vote for Bob Dole as
planned. Oops!)

The 700 Club stage, however, belonged to host Pat Robertson. Robertson -- no
longer "Reverend" as Tom Brokaw called him on Tuesday night -- is Reed's boss
and a failed presidential candidate who has been playing politics fast and
loose in Republican circles under the rapidly disintegrating cover of his
Christian Coalition. The out-spoken televangelist did something unusual
yesterday: he read a short statement (attached below*) off the teleprompter
and did not go off message in a torrent of Robertson-babble. 

That carefully crafted message did deserve solemn focus. For Robertson, in
effect, cut himself off from the Republican Establishment -- in a transparent
effort to win back the grass roots and with the dangerous notion that he
doesn't need certain GOP heavy-hitters to give him credibility anymore.

Robertson said, in part, "For religious conservatives, this campaign has many
lessons, and none is more important than this: the days when we can allow
presidential campaigns to be run by Nixon and Reagan-era lobbyists and
inside-the-beltway consultants are over. Sadly, once again, the Republican
 presidential campaign was dreadfully managed and the moral values message
was fumbled."

He couldn't face the possibility that it was the photo of a self-indulgent
Pat Robertson and a waffling Bob Dole with arms raised high in traditional
campaign style last September 14th at the Coalition's "Road to Victory '96"
conference that sealed both men's fate.  On one hand, many religious
conservatives (including Christian Coalition members!) simply did not buy the
idea that Dole represented their beliefs; so they either didn't help get out
the vote as they did in 1994 or even fled to a third party like the US
Taxpayers Party. Conversely, many moderate Republicans believed that the
Christian Coalition with its extremist agenda somehow controlled Mr. Dole and
the GOP after the South Carolina primary; so they could not support the
Republican candidate this year. Ralph Reed would call this a "lose-lose"
situation.

(Back at convention time, there was lots of talk of deals between the
candidate and the Christian Coalition regarding platform planks and primetime
visibility. But the presence of John Sears, Donald Rumsfield, Charlie Black,
et al, sent one message: "This is our Party!")

We mustn't forget that Pat Robertson set three political goals when he
started the Christian Coalition: dominance over one of the major political
parties, the election of a conservative Congress, and the election of a
conservative President (and by extension control over Supreme Court
appointments).

1) Robertson's relationship with the national Republican Party is in
jeopardy. He might be furious at the GOP Establishment, but rest assured that
the feeling is now mutual. There is a lot of Christian Coalition involvement
in the GOP on state and local levels. But even that should be questioned and
scrutinized.

Many groups are involved in the political organizing of religious
conservatives at local levels. Some are Christian Coalition fronts and/or
their affiliates. But many are not -- something that figures prominently when
considering the serious discontent in the grass roots by those who were
completely turned off by Robertson's early support of Dole and intent on
playing GOP politics instead of sticking to principle. In fact, there were
many similarly attuned "voter guides" out there that did not come from the
Christian Coalition. This common mindset promoting  undemocratic and hateful
"family values" is not going away any time soon, but it not totally
controlled by Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition.**

(Yes, lots of Christian Coalition "voter guides" -- we'll probably never find
out exactly how many or how many were sent as postcards/delivered with
newspapers rather than be distributed in churches -- were distributed last
Sunday. But a major reason for some squeaker GOP victories was the infusion
of cash by the Republican National Committee in the last two weeks, a factor
that was mentioned several times by 700 Club political analyst John Waage.)

2) The Congress keeps its conservative bent, but by very narrow margins -- as
many people/groups mobilized to declare that the rightwing agenda is not
acceptable to the majority of Americans. On Tuesday morning's 700 Club, Waage
had predicted four Senatorial "pick-ups" plus one in the House for the GOP.
There was no mention yesterday of the fact that Al Salvi lost big in Illinois
-- even after his father-in-law Nick Keller came to the Christian Coalition's
conference to promise the IL caucus that if elected Salvi would make "things
happen the way the Christian Coalition wants them to happen."  Neither did
Robertson mention his pal Woody Jenkins (arguably the most dangerous of the
rightwing candidates and a key member of the secretive Council for National
Policy) who lost his Senatorial bid in LA. Ralph Reed described the '96
elections as "a stalemate." Furthermore, he said, "This election was about
survival, about swimming upstream against a very poor tide at the
presidential level."

3) Regarding the presidency, Reed -- after painfully obvious but mostly
unchallenged collusion by the tax-exempt 700 Club with the GOP in relentless
efforts to systematically defame President Clinton and his administration --
had the gall to say that Clinton's victory was "really not a pick-up" since
he was President already!

As if all the above wasn't enough, arrogant  (and largely unchallenged!!)
remarks regarding the Christian Coalition's relationship to partisan GOP
politics have recently reached new depths -- even in the face of a lawsuit by
the Federal Elections Commission.  Reed proclaimed in Cincinnati last week
that "Newt Gingrich will still be speaker of the house on January 5, 1997."
Monday's 700 Club broadcast reported that 45 million Christian Coalition
"voter guides" were distributed "in an effort to help Republicans keep
control of Congress." Is it my imagination, or are some political operatives
who call themselves Christians saying, "----  you?" And your laws. And your
sensibilities. Catch us if you can!

There is indeed trouble in Christian Coalition Land: the very serious lawsuit
by the FEC, the subsequent need for the Coalition to defend itself
(regardless of a ton of public pooh-poohing), growing discontent in the
grassroots, more and more Americans of all stripes organizing to disavow the
extremist agenda, rejection by the GOP establishment, the "hand-to-hand
combat" (as Reed called it) of this election cycle, more over-the-line
partisan statements, and a big fat zero vis-à-vis the presidency/control of
the Supreme Court.  All this clearly adds up to a net loss and an erosion of
power for Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition -- in both  "religious
right" and traditional political circles.

What's next? "Hand-to-hand" combat within the ranks of the GOP? A new
political party dominated by religious conservatives? Subsequent struggle for
control over the born-again evangelical voting block? Or just more smoke and
mirrors as Pat Robertson & Company continue to use the Bible and people of
faith as a front for their rightwing agenda.

Meanwhile, we can listen to what they have to say in their own words.  Spin
Kontrol, excuses, accusations, anger, declarations -- from both Pat Robertson
and Ralph Reed on yesterday's 700 Club. 

Trouble. You could see it on their faces.

*From yesterday's 700 Club (11/6/96):

"Despite the fact that Bob Dole is a  fine and decent man, this election
marks the second consecutive time when a Republican candidate for president
lost the election because he muted social issues in favor of money issues. It
is the second time that a Republican presidential campaign refused early on
to mount an aggressive plan of attack on television and then forced the
candidate to engage in a desperate and exhausting effort in the closing hours
of the campaign.

Despite a vicious attempt by Big Labor to buy control of Congress, the
Republicans still hold a majority in the House and the Senate. The
re-election of strong conservatives, and the election to the Senate of Chuck
Haggle in Nebraska, Tim Hutchinson in Arkansas, Jeff Sessions in Alabama, Pat
Roberts, uh, and  Sam Brownback in Kansas -- clearly indicate that fiscal and
social conservatism remains (sic) a winning combination nationwide for
Republicans.

Exit polls show that a majority of the American people do not believe Bill
Clinton is truthful. He now faces four years of ongoing scandals that already
have tainted his administration and an ever-growing probe by a special
counsel that will likely result in indictments, perhaps at the highest level.

For religious conservatives, this campaign has many lessons, and none is more
important than this: The days when we can allow presidential campaigns to be
run by Nixon and Reagan-era lobbyists and inside-the-beltway consultants are
over. Sadly, once again, the Republican  presidential campaign was dreadfully
managed and the moral values message was fumbled.

Religious conservatives and the United States of America deserve better." --
Pat Robertson

** In fact, yesterday’s Focus on the Family “Family Issues Alert” featured
election analysis, etc., from Family Research Council’s Gary Bauer. A portion
of the report stated: “Bauer made some news of his own Tuesday. ‘I helped
form a new political action committee (PAC) -- the Fund for Working Families
-- which will raise several million dollars to go after Bill Clinton and
liberal members of Congress on the issues. We registered the PAC today with
the Federal Election Committee.’ ”

__________________________________

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