From: Watch97@aol.com Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 14:02:13 -0500 Subject: 3 -- PAT ROBERTSON ANGRILY AND BOLDLY FORWARD (ON A LIMB) 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.’ ” __________________________________ Copyright 1996 Public-Spirited Enterprises. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. If it is quoted or referred to, please do give "c.c.watch" appropriate credit. (For more information or to subscribe to the complete, unique and timely reportage/commentary of The "c.c.watch" Electronic News Service, call 305/751-5001. We track and report on the activities of Pat Robertson, his many enterprises [especially the Christian Coalition], and his fellow travelers -- by constantly monitoring newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet, selected events, on-line data bases, direct mail pieces, and receiving reports from "c.c.watchers" around the country. Then we disseminate information that the public might never otherwise receive.)