Subject: PAT & RALPH CONTINUE THEIR REPUBLICAN SHENANIGANS
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 12:41:50 -0400

NOTE :  Following this "c.c.watch" report, we have appended a startling
excerpt from Time Daily (8/4) about the Christian Coalition's future and a CC
webpage announcement regarding its San Diego "state-of-the-art Communications
Command Center," etc.

PAT & RALPH CONTINUE THEIR REPUBLICAN SHENANIGANS --

While Pat Robertson sat safely (sort of) in Virginian Beach, Christian
Coalition (CC) Executive Director Ralph Reed stormed San Diego to take what
they both feel is rightly theirs: control of the pro-life wing of the
Republican Party. According to Robertson, 570 delegates to the GOP national
convention beginning next week are members of the CC.  A CC survey shows that
57% of the delegates are adamantly pro-life. Last Saturday, Iowa state CC
chairperson, Ione Dilley -- herself a member of the Rules Committee -- told
"c.c.watch" that CC members would be meeting as a group in San Diego. 

Reed appeared on Larry King Live last night (8/5) to talk about San Diego
news and also the alleged illegal $60,000 gift to his organization. Reed was
characteristically muted/smug about the GOP platform subcommittee on
individual rights (??) vote to strike the tolerance language from the
abortion plank. But he admitted to being "out here all day, whipping
delegates, talking to delegates"-- and concluding that pro-choice Republicans
probably don't have enough delegations to go to the floor with their issues.

As for the gift, he denied any wrongdoing on the CC's part: "We did report
it. We did comply with the law. And , Larry, it has always been my policy at
the CC to instruct all of our employees to abide by the law in every
respect."  Furthermore: "It is certainly our belief that we recontacted that
[now deceased] donor and made it clear." Reed admitted to personally signing
off on the report, words that may come to haunt him later. Was banned CC CFO
Judy Liebert's claim that the gift was falsely recorded a lie? "Sometimes
people may have different recollections of the same event," her former boss
answered.

Earlier in the day, The 700 Club ran a report which claimed that the KS
primary race today would be a key indicator of where the GOP was heading. Sam
Brownback -- a self-proclaimed "mainstream, pro-family" freshman Congressman,
who has the backing of  Jack Kemp, Jim Dobson and Bill Bennett (via radio
ads!)  -- is running against newly appointed Senator Sheila Framm. A
Brownback victory "would mean that Christian conservatives have finally
arrived,  by demonstrating power and influence in KS politics, and that
reality could energize other conservatives, and send a strong message to Bob
Dole that they will not be brushed aside in San Diego." Following the report,
Robertson started to say that the KS state GOP chairman is a member of the
CC, but suddenly fumbled over further comment and cut his KS commentary
short. 

On today's 700 Club (8/6), Robertson had this to say about the pro-life
platform victory: "The prospect of a floor fight now seems over, which is
precisely what I have been telling people...That spared a floor fight  and,
uh, that language, what it did, it put tolerance language in a, in a
 separate plank... If they'd put it in, uh, specifically abortion there would
have been floor fight. And, and, uh, Mr. Dole doesn't need that. So, the
people on the platform committee dealing with this matter, gave him, uh,
really a, a, a present, despite what Ann Stone has to say."
 
(The last two 700 Club broadcasts included four extensive GOP-oriented
reports, one on Hillary Clinton and the travel office scandal, and an
exclusive report on a "secret meeting" in Savannah, GA, last weekend between
Steve Forbes, Margaret Thatcher, Colin Powell and Casper Weinberger.)

Copyright 1996 Public-Spirited Enterprises. All rights reserved.

******************************************************************************

TIME Daily: August 4, 1996/TIME Magazine: Coalition Chameleon
 
"The Federal Election Commission last week filed suit to stop the 1.7
million-member Christian Coalition from working hand in glove with  the
Republican Party to promote its candidates. In its August 12  issue, TIME
reports that the conservative religion group is  considering a significant
transformation in the face of the legal  action. Publicly, officials of the
coalition, which raises $25 million a  year, deny the FEC allegations.
 Privately, however, the coalition is  considering elemental changes to its
structure. During the  negotiations to settle the suit, the coalition offered
to form a political- action committee. It may go even further if pushed and
convert itself  into a more political organization, a move its leaders claim
would actually strengthen the group. But outsiders have a hard time
 believing the coalition really wants to abide by the strict rules that
 apply to purely political entities: disclosure of contributors,  prohibition
of corporate gifts and a $5,000-a-candidate donation."

******************************************************************************
*
Christian Coalition Readies Communications Center in San Diego, 
Releases Results of Delegate Survey  (8/5)

"Christian Coalition will operate a state-of-the-art Communications Command
Center and a war
room at the Republican National Convention in San Diego to allow the
pro-family organization to
communicate with more than 1,000 pro-life delegates on the floor of the
convention. 
Personal computers, digital pagers, and message runners will link the
pro-family delegates through
a network of 102 floor whips to the command center. The goal is to
communicate effectively on
issues of concern, particularly the pro-life language in the party platform,
with its members and
other pro-family supporters who have been elected as delegates to the
convention. 

"The command center will be directed by D.J. Gribbin, national field
director, with the assistance of
Chuck Cunningham, director of voter education. A 'message of the day' and
news operation will
be supervised by Mike Russell, director of communications. A daily
publication distributed to
delegates and alternates will be edited by Mike Ebert. Fifty staff and
volunteers will man the
communications center and the war room, the latter acting as the hub of the
floor whip operation. 

"The Coalition also released today the results of a survey concluded on July
30, of 1,915 of the
1,990 delegates to the convention. It reveals that 1,087 of the delegates
support a constitutional
amendment protecting unborn life and oppose efforts to change the existing
pro-life plank. A
conservative running mate is favored by 592 delegates, not a
moderate-to-liberal, pro-choice
vice-presidential nominee. 

" 'We look forward to being an effective voice for conservative and
pro-family values at the
Republican convention; we will have a presence at the Democratic convention
as well,' said Ralph
Reed, executive director of Christian Coalition. 'The large number of
pro-family delegates and the
state-of-the-art communications network and floor whips linking them together
suggests that the
convention will be highly successful.'  

"The high point of the coalition's activities during the GOP convention will
be the Faith and
Freedom Celebration, to be held Wednesday, August 14, at 10 a.m. in Balboa
Park.
Confirmed and invited speakers include Speaker Newt Gingrich, J.C. Watts,
Bosnian war hero
Scott O'Grady, and Elizabeth Dole. Between 3,000 and 4,000 pro-family
supporters are
expected. The Christian Coalition Communications Command Center will be at
5th and Market
streets."
 ______________________________________________

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