http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2007/10/19/prnewswire200710191427PR_NEWS_USPR_____DC05104.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After a week of fighting over who is the true conservative candidate in the race, the Republican presidential frontrunners are in Washington this weekend trying to win over evangelical leaders at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit. Despite what conservative Christian John Stemberger called "pandering" by the candidates, the GOP field, with its spotty records, flip flops and unimpressive campaign performances isn't catching on with this critical Republican base. [Washington Post, 10/19/07] According to a CBS poll released yesterday, white evangelicals "feel that Democrats, not Republicans, are paying more attention to their top issues," and a recent Pew poll showed that support from young evangelicals is up for Democrats. (CBS News, 10/18/07, Washington Times, 10/2/07)
No one has questioned the conservative bona fides of these Republicans more than Focus on the Family's James Dobson, who will be honored during the summit at a gala dinner Saturday night. Dobson said he would rather not vote at all than vote for Giuliani, hopes he won't "get stuck" with McCain, has resisted supporting Romney, and said Thompson was "Not for me!" Disappointed with his options, Dobson told Sean Hannity earlier this month that "there's still a possibility that one of those other candidates, a dark horse, could come from nowhere." (Fox News Hannity and Colmes, 10/8/2007) He even wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this month that conservative leaders may abandon the Republican presidential nominee in favor of a third-party candidate in 2008 - a clear sign of GOP problems ahead. (New York Times, 10/4/07)
"If the GOP candidates can't gain the support and trust of key Republican constituencies they need to get elected, how can they possibly expect voters to trust them to lead our country?" said DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. "As they hemorrhage support, the GOP frontrunners seem willing to do or say anything to get elected, but even Party leaders like James Dobson are questioning the trustworthiness of candidates who waffle and feign to score political points."
Conservative Leaders Iffy on Republican Frontrunners
Dobson Will Not Vote for Giuliani. In an op-ed posted on the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com Dobson wrote, "My conclusion from this closer look at the current GOP front-runner comes down to this: Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson's -- Dobson's? -- choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran -- or if worse comes to worst -- not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else." (WorldNetDaily.com, 5/17/07)
Tony Perkins Doesn't See Giuliani As the GOP Answer. Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said to CNN of Rudy Giuliani, "I cannot, under any circumstance, see the conservative base of the Republican Party being excited and working for a presidential candidate that is pro-abortion." (New York Times, 10/19/07)
Dobson Prays Republicans "Won't Get Stuck" With McCain. "James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family as well as the Focus Action cultural action organization set up specifically to provide a platform for informing and rallying constituents, came out strongly against a McCain candidacy during a radio interview. Dobson said in response to a statement McCain made on gay marriage, "Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances....Dobson added that there are a lot of other things, pointing out that McCain is not in favor of traditional marriage, and concluded saying, I pray that we won't get stuck with him." (Associated Press, 1/17/06)
Tony Perkins Calls McCain "Questionable on the Issues". To MSNBC earlier this month, Perkins raises doubts about McCain's position on abortion, saying "McCain is questionable on the issue." (New York Times, 10/19/07)
Tony Perkins: Romney Log Cabin Letter "Quite Disturbing." "In the 1994 letter addressed to the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group, Romney strongly argued for gay rights. 'We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern,' Romney wrote, adding that he would be more aggressive than Senator Kennedy in pushing for gay rights...'This is quite disturbing,' said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who had praised Mr. Romney as a champion of traditional values at the group's conference in late September. 'This type of information is going to create a lot of problems for Governor Romney. He is going to have a hard time overcoming this.'" (New York Times, 12/9/07)
Hemming and Hawing, Dobson Avoids Supporting Romney. In response to conservative commentator Sean Hannity's assertion that "at the end of the day, you are now saying that the only top-tier candidate you would support would be Mitt Romney?" Dobson replied "Sean, I don't agree with that statement, either. We have reports that were given in Salt Lake that indicated that it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to capture the nomination the first week of February. They're just not going to be able to get that number of votes. And who knows what will happen?" (Fox News Hannity and Colmes, 10/8/2007)
Dobson Says Thompson is "Not For Me!" According to the AP, in a private email Dobson wrote, "'Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?' Dobson wrote. 'He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!'" (Associated Press, 9/20/07)
Monday, 14 January 2008
Dobson's "NO" on McCain
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=25682
A prominent Christian leader whose radio and magazine outreaches are solidly in support of biblically-based marriages – and keeps in touch with millions of constituents daily – says he cannot consider Arizona Sen. John McCain a viable candidate for president.
"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family as well as the Focus Action cultural action organization set up specifically to provide a platform for informing and rallying constituents.
Dobson, who always is careful to note that he's not speaking for the non-profit ministry, which cannot advocate for or against candidates legally, also doesn't hesitate to state his personal opinions on social or political issues and agendas.
Several times he's talked to Republicans, the traditionally conservative political party, about the need to maintain the values of that large part of the U.S. population, or lose the support of those people.
His most recent comments came during an interview on the Jerry Johnson Live program on KCBI 90.9 FM.
The show host noted that pro-family conservatives already are thinking about the next cycle of leadership in the United States, which will be determined in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections. He also noted that McCain and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani appear to be the leaders.
Then he asked Dobson to listen to a statement from McCain and respond.
"I think, uh … I think that gay marriage should be allowed if there's a ceremony kind of thing, if you wanna call it that … I don't have any problem with that," McCain says.
"Dr. Dobson, would you be comfortable with someone like John McCain as the … conservative or Republican candidate for president?" Johnson asked.
"Well, let me say that I am not in the office. I'm in the little condo so I can speak for myself and not for Focus on the Family," Dobson said in rejecting McCain's leadership.
He noted that legislation he'd just been discussing on the program, regarding an attempt by Democrat leaders in Congress to create obstacles for ministries such as Focus to reach constituents with action messages about pending legislation, is being supported by McCain, too.
"That came from McCain, and the McCain Feingold Bill kept us from telling the truth right before elections … and there are a lot of other things. He's not in favor of traditional marriage, and I pray that we won't get stuck with him," Dobson said.
The provisions of the new congressional proposal, hidden deep inside a plan to reform lobbying rules to eliminate the many recent scandals involving members of Congress, would require pro-family groups to provide documentation of their actions to the government any time they try to spark any "grass-roots" action.
Phone calls, personal visits, e-mails, magazines, broadcasts, phone banks, appearances, travel, fundraising and other items all would be subject to government tabulation, verification and audits, Dobson said during a recent program. "On and on it goes."
"Clearly, the objective here is to hide what goes on from the public and punish and silence those of us who would talk about what our representatives are doing," Dobson said of the plan by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. American Family Association Chairman Donald Wildmon, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and American Values President Gary Bauer joined Dobson in urging listeners to flood Capitol Hill with phone calls demanding those speech limits be removed.
Bauer said the telephone number to call is: 202-224-3121.
Focus also has begun an online petition, at Focuspetitions.com.
Wildmon characterized the Washington proposal as a message to the American public: "We don't want to hear from you, and this is the way we're going to handle it."
Dobson also earlier scolded Republicans for blaming the 2006 election victories by Democrats in many races across the country on conservatives.
"Dick Armey emerged from four years in the wilderness to blame conservative Christians for Tuesday's defeat. They were, he said, 'too involved' with the party. He can't be serious! Someone should tell him that without the support of that specific constituency, John Kerry would be president and the Republicans would have fallen into a black hole in '04," Dobson said in a story WND reported earlier.
"Values Voters are not going to carry the water for the Republican Party if it ignores their deeply held convictions and beliefs," he said.
"Republican leaders in Congress during this term apparently never understood, or they forgot, why Ronald Reagan was so loved and why he is considered one of our greatest presidents. If they hope to return to power in '08, they must rediscover the conservative principles that resonated with the majority of Americans in the 1980s – and still resonate with them today. Failure to do so will be catastrophic," Dobson said.
Dobson noted he'd been interviewed by U.S. News and World Report after the 2004 elections and warned if Republicans squandered their opportunity, they would pay a price at the polls in either 2008 or 2006.
Dobson's predictions about values and the Republican Party go back even further than that, too.
In 1998 he told a reporter that the GOP was in danger of losing its ability to "claim to speak for those of us with deep moral convictions."
He said at that time the party has "ignored the moral issues year after year, term after term" and said at that time it was "time to fish or cut bait."
At that time he also warned the GOP Christians and conservatives "will abandon them if they continue to ignore the most important issues."
"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family as well as the Focus Action cultural action organization set up specifically to provide a platform for informing and rallying constituents.
Dobson, who always is careful to note that he's not speaking for the non-profit ministry, which cannot advocate for or against candidates legally, also doesn't hesitate to state his personal opinions on social or political issues and agendas.
Several times he's talked to Republicans, the traditionally conservative political party, about the need to maintain the values of that large part of the U.S. population, or lose the support of those people.
His most recent comments came during an interview on the Jerry Johnson Live program on KCBI 90.9 FM.
The show host noted that pro-family conservatives already are thinking about the next cycle of leadership in the United States, which will be determined in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections. He also noted that McCain and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani appear to be the leaders.
Then he asked Dobson to listen to a statement from McCain and respond.
"I think, uh … I think that gay marriage should be allowed if there's a ceremony kind of thing, if you wanna call it that … I don't have any problem with that," McCain says.
"Dr. Dobson, would you be comfortable with someone like John McCain as the … conservative or Republican candidate for president?" Johnson asked.
"Well, let me say that I am not in the office. I'm in the little condo so I can speak for myself and not for Focus on the Family," Dobson said in rejecting McCain's leadership.
He noted that legislation he'd just been discussing on the program, regarding an attempt by Democrat leaders in Congress to create obstacles for ministries such as Focus to reach constituents with action messages about pending legislation, is being supported by McCain, too.
"That came from McCain, and the McCain Feingold Bill kept us from telling the truth right before elections … and there are a lot of other things. He's not in favor of traditional marriage, and I pray that we won't get stuck with him," Dobson said.
The provisions of the new congressional proposal, hidden deep inside a plan to reform lobbying rules to eliminate the many recent scandals involving members of Congress, would require pro-family groups to provide documentation of their actions to the government any time they try to spark any "grass-roots" action.
Phone calls, personal visits, e-mails, magazines, broadcasts, phone banks, appearances, travel, fundraising and other items all would be subject to government tabulation, verification and audits, Dobson said during a recent program. "On and on it goes."
"Clearly, the objective here is to hide what goes on from the public and punish and silence those of us who would talk about what our representatives are doing," Dobson said of the plan by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. American Family Association Chairman Donald Wildmon, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and American Values President Gary Bauer joined Dobson in urging listeners to flood Capitol Hill with phone calls demanding those speech limits be removed.
Bauer said the telephone number to call is: 202-224-3121.
Focus also has begun an online petition, at Focuspetitions.com.
Wildmon characterized the Washington proposal as a message to the American public: "We don't want to hear from you, and this is the way we're going to handle it."
Dobson also earlier scolded Republicans for blaming the 2006 election victories by Democrats in many races across the country on conservatives.
"Dick Armey emerged from four years in the wilderness to blame conservative Christians for Tuesday's defeat. They were, he said, 'too involved' with the party. He can't be serious! Someone should tell him that without the support of that specific constituency, John Kerry would be president and the Republicans would have fallen into a black hole in '04," Dobson said in a story WND reported earlier.
"Values Voters are not going to carry the water for the Republican Party if it ignores their deeply held convictions and beliefs," he said.
"Republican leaders in Congress during this term apparently never understood, or they forgot, why Ronald Reagan was so loved and why he is considered one of our greatest presidents. If they hope to return to power in '08, they must rediscover the conservative principles that resonated with the majority of Americans in the 1980s – and still resonate with them today. Failure to do so will be catastrophic," Dobson said.
Dobson noted he'd been interviewed by U.S. News and World Report after the 2004 elections and warned if Republicans squandered their opportunity, they would pay a price at the polls in either 2008 or 2006.
Dobson's predictions about values and the Republican Party go back even further than that, too.
In 1998 he told a reporter that the GOP was in danger of losing its ability to "claim to speak for those of us with deep moral convictions."
He said at that time the party has "ignored the moral issues year after year, term after term" and said at that time it was "time to fish or cut bait."
At that time he also warned the GOP Christians and conservatives "will abandon them if they continue to ignore the most important issues."
Dobson's "NO" on Giuliani
ELECTION 08: Dobson says he wouldn't vote for Giuliani
By Michael Foust
May 18, 2007
EDITORS' NOTE: This story is part of a regular series of stories focusing on the most recent news about the presidential candidates' views on faith and morality.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Focus on the Family's James Dobson May 17 became at least the second major Christian conservative leader in recent weeks to say he would not vote for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in a general election.
Writing in a WorldNetDaily column, Dobson said Giuliani's liberal positions on abortion and "gay rights," as well as his personal life, should trouble conservatives. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, also has said he would not vote for Giuliani in a general election.
"Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008," Dobson wrote. "It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson's -– Dobson's? -– choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran –- or if worse comes to worst -– not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else."
Giuliani, who leads the GOP field in most national polls but trails in the latest polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, is seeking to become the first pro-choice Republican nominee for president since 1976.
"How could Giuliani say with a straight face that he 'hates' abortion, while also seeking public funding for it?" Dobson asked. "How can he hate abortion and contribute to Planned Parenthood in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999? And how was he able for many years to defend the horrible procedure by which the brains are sucked from the heads of viable, late-term, un-anesthetized babies? Those beliefs are philosophically and morally incompatible. What kind of man would even try to reconcile them?"
Giuliani, Dobson said, "opposed the Marriage Protection Amendment" in Congress and supports domestic partnerships for homosexual couples. The former New York mayor also has been married three times, Dobson noted, "and his second wife was forced to go to court to keep his mistress out of the mayoral mansion while the Giuliani family still lived there."
"Unlike some other Republican presidential candidates, Giuliani appears not to have remorse for cheating on his wife," Dobson wrote.
Land said on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" May 10 that he would not support Giuliani in a general election.
"I don't think I could sell [Giuliani] to most [Southern Baptists and evangelicals], and I wouldn't try," Land said. "I would say, 'Vote your values, vote your beliefs and vote your convictions,' and have to leave it to them to connect the dots. I don't endorse candidates, but I'm negatively endorsing [Giuliani]."
GIULIANI AND ADOPTION -- Giuliani said during the second GOP presidential debate May 15 that under his administration as New York mayor, adoptions in the city increased 133 percent and abortions declined 16 percent. Although those stats generally are true, The New York Times reported May 17, they "mirrored national trends," and adoptions were increasing before he took office.
Additionally, The Times said, the adoptions statistic refers only to "city agencies involving children in the foster care system" and does not refer to private adoptions. Giuliani is credited with helping reform a broken New York foster care system by creating the Administration for Children's Services, which helped "improve caseworker responses to reports of neglect" and helped find foster care children permanent homes. But "little if anything in the public record suggests that he was promoting adoption as an alternative to abortion," The Times story said.
As mayor, the newspaper reported, Giuliani "continued a strong tradition of supporting abortion rights, including using public money to provide poor women with abortions, as well as contraceptive services."
Maria Comella, a spokesman for Giuliani's campaign, said Giuliani's creation of the Administration for Children's Services, his implementation of welfare reform and other initiatives helped contribute to an increase in adoptions.
"When you're creating an environment that encourages adoption as a choice that will naturally lend itself to decreasing the number of abortions," Comella told The Times.
HUCKABEE SAYS ABORTION ISSUE 'CRITICAL' -- Would Republican candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee consider a vice presidential slot alongside a pro-choice presidential nominee? He's not sure, saying he'd have to think "long and hard" before making a decision to such an invitation.
"This is an issue to me that is very critical," he said, according to the Associated Press. "It's one of the reasons that I got into politics because I believe the manner in which we treat innocent life and the matter in which we respect human life, at whatever stage ... is an incredibly powerful statement about who we are as a people."
Abortion, he said, "is not just some peripheral political position."
CLINTON VIDEO CRITICIZED -- Some pro-life Catholics are criticizing Hillary Clinton's campaign for releasing a five-minute video showing her in a photo side-by-side with Mother Theresa. The late Catholic nun was a staunch pro-lifer, and in 1994 -- with the Clintons in attendance -- delivered a memorable speech to the National Prayer Breakfast where she called abortion the "greatest destroyer of peace today." Conservatives applauded. The Clintons did not.
"And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?" she said, according to a transcript. "... Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child."
Joseph Cella, president of Fidelis, a pro-life Catholic organization, said it is "wholly inappropriate, disrespectful and disturbing" for the Clinton campaign to be using the picture.
"Mother Teresa tirelessly fought to protect unborn children, while Hillary Clinton staunchly supports abortion on demand in all nine months of pregnancy, including partial birth abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion," he said in a statement.
--30--
By Michael Foust
May 18, 2007
EDITORS' NOTE: This story is part of a regular series of stories focusing on the most recent news about the presidential candidates' views on faith and morality.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Focus on the Family's James Dobson May 17 became at least the second major Christian conservative leader in recent weeks to say he would not vote for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in a general election.
Writing in a WorldNetDaily column, Dobson said Giuliani's liberal positions on abortion and "gay rights," as well as his personal life, should trouble conservatives. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, also has said he would not vote for Giuliani in a general election.
"Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008," Dobson wrote. "It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson's -– Dobson's? -– choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran –- or if worse comes to worst -– not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else."
Giuliani, who leads the GOP field in most national polls but trails in the latest polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, is seeking to become the first pro-choice Republican nominee for president since 1976.
"How could Giuliani say with a straight face that he 'hates' abortion, while also seeking public funding for it?" Dobson asked. "How can he hate abortion and contribute to Planned Parenthood in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999? And how was he able for many years to defend the horrible procedure by which the brains are sucked from the heads of viable, late-term, un-anesthetized babies? Those beliefs are philosophically and morally incompatible. What kind of man would even try to reconcile them?"
Giuliani, Dobson said, "opposed the Marriage Protection Amendment" in Congress and supports domestic partnerships for homosexual couples. The former New York mayor also has been married three times, Dobson noted, "and his second wife was forced to go to court to keep his mistress out of the mayoral mansion while the Giuliani family still lived there."
"Unlike some other Republican presidential candidates, Giuliani appears not to have remorse for cheating on his wife," Dobson wrote.
Land said on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" May 10 that he would not support Giuliani in a general election.
"I don't think I could sell [Giuliani] to most [Southern Baptists and evangelicals], and I wouldn't try," Land said. "I would say, 'Vote your values, vote your beliefs and vote your convictions,' and have to leave it to them to connect the dots. I don't endorse candidates, but I'm negatively endorsing [Giuliani]."
GIULIANI AND ADOPTION -- Giuliani said during the second GOP presidential debate May 15 that under his administration as New York mayor, adoptions in the city increased 133 percent and abortions declined 16 percent. Although those stats generally are true, The New York Times reported May 17, they "mirrored national trends," and adoptions were increasing before he took office.
Additionally, The Times said, the adoptions statistic refers only to "city agencies involving children in the foster care system" and does not refer to private adoptions. Giuliani is credited with helping reform a broken New York foster care system by creating the Administration for Children's Services, which helped "improve caseworker responses to reports of neglect" and helped find foster care children permanent homes. But "little if anything in the public record suggests that he was promoting adoption as an alternative to abortion," The Times story said.
As mayor, the newspaper reported, Giuliani "continued a strong tradition of supporting abortion rights, including using public money to provide poor women with abortions, as well as contraceptive services."
Maria Comella, a spokesman for Giuliani's campaign, said Giuliani's creation of the Administration for Children's Services, his implementation of welfare reform and other initiatives helped contribute to an increase in adoptions.
"When you're creating an environment that encourages adoption as a choice that will naturally lend itself to decreasing the number of abortions," Comella told The Times.
HUCKABEE SAYS ABORTION ISSUE 'CRITICAL' -- Would Republican candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee consider a vice presidential slot alongside a pro-choice presidential nominee? He's not sure, saying he'd have to think "long and hard" before making a decision to such an invitation.
"This is an issue to me that is very critical," he said, according to the Associated Press. "It's one of the reasons that I got into politics because I believe the manner in which we treat innocent life and the matter in which we respect human life, at whatever stage ... is an incredibly powerful statement about who we are as a people."
Abortion, he said, "is not just some peripheral political position."
CLINTON VIDEO CRITICIZED -- Some pro-life Catholics are criticizing Hillary Clinton's campaign for releasing a five-minute video showing her in a photo side-by-side with Mother Theresa. The late Catholic nun was a staunch pro-lifer, and in 1994 -- with the Clintons in attendance -- delivered a memorable speech to the National Prayer Breakfast where she called abortion the "greatest destroyer of peace today." Conservatives applauded. The Clintons did not.
"And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?" she said, according to a transcript. "... Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child."
Joseph Cella, president of Fidelis, a pro-life Catholic organization, said it is "wholly inappropriate, disrespectful and disturbing" for the Clinton campaign to be using the picture.
"Mother Teresa tirelessly fought to protect unborn children, while Hillary Clinton staunchly supports abortion on demand in all nine months of pregnancy, including partial birth abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion," he said in a statement.
--30--
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