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Religious right lining up behind Fred Thompson
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
Media Transparency - Aug 8, 2007
http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=205
Religious right lining up behind Fred Thompson
by Bill Berkowitz
Despite their differences, social conservatives appear ready to give
two thumbs up to the former Tennessee Senator, cum Hollywood actor,
touted as the 'Ronald Reagan of the South,' when he finally tosses his
hat into the ring
Despite Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson's well-publicized
remarks a few months back questioning Fred Thompson's Christian
credibility, and despite his anemic fundaising efforts -- in its first
month his campaign raised only $3 million instead of a hoped for $5
million -- several religious right leaders appear to be gearing up to
give the former Republican senator from Tennessee and television actor
two thumbs up when he officially enters the GOP race for the
presidency; expected to happen sometime shortly after Labor Day.
According to the Boston Globe's Scott Helman, longtime social
conservatives including Gary Bauer, a former presidential candidate who
now leads American Values, a conservative public policy organization,
and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, Washington,
D.C.'s most powerful conservative Christian lobbying group, are clearly
dissatisfied with the current field and seem willing to put any
differences they might have with Thompson aside and embrace his
candidacy.
"There's a consensus developing around him that's pretty clear and
pretty profound," John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family
Policy Council, an Orlando-based conservative group told the Globe.
"I've never seen anything like it in 25 years in politics."
"It's almost as if the man and the moment met," said Richard Land, who
speaks for more than 16 million people as head of public policy for the
nation's Southern Baptists. The Globe reported that while Land has said
"he will not endorse a candidate in the primary ... his boosterish
comments about Thompson -- like those of other conservative leaders --
leave little doubt about his excitement about the former senator. He
said support for Thompson was spreading 'almost like a prairie fire'
and predicted that some conservative leaders would endorse the
64-year-old actor and lawyer in coming weeks."
In a piece posted June 20 at Real Clear Politics, David Domke,
associate professor in the Department of Communication at the
University of Washington, reported that, "In June, Southern Baptist
executive committee president Morris Chapman, who said he hasn't
settled on a candidate yet, nonetheless added: 'Another Southern
Baptist called Fred Thompson the Ronald Reagan of the South, and I
think he has some of that appeal. He is a magnetic personality. He
seems to articulate his opinions clearly. He seems to be unflappable.'"
Domke pointed out that "Every Republican presidential candidate over
the past two decades has invoked the legacy of Reagan -- characterized
by optimism, love of nation, geniality, and a television-friendly
persona. But Thompson is the first GOP candidate to be consistently
talked about as Reaganesque. The SBC's Land, in fact, has been the
leading proponent of this comparison."
The mini-flap between Dobson and the Thompson camp came about earlier
this year when Dobson told US News & World Report's Dan Gilgoff, "I
don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression." A Focus
on the Family spokesman told the magazine that Dobson meant he has
"never known Thompson to be a committed Christian -- someone who talks
openly about his faith."
In a story appearing in the July 23 issue of US News, Gilgoff, author
of the recently published book "The Jesus Machine," which focuses on
Dobson's rise to power, reported that "Dobson and Thompson have since
talked, with Dobson rumored to be reassessing Thompson."
Support for Thompson appears to be equally based on social
conservatives' disdain for the top tier candidates -- former New York
City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney,
and for Arizona Senator John McCain -- as well as their belief that the
former D.C. lobbyist/lawyer will make an more acceptable standard
bearer for the party.
"He's got a real good chance to emerge as the conservative alternative
to Giuliani," Bauer said. As for Romney, Bauer pointed out that
"They'll battle it out, but if I had to characterize it right now, I
would say that the momentum here has moved to Thompson, at least among
the social-issues conservatives."
"I think there is a genuine comfortable feeling that there may be a
candidate out there that everyone can get behind," said Phil Burress,
who leads the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values. "He looks like
he's the first candidate that's come along that one, can raise money;
two, that's electable, and three, we're pretty comfortable with ... on
most of the issues today."
In his July 23 report, US News' Gilgoff also pointed out that
"prominent social conservative Paul Weyrich ... [had] met recently with
Thompson and evangelical activists, [and] said the former senator 'was
in agreement with us on almost everything.'" However, in a recent
column posted at Townhall.com, Weyrich predicted that regardless of who
the GOP's candidate was, he would lose to Hillary Clinton.
Gilgoff also pointed out that Thompson had "recently hired Bill
Wichterman, who served as conservative outreach director for former
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Joseph Cella, president of a
conservative Catholic group called Fidelis, to lead" his campaign
efforts. The recent hires brought Thompson's staff to nearly 30, the
Washington Post's Chris Cillizza recently reported, including a
pollster (John McLaughlin), a direct mail firm (HSP Direct), and an
e-campaign team (Blaise Hazelwood and Ken Smith).
John Gizzi, political editor of the conservative weekly Human Events,
recently reported that a source told him that Cella "will play the same
role that Tim Goeglein plays in the [Bush] White House, as a liaison to
conservative organizations."
In late May, Talk2Action's Frank Cocozzelli, who has been steadfastly
monitoring and writing about the Catholic right, wrote that Fidelis (a
501(c)(4) political advocacy group) "has been tag-teaming with Bill
Donohue's Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (website) to
criticize Rudy Giuliani's position on abortion." Cella lashed out at
Giuliani, saying that he "share[d] the exact same position on abortion
as fellow Catholic John Kerry. As more people of faith who are pro-life
begin to realize this, they will reject Giuliani's candidacy."
On its website, Fidelis describes itself as "a Catholic-based
organization working with people of faith across the country to defend
and promote the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and the right
to religious liberty by electing pro-life, pro-family and pro-religious
liberty candidates, supporting the confirmation of judges, and
promoting and defending laws faithful to the Constitution of the United
States."
Cocozzelli also reported that on May 16 , the organization "announced
that it was organizing anti-Giuliani protests during the GOP
Presidential Debates then being held in Columbia, South Carolina. Cella
also announced [that] Fidelis America PAC, the political action arm of
Fidelis, will distribute flyers and stickers prior to tonight's debate.
The stickers read: "Protect the Pro-Life Platform. Defeat Rudy
Giuliani."'
"At the bottom of both of the Giuliani-targeted Fidelis press releases
is a statement very much worth noting," writes Cocozzelli: "Paid for by
Fidelis America PAC_P.O. Box 277 Chelsea, MI 48118_Joseph J. Cella,
Treasurer Not Authorized by Any Candidate or Committee." In the course
of his research, Cocozzelli found that the releases appeared to be
"designed to influence the 2008 presidential election [and] are posted
on what appears to be the joint web site for several related
organizations," Fidelis, Fidelis America -- "a hard money PAC," Fidelis
Media Fund -- a 527 "soft money" entity, and Fidelis Center for Law and
Policy -- a 501(c)(3).
The intermingling of these entities caught Cocozzelli's eye: "While it
is not clear is which legal entity actually controls the web site,
there is a potential issue here in the possible commingling of
donations since the site serves as the portal for the (c)(4) as well as
the 527 political action committee. It is an unusual, hazy situation
that might pique the interest of the IRS as well as the Federal
Election Commission."
Dan Gilgoff reported that Thompson's "aides are arranging more meetings
between Thompson and conservative Christian leaders and have launched a
rapid-response operation to fend off attacks on Thompson's conservative
credentials," Dan Gilgoff reported.
Gilgoff also noted that Thompson has been touting his campaign
endorsements from the National Right to Life Committee. "It didn't look
like he was saying what a group of Christian consultants told him to
say," says Harry Jackson, senior pastor of the 2,000 member Hope
Christian Church in College Park, Maryland who also heads a group
called the High-Impact Leadership Coalition (website), who met recently
with Thompson. "He seemed to be saying, 'I'm one of you.'"
"There's a deliberate attempt by evangelical leaders to come to
consensus," says Jackson. David Barton, an evangelical activist who
spearheaded pastor outreach for the Republican National Committee in
2004, told Gilgoff that "the leaders I talk to are all really
interested in Thompson, but they're waiting to pull the trigger [on
endorsements] until later this year."
I asked longtime investigative reporter Mike Reynolds why Thompson
appeared to be doing so well with the religious right. "Thompson has
assiduously worked the leadership -- evangelical and traditionalist
Catholic -- behind the scenes for some time," said Reynolds, author of
a book on politics, money and the religious right to be published by St
Martins Press in 2008. "Taking his cues from Reagan in 1980 and
Rove/Bush in 1998, Thompson has laid the requisite groundwork and
cultivated a level of trust among this base that no other viable GOP
Presidential candidate can match, well ahead of his speech at the
Council for National Policy (CNP) in May that was followed by
one-on-one meetings with Arlington Group heavies. Two weeks after that
CNP speech, Paul Weyrich ran up the flag in a commentary titled "The
Man for A Desperate Hour: Fred Thompson" in which he compared Thompson
to Reagan. It's a done deal."
Does Thompson run the risk of veering too far to the right in his
search for support? Ironically, its Gary Bauer who puts his finger on a
problem that could develop should Thompson become the GOP nominee:
"Thompson's very good on the defense of normal marriage and free
expression of religion. Frankly, he might have an easier time ... if
he's not easily labeled as 'religious right.'"
Thompson may not yet be an officially declared candidate, but he does
have a spin/rapid response team in place. His early responders were
pressed into duty recently after the Los Angeles Times reported on July
7 that the Senator had "accepted an assignment from a family-planning
group [National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association] to
lobby the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion
restriction, according to a 1991 document and several people familiar
with the matter." The gag rule that Thompson wanted eased "barred
abortion counseling at clinics that received federal money."
Springing into action, Thompson spinner Mark Corallo maintained that
Thompson "did not lobby for this group, period." In a telephone
interview with the Times, Corallo added: "There's no documents to prove
it, there's no billing records, and Thompson says he has no
recollection of it, says it didn't happen."
However, Judith DeSarno, president of the organization in 1991, "said
Thompson lobbied for the group for several months," the newspaper
reported. "Minutes from the board's meeting of Sept. 14, 1991 -- a copy
of which DeSarno gave to the Times -- say: 'Judy [DeSarno] reported
that the association had hired Fred Thompson Esq. as counsel to aid us
in discussions with the administration" on the abortion counseling
rule.'"
In mid-July, LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt wrote that a number of
pro-life leaders, including Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, and Richard Land,
raised doubts about the truth of the Times story because of that
newspaper's longtime support for abortion rights. Karen Cross, of the
National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that "It appears
that there is an attempt to create confusion regarding former Senator
Fred Thompson's pro-life position."
However, a Time magazine report on July 25 confirmed that "Records ...
[had] turned up showing that Thompson had billed the group for nearly
20 hours of work in the early 1990s, an awkward revelation for a
candidate positioning himself as a straight shooter and true
conservative."
A National Review editorial appeared to best sum up the situation,
insisting that it should be treated "as a regrettable bit of ancient
history."
=================================================================
.NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
. Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us .
.339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org
. List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
. Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
From - Wed Aug 8 18:15:34 2007
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Hash: SHA1
Religious right lining up behind Fred Thompson
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
Media Transparency - Aug 8, 2007
http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=205
Religious right lining up behind Fred Thompson
by Bill Berkowitz
Despite their differences, social conservatives appear ready to give
two thumbs up to the former Tennessee Senator, cum Hollywood actor,
touted as the 'Ronald Reagan of the South,' when he finally tosses his
hat into the ring
Despite Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson's well-publicized
remarks a few months back questioning Fred Thompson's Christian
credibility, and despite his anemic fundaising efforts -- in its first
month his campaign raised only $3 million instead of a hoped for $5
million -- several religious right leaders appear to be gearing up to
give the former Republican senator from Tennessee and television actor
two thumbs up when he officially enters the GOP race for the
presidency; expected to happen sometime shortly after Labor Day.
According to the Boston Globe's Scott Helman, longtime social
conservatives including Gary Bauer, a former presidential candidate who
now leads American Values, a conservative public policy organization,
and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, Washington,
D.C.'s most powerful conservative Christian lobbying group, are clearly
dissatisfied with the current field and seem willing to put any
differences they might have with Thompson aside and embrace his
candidacy.
"There's a consensus developing around him that's pretty clear and
pretty profound," John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family
Policy Council, an Orlando-based conservative group told the Globe.
"I've never seen anything like it in 25 years in politics."
"It's almost as if the man and the moment met," said Richard Land, who
speaks for more than 16 million people as head of public policy for the
nation's Southern Baptists. The Globe reported that while Land has said
"he will not endorse a candidate in the primary ... his boosterish
comments about Thompson -- like those of other conservative leaders --
leave little doubt about his excitement about the former senator. He
said support for Thompson was spreading 'almost like a prairie fire'
and predicted that some conservative leaders would endorse the
64-year-old actor and lawyer in coming weeks."
In a piece posted June 20 at Real Clear Politics, David Domke,
associate professor in the Department of Communication at the
University of Washington, reported that, "In June, Southern Baptist
executive committee president Morris Chapman, who said he hasn't
settled on a candidate yet, nonetheless added: 'Another Southern
Baptist called Fred Thompson the Ronald Reagan of the South, and I
think he has some of that appeal. He is a magnetic personality. He
seems to articulate his opinions clearly. He seems to be unflappable.'"
Domke pointed out that "Every Republican presidential candidate over
the past two decades has invoked the legacy of Reagan -- characterized
by optimism, love of nation, geniality, and a television-friendly
persona. But Thompson is the first GOP candidate to be consistently
talked about as Reaganesque. The SBC's Land, in fact, has been the
leading proponent of this comparison."
The mini-flap between Dobson and the Thompson camp came about earlier
this year when Dobson told US News & World Report's Dan Gilgoff, "I
don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression." A Focus
on the Family spokesman told the magazine that Dobson meant he has
"never known Thompson to be a committed Christian -- someone who talks
openly about his faith."
In a story appearing in the July 23 issue of US News, Gilgoff, author
of the recently published book "The Jesus Machine," which focuses on
Dobson's rise to power, reported that "Dobson and Thompson have since
talked, with Dobson rumored to be reassessing Thompson."
Support for Thompson appears to be equally based on social
conservatives' disdain for the top tier candidates -- former New York
City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney,
and for Arizona Senator John McCain -- as well as their belief that the
former D.C. lobbyist/lawyer will make an more acceptable standard
bearer for the party.
"He's got a real good chance to emerge as the conservative alternative
to Giuliani," Bauer said. As for Romney, Bauer pointed out that
"They'll battle it out, but if I had to characterize it right now, I
would say that the momentum here has moved to Thompson, at least among
the social-issues conservatives."
"I think there is a genuine comfortable feeling that there may be a
candidate out there that everyone can get behind," said Phil Burress,
who leads the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values. "He looks like
he's the first candidate that's come along that one, can raise money;
two, that's electable, and three, we're pretty comfortable with ... on
most of the issues today."
In his July 23 report, US News' Gilgoff also pointed out that
"prominent social conservative Paul Weyrich ... [had] met recently with
Thompson and evangelical activists, [and] said the former senator 'was
in agreement with us on almost everything.'" However, in a recent
column posted at Townhall.com, Weyrich predicted that regardless of who
the GOP's candidate was, he would lose to Hillary Clinton.
Gilgoff also pointed out that Thompson had "recently hired Bill
Wichterman, who served as conservative outreach director for former
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Joseph Cella, president of a
conservative Catholic group called Fidelis, to lead" his campaign
efforts. The recent hires brought Thompson's staff to nearly 30, the
Washington Post's Chris Cillizza recently reported, including a
pollster (John McLaughlin), a direct mail firm (HSP Direct), and an
e-campaign team (Blaise Hazelwood and Ken Smith).
John Gizzi, political editor of the conservative weekly Human Events,
recently reported that a source told him that Cella "will play the same
role that Tim Goeglein plays in the [Bush] White House, as a liaison to
conservative organizations."
In late May, Talk2Action's Frank Cocozzelli, who has been steadfastly
monitoring and writing about the Catholic right, wrote that Fidelis (a
501(c)(4) political advocacy group) "has been tag-teaming with Bill
Donohue's Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (website) to
criticize Rudy Giuliani's position on abortion." Cella lashed out at
Giuliani, saying that he "share[d] the exact same position on abortion
as fellow Catholic John Kerry. As more people of faith who are pro-life
begin to realize this, they will reject Giuliani's candidacy."
On its website, Fidelis describes itself as "a Catholic-based
organization working with people of faith across the country to defend
and promote the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and the right
to religious liberty by electing pro-life, pro-family and pro-religious
liberty candidates, supporting the confirmation of judges, and
promoting and defending laws faithful to the Constitution of the United
States."
Cocozzelli also reported that on May 16 , the organization "announced
that it was organizing anti-Giuliani protests during the GOP
Presidential Debates then being held in Columbia, South Carolina. Cella
also announced [that] Fidelis America PAC, the political action arm of
Fidelis, will distribute flyers and stickers prior to tonight's debate.
The stickers read: "Protect the Pro-Life Platform. Defeat Rudy
Giuliani."'
"At the bottom of both of the Giuliani-targeted Fidelis press releases
is a statement very much worth noting," writes Cocozzelli: "Paid for by
Fidelis America PAC_P.O. Box 277 Chelsea, MI 48118_Joseph J. Cella,
Treasurer Not Authorized by Any Candidate or Committee." In the course
of his research, Cocozzelli found that the releases appeared to be
"designed to influence the 2008 presidential election [and] are posted
on what appears to be the joint web site for several related
organizations," Fidelis, Fidelis America -- "a hard money PAC," Fidelis
Media Fund -- a 527 "soft money" entity, and Fidelis Center for Law and
Policy -- a 501(c)(3).
The intermingling of these entities caught Cocozzelli's eye: "While it
is not clear is which legal entity actually controls the web site,
there is a potential issue here in the possible commingling of
donations since the site serves as the portal for the (c)(4) as well as
the 527 political action committee. It is an unusual, hazy situation
that might pique the interest of the IRS as well as the Federal
Election Commission."
Dan Gilgoff reported that Thompson's "aides are arranging more meetings
between Thompson and conservative Christian leaders and have launched a
rapid-response operation to fend off attacks on Thompson's conservative
credentials," Dan Gilgoff reported.
Gilgoff also noted that Thompson has been touting his campaign
endorsements from the National Right to Life Committee. "It didn't look
like he was saying what a group of Christian consultants told him to
say," says Harry Jackson, senior pastor of the 2,000 member Hope
Christian Church in College Park, Maryland who also heads a group
called the High-Impact Leadership Coalition (website), who met recently
with Thompson. "He seemed to be saying, 'I'm one of you.'"
"There's a deliberate attempt by evangelical leaders to come to
consensus," says Jackson. David Barton, an evangelical activist who
spearheaded pastor outreach for the Republican National Committee in
2004, told Gilgoff that "the leaders I talk to are all really
interested in Thompson, but they're waiting to pull the trigger [on
endorsements] until later this year."
I asked longtime investigative reporter Mike Reynolds why Thompson
appeared to be doing so well with the religious right. "Thompson has
assiduously worked the leadership -- evangelical and traditionalist
Catholic -- behind the scenes for some time," said Reynolds, author of
a book on politics, money and the religious right to be published by St
Martins Press in 2008. "Taking his cues from Reagan in 1980 and
Rove/Bush in 1998, Thompson has laid the requisite groundwork and
cultivated a level of trust among this base that no other viable GOP
Presidential candidate can match, well ahead of his speech at the
Council for National Policy (CNP) in May that was followed by
one-on-one meetings with Arlington Group heavies. Two weeks after that
CNP speech, Paul Weyrich ran up the flag in a commentary titled "The
Man for A Desperate Hour: Fred Thompson" in which he compared Thompson
to Reagan. It's a done deal."
Does Thompson run the risk of veering too far to the right in his
search for support? Ironically, its Gary Bauer who puts his finger on a
problem that could develop should Thompson become the GOP nominee:
"Thompson's very good on the defense of normal marriage and free
expression of religion. Frankly, he might have an easier time ... if
he's not easily labeled as 'religious right.'"
Thompson may not yet be an officially declared candidate, but he does
have a spin/rapid response team in place. His early responders were
pressed into duty recently after the Los Angeles Times reported on July
7 that the Senator had "accepted an assignment from a family-planning
group [National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association] to
lobby the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion
restriction, according to a 1991 document and several people familiar
with the matter." The gag rule that Thompson wanted eased "barred
abortion counseling at clinics that received federal money."
Springing into action, Thompson spinner Mark Corallo maintained that
Thompson "did not lobby for this group, period." In a telephone
interview with the Times, Corallo added: "There's no documents to prove
it, there's no billing records, and Thompson says he has no
recollection of it, says it didn't happen."
However, Judith DeSarno, president of the organization in 1991, "said
Thompson lobbied for the group for several months," the newspaper
reported. "Minutes from the board's meeting of Sept. 14, 1991 -- a copy
of which DeSarno gave to the Times -- say: 'Judy [DeSarno] reported
that the association had hired Fred Thompson Esq. as counsel to aid us
in discussions with the administration" on the abortion counseling
rule.'"
In mid-July, LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt wrote that a number of
pro-life leaders, including Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, and Richard Land,
raised doubts about the truth of the Times story because of that
newspaper's longtime support for abortion rights. Karen Cross, of the
National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that "It appears
that there is an attempt to create confusion regarding former Senator
Fred Thompson's pro-life position."
However, a Time magazine report on July 25 confirmed that "Records ...
[had] turned up showing that Thompson had billed the group for nearly
20 hours of work in the early 1990s, an awkward revelation for a
candidate positioning himself as a straight shooter and true
conservative."
A National Review editorial appeared to best sum up the situation,
insisting that it should be treated "as a regrettable bit of ancient
history."
=================================================================
.NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
. Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us .
.339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org
. List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
. Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
From - Wed Aug 8 18:15:34 2007
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