"Buying Off" Extremists - 1998 Dobson, CNP, Delay

http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/bauer1.htm

Dobson turned up heat on Clinton sex scandal in '98 and look at where we are now! Extremists are winning :(

"Buying Off" Extremists - March 1998


    * After the meeting with Dobson, the GOP leadership began turning up the heat in a controversy which, until recently, it had assiduously avoided -- the Clinton sex scandal. House Speaker Gingrich broke the taboo of uttering "impeachment," and has begun seeking funding for an investigation. House and Senate GOP heads had, until recently, refused to comment on the White House bedroom problems. The link here with the Council for National Policy, CNP is most noteworthy. The group's political arm, CNP Action, Inc. has been distributing copies of the discredited video, "The Clinton Chronicles" since 1994 telling recipients, "As many Americans as possible should become informed about the evil which infests the Clinton Administration. Bill Clinton must be held accountable for his actions." In addition, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute -- the "religious rights" group that had taken on the Paul Jones defense -- has been a CNP member, as is attorney Donovan Campbell, Jr, also part of the defense team.


    Another shift in GOP strategic position involved House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) who also had schmoozed with Dobson during his D.C. tour. DeLay has suddenly become the leading Republican "scourge" of the President on the Jones-sex scandal issue. DeLay reportedly told Dobson and his associates (including Bauer), "we are doing the best we can" in congress, and that running anti-abortion adds in the Capps-Bordonaro race, where 58% of the voters were identified as pro-choice, was " a strategic error."

    * How serious will House and Senate GOP leaders be taking Dobson's belligerent demands, and the call for a "marriage" with the party's extreme religious right? Despite ideological concerns, remember that Gingrich, Lott et al are professional politicians savvy enough to know the wisdom, uses and inevitability of compromise. Bauer, Dobson and more extreme groupings clustered around commentator Pat Buchanan, or Christian Reconstruction Howard Phillips of the U.S. Taypayers Party do not; for them, ideological purity often outweighs the limited benefits of working within a system.

    Even so, expect action on key social agenda items which rank at the top of the religious right's to-do list for Washington assets -- the Religious Freedom Amendment in particular.




Looking Ahead To 2000

    What about the next round of national elections? Dobson, Bauer and others in that political orbit are highly suspicious of GOP front runners like Texas Governor George W. Bush, Jr., a friend of Pat Robertson, whose campaign is reportedly getting advice from Ralph Reed. Andrea Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition -- another religious right formation within the GOP --compares Bush Jr's election to "like father like son," noting that Bush Sr. "gave us (Supreme Court) Justice Souter who turned out to be a real disaster."

    Dobson, Bauer and allies seem to be leaning toward the candidacy of Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) and -- incredibly -- a figure with true "establishment" origins, magazine publisher Steve Forbes. But Paul Weyrich remains cautious about even these possible candidates. "The question for us isn't their stand, but how great is their level of commitment."

So much information. This is very good reading.