GOP's crucial '08 base divided

This is an interesting article from the Washington Times (which I read from time to time to see what the opposition is thinking) that looks at the infighting and fragmentation in the Christianist Right. Hopefully, the trend continues (http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070928/NATION/109280121/1001):

Catholics and Protestant evangelicals on the right account for about a third of the Republican Party's electoral coalition, and it's difficult for a Republican to win without them. "The problem is that there isn't someone seen as a titular head of the evangelicals who provides guidance on what and who they should be supporting," said Merrill Matthews, an evangelical and resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas.

Most leaders of major social conservative organizations don't like to talk outside their own circles about the movement's splintering. Few are eager to be quoted about internecine antagonisms developing, in part because they fear it will undermine the movement's political clout and the eventual Republican nominee's chances of winning the Oval Office.

But religious-right leaders consider national political leadership a moral trust, and after several secret summits, these leaders are deeply, sometimes acrimoniously, at odds. Focus on the Family President James Dobson twice said publicly that former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson is not a Christian. American Values founder Gary Bauer told The Washington Times that Mr. Dobson, once Mr. Bauer's mentor, "hurt the whole conservative Christian movement" by so labeling Mr. Thompson. "Come on, Dobson can't even come up with a biblical basis for saying something like that."

"I understand the frustration we all feel, but for me the two nightmares are a Giuliani-versus-Hillary race, and Hillary taking the oath of office," said Mr. Bauer, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. "We should be very careful not to slice up candidates we may turn to and ask our voter to get behind."

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said there are disagreements but not schisms, and that "the majority of social conservatives will be together as long as there is a pro-life, pro-family candidate on the ballot." Mr. Giuliani is the only Republican hopeful who is not pro-life. But the gap between the front-runners and social conservatives widened at a Sept. 17 "values summit" in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attended by almost 1,000 leaders of traditional family organizations across the country. Mr. Thompson, Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Mr. Giuliani "dissed" the event by turning down speaking invitations.