I found this story via Civil Commotion (http://www.civilcommotion.com/index.php?p=3282) which links with my blog, although it cautions about the eye candy. :) Personally, I hope the fighting amongst the Christianists continues and that comments of Mr. Ken Connor, the former head of the Family Research Council quoted in this piece on Ethics daily.Com (http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9661) prove accurate. Here are highlights of Connor's comments:
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) The former head of the Family Research Council said evangelical leaders who once marshaled millions of votes for conservative presidential candidates have lost their principles in this election cycle. Influential conservatives remain on the sidelines because they fear the loss of their political clout if they back a long-shot candidate and then lose, said Ken Connor, who now leads the Center for a Just Society, a policy center that advocates for conservative causes, especially in life and marriage issues. "There are perceptions these guys are more concerned about being players than they are about principle," said Connor, who headed the Family Research Council from 2000-2003, in an interview at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Connor said leading conservatives like James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Tony Perkins, current president of the Family Research Council; and Paul Weyrich, a fundraiser and strategist who founded the Heritage Foundation, have not thrown in with Huckabee because a Huckabee loss would tarnish their image as powerful kingmakers. "They've enjoyed having a seat at the table for so long that they didn't in many instances stand on principle when they should have, and they've lost credibility with their people," he said.
In 2006, Connor said leading social conservatives were "embarrassingly silent" in the face of the congressional ethics scandals because former House GOP leader Tom DeLay and others "were our friends, when (evangelicals) would have been howling with indignation had it been Bill Clinton and trying to run him out of town on a rail." Connor said he thinks the evangelical old guard has lost credibility with conservative voters.
I have long thought that what Dobson, Perkins and others want most is power, influence and that great wealthy-like lifestyle that they lead based on the money they shake down from contributors. Why should easily frightened and manipulated little old ladies hang onto their money when Daddy Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Tony Perkins can live high on the hog off their money by running around shrieking about the "Homosexual Agenda" for example?
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