How James Dobson Drove Colin Powell From The GOP
Max Blumenthal printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Oct 22, 2008 at 06:10:09 PM EST
In my latest article for the Daily Beast, "The Man Who Helped Drive Powell Away From His Party," I detail James Dobson's long campaign to destroy Colin Powell, and explain how Dobson's attacks castigated Powell from the Republican Party, ultimately leading to his endorsement of Barack Obama. I also reported on Palin's appearance today on Dobson's radio show, in which she channeled Joe The Plumber to attack Obama as a socialist. The entire piece is below the fold.
After Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama on Meet the Press, Sarah Palin was interviewed by Christian right leader James Dobson on his Focus on the Family radio show. Though Palin did not mention Powell, she attacked Obama as a socialist by referencing his now famous encounter with Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher.

"Joe the Plumber, you gotta hand it to him," Palin told Dobson. "He's the one who got finally Barack Obama to say what he'd do with redistributing wealth and raising taxes. And Joe the Plumber said that certainly sounds like socialism to him, and I appreciate Joe having the boldness to get out there and ask the question."
Powell's endorsement and Palin's appearance on Dobson's show are not entirely unconnected. Dobson has long been one of the banes of Powell's political life, and the right's warm embrace of Palin is part of what drove Powell away from McCain.

When Powell endorsed Obama, he offered a litany of factors, from Obama's "transformational" potential to "steadiness." But Powell, a military man and self-described "Rockefeller Republican," also declared his disappointment with the "rightward shift" in the Republican Party.

There is a little understood, rancorous subplot behind this vague remark: Powell's war with the religious right. That conflict began years before the current presidential campaign and, if Powell plays a role in an Obama administration, will almost certainly extend beyond it.

Over a decade ago, when General Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emerged as the Republican Party's most popular figure, James Dobson targeted him, fearing his political ascendancy might spell doom for the party's anti-abortion wing. Dobson's tactics ranged from threatening conservative movement leaders who dared to praise Powell's political potential, to devoting an entire broadcast of his top-rated radio show to attacking Powell's advocacy of condom use. Dobson and his minions laid the groundwork for Powell's castigation from the Republican Party. Yet by helping to force Powell into the wilderness, Dobson may have also provoked his momentous act of political vengeance.

While Dobson has not yet commented on Powell's endorsement, his former Washington lobbyist and ally, Gary Bauer, dismissed it as an irrational act of racial solidarity. "Powell's endorsement is nonsensical, and it leaves open the question of just how big a factor race was in his decision," Bauer wrote in his daily email blast to supporters. Bauer, who now leads his own outfit, American Values, spent much of the 1990s building Dobson's Family Research Council into one of the most formidable Christian right groups inside the Beltway.

Back during the run-up to the 1996 presidential primaries, when some movement conservatives advanced the notion of Powell as the GOP's most viable presidential nominee, Dobson moved to intimidate and silence the general's boosters. Among Powell's fans was the ardently anti-abortion Jack Kemp, who called him "Republican on almost every issue." Neoconservative former Education Secretary William Bennett repeatedly praised Powell on the pages of the National Review, while Weekly Standard editor William Kristol argued in an editorial for his magazine that Powell was the only figure who could defeat the increasingly popular Bill Clinton. Already annoyed by the swell of movement support for the pro-choice Powell, Dobson was furious when Christian Coalition President Ralph Reed refused to condemn Powell's possible candidacy during his appearance on This Week with David Brinkley.

Immediately, Dobson faxed a five-page letter to Reed accusing him of unholy motives. "Is power the motivator of the great crusade?" Dobson asked the fresh-faced operator. "If so, it will sour and turn to bile in your mouth...This posture may elevate your influence in Washington, but it is unfaithful to the principles we are duty-bound as Christians to defend." Bauer copied the letter and blasted it out to other Powell-friendly conservatives, including Bennett, whom Dobson baselessly accused of being "pro-abortion." Shaken by Dobson's jeremiad, Reed hastily composed a letter suggesting that attacks from the Christian right would only provoke Powell into running. The situation "required a delicate balancing act," Reed insisted, according to Dobson's official biography.

Reed's advice fell on deaf ears. When another moderate Republican, Senator Bob Dole, won the GOP nomination, Dobson objected. Together with Bauer, Dobson summoned Dole to a private meeting where they harangued the Senate majority leader for three hours with their demands. Unaccustomed to being lectured and threatened, Dole stormed out. As soon as he learned that Dole had given Powell a prominent speaking role at the Republican National Convention―a signal that Powell would serve in his administration―Dobson transferred his support from Dole to his longtime friend, Howard Phillips, a far-right stalwart running under the banner of the so-called US Taxpayers Party. Dobson's snub deprived Dole of crucial movement enthusiasm among evangelicals, contributing at least in small part to his defeat.

After Bauer terminated his hapless campaign for the presidency in 2000―a crusade that will be best remembered for an incident where the elfin candidate fell off a stage backward flipping pancakes―Bauer inexplicably endorsed John McCain, a sworn enemy of the religious right. Dobson was so infuriated that he broke all contact with his former protégé, according to Dobson's official biographer, Dale Buss, who says the two men did not restore their working relationship until 2004.

In 2000, Dobson lined up behind George W. Bush, the beginning of a special relationship that afforded Dobson weekly conference calls with Karl Rove's underlings. Dobson soon leveraged his White House influence against his old enemy, Colin Powell, now elevated to secretary of state. Powell had roused his ire during an appearance at an MTV forum in February 2002, where, before an international audience of young people, he emphasized the importance of condoms in combating the global AIDS epidemic. "Forget about taboos, forget about conservative ideas with respect to what you should tell young people about," the secretary of state replied when asked about the Vatican's opposition to condoms. "It's the lives of young people that are put at risk by unsafe sex, and therefore, protect yourself."

The following day, the Focus on the Family chairman fired off an angry press release. "Colin Powell is the secretary of state, not the secretary of health. He is talking about a subject he doesn't understand," Dobson said. Then, he spent much of an appearance on Larry King Live railing against Powell, calling his condom advocacy "most uninformed." Finally, Dobson devoted an entire broadcast of his radio show to berating Powell, while Bauer took to the media to demand that Powell "be taken to the woodshed." By this time, White House switchboards overflowed with indignant calls from Focus on the Family's supporters.

The day after Dobson's broadcast, Bush delivered a speech directly contradicting Powell's position on condoms. "When our children face a choice between self-restraint and self-destruction, government should not be neutral," Bush declared, proposing a whopping $135 million budget for abstinence education while pointedly omitting any mention of condoms as an effective measure against sexually transmitted diseases. The Christian right celebrated Bush's speech both as a victory for their movement and a defeat for Colin Powell.

Next, Focus on the Family demanded the ouster of an allegedly gay employee of USAID, the key foreign aid agency, which operates under the guidance of the secretary of state. "It was over the top, it was outrageous," said former USAID director Andrew Natsios. Despite his objections, Natsios found himself authorizing a multimillion-dollar grant in 2004 to an abstinence education group founded by two of Dobson's top staffers, the Children's AIDS Fund. In approving the funds, Natsios had to overrule a finding by USAID's technical review panel that the Dobson-linked group was "not suitable for funding." While USAID turned into a slush fund for Dobson, Powell remained the good soldier, loyal to White House orders.

When the Republican primary began, Dobson initially vowed never to vote for McCain, tarring him during a 2007 radio broadcast as a closet liberal hostile to movement goals. But Bauer, who has become McCain's top Christian right surrogate, lobbied Dobson to change his position. On his show this June, Dobson gave a little ground, announcing, "While I'm not endorsing John McCain, the possibility is there that I might." He set only one condition: McCain must not nominate a "pro-abortion" politician as his running mate.

Powell might well have supported McCain's bid for the presidency had things turned out differently. McCain yearned to select his friend, the turncoat Democrat, Senator Joseph Lieberman, as his running mate. Lieberman, who shared Powell's positions on domestic policy, would have made the Republican ticket the most moderate since the pre-Goldwater era. But opposition from the Christian right―especially from Dobson―threatened a fight on the floor of the Republican convention, rendering the Lieberman option impossible. And so McCain chose Sarah Palin.

One day after McCain's announcement, on September 2, Dobson hosted his top aides, including Bauer, to discuss Palin. "This is electric for us," Dobson exclaimed, revealing that he had sent the Alaska governor a letter months earlier congratulating her for not aborting "that little Down Syndrome baby." Tony Perkins, who replaced Bauer as the FRC's president, remarked that he had just returned from Alaska to assess Palin's culture war credentials. "This was a tremendous strategic achievement by the McCain campaign," Perkins said. "He has shown that he listens."

Dobson was finally ready to complete his 180-degree reversal. "I am moving closer and closer to being able to―I'll say it now," Dobson declared. "If I went into the polling booth today, I would pull the lever for John McCain."

Powell cited it as a principal motivation for endorsing Obama. "It's not what the American people are looking for," Powell said. "And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift."

On the day of Powell's cathartic endorsement, Palin gave an interview to one of her most influential allies: James Dobson. During their interview, Dobson assured Palin that he and his closest prayer partners "were rather boldly asking for a miracle with regard to the election this year." On Election Day, Dobson's foot soldiers will be on the march for McCain mainly because of Palin. But if their miracle fails to materialize, and Colin Powell advises the new President Obama as he has said he would, then the culture war against Powell will enter a new phase.




Display:
He well and truly has finally gone off the deep end:

"Letter from 2012 in Obama's America"

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/files/Focusletter.pdf

I wonder how many suicides this "letter" will be responsible for come November 5th?

by tacitus on Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 11:30:26 AM EST

In some, this would be considered slick. From someone like Dobson, who seems to be getting farther and farther away from the shore named "Reality" in his dinghy called "Polemic", this paragraph from the preamble to the "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America" is just slimy:

Of course, there are many evangelical Christians supporting Senator Obama as well as many supporting Senator McCain. Christians on both sides should continue to respect and cherish one another's friendship as well as the freedom people have in the United States to differ on these issues and to freely speak their opinions about them to one another.

Why do I have the feeling that anyone in Dobson's dinghy found to have cast a vote for ANY Democrat, let alone Senator Obama, will find himself swimming to shore through shark-infested waters?

by RevRuthUCC on Sun Oct 26, 2008 at 06:12:10 PM EST
Parent


Dobson is used to people genuflecting before him. He needs to be exposed further for the fraud that he is. This is a good start.

by Russ Bellant on Sun Oct 26, 2008 at 09:27:50 PM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (195 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (110 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (250 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (176 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (156 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (329 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.