While Lieberman will draw the most attention (there is an effort to get him to withdraw called Don't Go Joe!)  --  he is not the only elected official with a prominent role on the agenda. One session chaired by religious right leader Gary Bauer, and featuring Fox News talking head William Kristol, also features members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee:  Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN):

1:30PM- 3:30PM: Middle East Briefing
Gary Bauer, President of American Values
Congressman Elliot Engel (D-NY)
William Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard
Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN)

Engel is a senior Democrat on the Committee and Pence is the senior Republican on the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia --   postions that make them among the top figures in American foreign policy. For his part, Sen. Joe Lieberman chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Last year Bill Moyers reported:

At the recent annual CUFI summit in Washington, D.C., prominent politicians were present to pledge support for this growing movement, including Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, as well as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Lieberman particularly sang Hagee's praise:

"He is a Ish Elokim, a man of God and those words really fit him...like Moses he's become a leader of a mighty multitude, even greater than the multitude that Moses led from Egypt to the promised land."

So lest anyone think that CUFI is no longer important since McCain was compelled to renounce Hagee and then CUFI Regional Director Rod Parsley, or that the broader religious right is dead, dying or irrelevant, we can take this as one small example of the way that Washington works -- and why profound changes are needed.

Let's take a quick look at the CUFI senior leadership, which epitomizes the continuity of religious right as a significant factor in American politics and public policy.   The eight member CUFI executive board includes, in addition to Hagee and executive director David Brog (the former chief of staff for Sen. Arlen Specter  (R-PA):

Gary Bauer, the founding honcho of the Family Research Council now headed by Tony Perkins.

Jonathan Falwell, who is his father's successor as the Senior Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, as well as as a CUFI board member.

Michael Little, President and Chief Operating Officer of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network

George Morrison the pastor of a megachurch in Arvada, Colorado and has chaired the board of Promise Keepers.

Mac Hammond a megachurch pastor from Minnesota, who has run into controversy with the IRS for among other things, by endorsing a Republican congressional candidate from the altar.    

Keith Butler, a longtime controversial religious right and Republican Party leader in Michigan was courted by Huckabee but became a co-chair of John McCain's presidential campain in that state.