Posted on 09/27/2006 11:30:48 AM PDT by truthandlife
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has launched an attack on Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, saying Dobson and his "band of thugs” are "nasty bullies” and accusing the Republicans of pandering to the Christian right.
In an interview with Ryan Sager, author of the book "The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party,” Armey said the GOP was "adrift and rudderless” in its commitment to small government.
When pressed by Sager about what he feels is wrong with today’s Republican Congress, Armey – who became majority leader when the GOP took control of Congress in 1994 and retired in 2003 – said: "The criteria of choice in just about every behavior you see in Congress today is politics. Where in the hell did this Terri Schiavo thing come from? There’s not a conservative, Constitution-loving, separation-of-powers guy alive in the world that could have wanted that bill on the floor.
"That was pure, blatant pandering to James Dobson. That’s all it was. It was silly, stupid, and irresponsible. Nobody serious about the Constitution would do that. But the question was will this energize our Christian conservative base for the next election.”
Sager asked why it seems that Christian conservatives are more powerful now than in the 1990s. Armey replied: "To a large extent because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies. I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There’s a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn’t work unless it’s dumb . . . These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic.”
Armey, who was first elected as a Congressman from Texas in 1984, toned down his remarks – but only slightly – in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on Sept. 23. He again brought up Dobson: "The national representatives of the social conservative movement used to be sophisticated and tolerant. Today, they are sophomoric and angry. It's an embarrassing spectacle seeing leaders bullied around by the likes of James Dobson, or watching the Christian Coalition team up with MoveOn.org in support of bigger government.”
Armey – now chairman of FreedomWorks, a national grassroots advocacy organization – did not reserve his criticism for the GOP, going on to write: "Perhaps the only thing more embarrassing than being a loyal Republican in this election season is being a loyal Democrat. Although the party has offered no proposal to fix Social Security, the aspiring House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader hopeful, Harry Reid, held yet another press conference recently denouncing the secret Republican plan to "privatize" the failing entitlement.
"While Democrat pollsters are no doubt telling their candidates that the P-word will effectively scare seniors and other swing constituencies to the polls, this strategy has consistently failed in past election cycles.”
Then again, according the the ACU, McCain is the third most conservative senator.
By my count, in the U.S. Senate, thirty-six Senators have a higher lifetime ACU score than his 83 (which he shares with Grassley and Bond).
"Dick why don't you just cut your wrists, you are not presidential material."
This, I'm sure, is exactly the kind of "Christianity" he was referring to.
My bad. That's what I get for only reading truncated results from google searches.
I counted thirty-six also. But now I forget how many declared Republicans are in the Senate.
The larger point being that, despite McCain's maverick darling-of-the-media status, others in the herd are more in need of culling.
You gotta love the double entendre title of the article, though. :)
Should I assume that you are being sarcastic or did I also miss that part of the constituion?
I think this is akin to Christine Todd Whitman (aka Christine Todd Whitless) whining abou the passing of the "go along to get along" congress.
The country club BS is dying and it shuts them out.
I'm a Christian. I'm not a big fan of Dobson. IMO, he isn't discerning enough to know where to place his trust in the political world. But he is NOT a thug.
Armey compares Christians to thugs, and the Dems compare Christians to the Mullahs.
And people wonder why Christians have sat out more then one election?
The only reason they hasven't the last few years is that the bigotry, intolerance and discrimination has become too much to ignore.
Enjoy your retirement with Whitman, Armey.
I love Dr. Dobson, but I feel that his ministry becomes less effective the more he seeks to manipulate the GOP. I was appalled at the treatment of Terri Schiavo, but the reaction of the party to Dobson's demands for Congressional action was fairly ineffective and fairly transparent.
Seems to me that both could tone the rhetoric down a notch a bunch.
They did pass immigration reform.
It increased the rolling amnesty period from hiding in the USA for six years to hiding in the USA for ten years. (and THEN you apply for the green card) It also increase the documentation requirment which is what the senate amnesty bill tried to undo.
You're generalizing about Christians. They don't all think alike. Also, when did cutting off your nose to spite your face ever accomplish anything?
It doesn't say that murdering people is illegal, and it doesn't say that dogs aren't American citizens.
The Constitution is a document that makes certain basic assumptions that it doesn't explicitly articulate.
One of those basic unarticulated assumptions is that a husband doesn't have the right to forcibly starve his wife to death.
I had a conversation with Dick Armey a couple months ago when I was in DC. Like a lot of retired attorneys, he works side by side with some well known, very liberal folks.
One thing that he said to me was that Tom DeLay was an a-hole; I thought there was probably a lot of history behind that remark.
I have followed Dick's career and I think he is pretty much a conservative but does not personally know much about a dedicated Christian walk, no matter how much he prays.
Sometimes in life, a man's (woman's) comments about Christians stems not from personal knowledge of that particular person, but from their experience with someone in their life, ie, Tom DeLay.
I see. So you are advocating the "penumbra" approach to Constitutional Law -- that certain assumptions are there, in the Constitution, even if not expressly stated, such as the right of a woman to kill her unborn child. Ask yourself why there are no Federal laws on the books making murder, by itself, a federal crime.
A very reasonable post. Thank you.
What a complete, fricken idiot. Especially this close to the elections. ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!
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