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.”
But that is exactly what they would be doing by voting third party or sitting it out. They'd actually be assuring that the most liberal one won.
You don't know the heart of the man.
He does not use thuggery.*
* Main Entry: thug
Function: noun
Etymology: Hindi & Urdu thag, literally, thief
: a brutal ruffian or assassin : GANGSTER, TOUGH
- thug·gery /'th&-g(&-)rE/ noun
http://www.m-w.com
The topic wasn't abortion, thanks for playing.
The man doesn't want a nanny state and you're calling him a commie? You just stepped out of the pages of 1984.
Uh- I found out. Nevermind.
My thoughts exactly.
The man attacked my base that is the Christian Right, what we stand for is far from 1984. But then those oppose Judeo Christian ethics, would not understand that.
Hehehe... bump
DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!
NO more calls, please.
We have a winner!
Thinking is something that you followers of Dobson dont have to do. Just tune in for instructions and talking points. And so what if I made a typo.
Since when is grammer and punctuation a prerequisite to post here. Ever hear of a typo? Oh I forget, you just take your orders from Dobson and spew his boiler plate.
I hate it when religious zealots try to lead me around my the noise. Good thing we am smarter than them.
NOT what I would've expected a Freeper dating from 1998 to be posting. It sounds more like the sophomoric rhetoric emanating from DU.
Cheers!
One of those do-it-only-in-the-dark lifestyle police kind of people.
and why should I care one way or another if he's under attack from a retired congresscritter???
You probably shouldn't care.
Nope. It sounds like FR before the Kool-Aid, Bots and scamming became prolific.
Cheers!
Then the GOP should take precautions to nominate someone who will appeal to the masses, not just the liberal wing of the GOP.
Cheers!
Nor should you be voting for them on the state or local level either.
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