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.”
Another name for it is Biting the Hand that Fed You.
If Armey really feels this way, he should return any extra salary, perks, speaking fees, travel, etc., he earned as Majority Leader. People such as James Dobson and the organization he represents worked hard to ensure he had a majority to lead.
Dang straight. That over-reach marks the first time since 1992 I've considered voting for a Democratic Congressional candidate. I'm not going to do it this year, but we'll see how things go in the next few years....
Neither of those concerns includes giving people carte blanche to murder the weak and helpless.
Well, Mr Armey, Dick, I'll take your opinions about Dr Dobson seriously just as soon as you list all the things you did in your 9 years as majority leader to control the growth of government, eliminate unnecessary programs and departments (hello, Education), and decrease government spending.
The thing about Dick is he is not the leader of the Republican Party and as Christian conservatives, we can vote for our candidates who represent us in the primaries. We can also run as delegates to pick our POTUS nominee for 2008. There is a continued battle within the Republican Party and Christian conservatives have to fight.
A new conservative uprising is stirring and no one should be surprised. The Republican Establishment has been drifting leftward, and a backlash has to come against the Big Government spenders in legislatures and against supremacist judges who order the spending.
We need to continue to fight. Even though I love our President in fighting terror we cannot allow some things to happen. Remember the revolt of what happened after President Bush lined up bipartisan support for his personal top choice for the Supreme Court, feminist Harriet Miers? Conservatives rallied against her nomination, and Bush replaced her with Sam Alito.
The failed Dubai Ports deal gave us another example of how the conservative natives are getting restless. Despite Bush's threat to veto any legislation to kill the deal, Congress heeded the loud and clear message from the grassroots and did exactly that.
We need to continue to fight. The Republican only wins against Democrats if it lines up as the Reagan conservative party.
How many more Republicans will try to destroy the party from within? Yesterday Hannity, today Armey.
Give Armey time...He'll probably offend them as well.
It never fails to amaze me that blowhards are continually discovering with shock that the vast majority of Americans are Christians who hold Christian values, and that Christian values were foundational to our system of government. When do they think our nation began? 1966?
Thanks Dr. Dobson. Run the mind-your-own-business conservatives off and the Republican Party will go into eclipse for a generation. Moron.
What did Hannity do?
Didn't Dick Armey get hired by the ACLU??? Anti-Christian Lawyers Union???
Uh, yeah! Congress is a political arena. Where's the news here?
Or is it that you're miffed that conservative Christians have figured out how it works? Or that they care?
Shalom.
Yes, definitely, Republicans must get back to the good old days of "go along to get along" Bob Michel and his crew. /sarc
And don't think that this election isn't going to be a big step in that direction.
I am no prude, but I defend Christians' involvement in the Republican party.
The MSM is trying to portray Christians as crazy and this kind of stuff by a Republican helps the media and the moonbats.
Heck, Mmy aunt is in John Ashcroft's Sunday School class. She's very cool. My entire family (including 34 aunts and uncles and countless cousins) are Southern Baptists or Assemblies of God. They are not a bunch of wackos. They are clever, smart, down-to-earth people who have hearts of gold and don't "judge" anyone. They're not perfect and know it, but they are the backbone of America.
Stuff it, Dick.
I agree that that Schiavo bill was a slap in the face to Constitutional conservatives, but surely Armey realizes that the only reason the Schiavo bill was even needed in the first place was because the OTHER PARTIES (Greer, et al) were IGNORING the Constitution. And how else can you battle the scumbags if you don't go down to the bottom of the sewer and fight them where they live? Plus, too much time had already been wasted screwing around as a stinking county probate judge proved too powerful for the governor of Florida. SOMETHING had to be done, and quick.
In the end, the sick, state-sanctioned murder by dehydration of Terri Schiavo was carried out on national televison sets for an excruciating two weeks. It was the sickest thing I ever witnessed. I would like to think it bothered Dick Armey as well, but now I'm not too sure.
Right on!
Sorry but that simply isn't true. The values oriented group has no problem with using government to further their goals even if that deprives people the right to make certain choices for themselves and their kids. (And I am not talking about abortion). I see no reason why Christian groups should be shut out of the process and why it is that they should be barred from receiving monies that go to secular organizations. But, let's not try to confuse those groups with the limited government, low tax bloc.
I missed that... What did Hannity say?
When you libertines can prove you can actually impact an election, you'll get my notice.
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