If you think its bad now, how about then
American Covenant Seminar 2.5
Posted on 01/13/2007 1:56:54 PM PST by Reagan Man
Dobson says he couldn't support senator 'under any circumstances'
A prominent Christian leader whose radio and magazine outreaches are solidly in support of biblically-based marriages – and keep in touch with millions of constituents daily – says he cannot consider Arizona Sen. John McCain a viable candidate for president.
"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family as well as the Focus Action cultural action organization set up specifically to provide a platform for informing and rallying constituents.
Dobson, who always is careful to note that he's not speaking for the non-profit ministry, which cannot advocate for or against candidates legally, also doesn't hesitate to state his personal opinions on social or political issues and agendas.
Several times he's talked to Republicans, the traditionally conservative political party, about the need to maintain the values of that large part of the U.S. population, or lose the support of those people.
His most recent comments came during an interview on the Jerry Johnson Live program on KCBI 90.0 FM.
The show host noted that pro-family conservatives already are thinking about the next cycle of leadership in the United States, which will be determined in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections. He also noted that McCain and New York mayor Rudy Guiliani appear to be the leaders.
Then he asked Dobson to listen to a statement from McCain and respond.
"I think, uh … I think that gay marriage should be allowed if there's a ceremony kind of thing, if you wanna call it that … I don't have any problem with that," McCain says.
"Dr. Dobson, would you be comfortable with someone like John McCain as the … conservative or Republican candidate for president?" Johnson asked.
"Well, let me say that I am not in the office. I'm in the little condo so I can speak for myself and not for Focus on the Family," Dobson said in rejecting McCain's leadership.
He noted that legislation he'd just been discussing on the program, regarding an attempt by Democrat leaders in Congress to create obstacles for ministries such as Focus to reach constituents with action messages about pending legislation, is being supported by McCain, too.
"That came from McCain, and the McCain Feingold Bill kept us from telling the truth right before elections … and there are a lot of other things. He's not in favor of traditional marriage, and I pray that we won't get stuck with him," Dobson said.
The provisions of the new congressional proposal, hidden deep inside a plan to reform lobbying rules to eliminate the many recent scandals involving members of Congress, would require pro-family groups to provide documentation of their actions to the government any time they try to spark any "grass-roots" action.
Phone calls, personal visits, e-mails, magazines, broadcasts, phone banks, appearances, travel, fundraising and other items all would be subject to government tabulation, verification and audits, Dobson said during a recent program. "On and on it goes."
"Clearly, the objective here is to hide what goes on from the public and punish and silence those of us who would talk about what our representatives are doing," Dobson said of the plan by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. American Family Association Chairman Donald Wildmon, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and American Values President Gary Bauer joined Dobson in urging listeners to flood Capitol Hill with phone calls demanding those speech limits be removed.
Bauer said the telephone number to call is: 202-224-3121.
Focus also has begun an online petition, at Focuspetitions.com.
Wildmon characterized the Washington proposal as a message to the American public: "We don't want to hear from you, and this is the way we're going to handle it."
Dobson also earlier scolded Republicans for blaming the 2006 election victories by Democrats in many races across the country on conservatives.
"Dick Armey emerged from four years in the wilderness to blame conservative Christians for Tuesday's defeat. They were, he said, 'too involved' with the party. He can't be serious! Someone should tell him that without the support of that specific constituency, John Kerry would be president and the Republicans would have fallen into a black hole in '04," Dobson said in a story WND reported earlier.
"Values Voters are not going to carry the water for the Republican Party if it ignores their deeply held convictions and beliefs," he said.
"Republican leaders in Congress during this term apparently never understood, or they forgot, why Ronald Reagan was so loved and why he is considered one of our greatest presidents. If they hope to return to power in '08, they must rediscover the conservative principles that resonated with the majority of Americans in the 1980s – and still resonate with them today. Failure to do so will be catastrophic," Dobson said.
Dobson noted he'd been interviewed by U.S. News and World Report after the 2004 elections and warned if Republicans squandered their opportunity, they would pay a price at the polls in either 2008 or 2006.
Dobson's predictions about values and the Republican Party go back even further than that, too.
In 1998 he told a reporter that the GOP was in danger of losing its ability to "claim to speak for those of us with deep moral convictions."
He said at that time the party has "ignored the moral issues year after year, term after term" and said at that time it was "time to fish or cut bait."
At that time he also warned the GOP Christians and conservatives "will abandon them if they continue to ignore the most important issues."
If the Nov 7 stay at home Republicans had gotten of their lazy asses and voted we might very well not be in this mess.
Over the last six years Pres Bush, a social conservative btw, and other powerbrokers in the GOP Congressional leadership moved the GOP leftward on domestic policy. Fiscal conservatives did't like it and for most part, social conservatives didn't like it either. You see, most social conservatives are by nature supportive of fiscal conservatism. Conservatives in general didn't support the leftward shift that Bush has accomplished on domestic issues since taking office. Bush`s liberal spending habits, his expansion of the federal bureaucracy, enlarging the welfare state with his "free" drugs for seniors, doubling the education budget and promotion of liberal immigration reform, AKA. amnesty, has turned off most conservatives.
Think about it. Why do you think Republicans were handed such an historic loss on November 7th 2006? Bush, Frist, Hastert and the rest, ignored their conservative base, and the GOP paid the price. If Bush&Company hadn't ignored their conservative base, Republican candidates who lost might have been able to better weather the gathering storm over Iraq, and held onto power. Instead, the entire GOP leadership failed their constituency and the Democrats won.
Unless Republicans want to see the same results in 2008, that we had after the 2006 election, ALL conservatives best wake up and get behind the best candidate available. Right now ALL the candidates who are in the top tier have questionable records. Only Newt Gingrich represents Reagan conservatism. And that northeast liberal, Rudy Giuliani, is not the answer either.
Baptist Ping
McCain may be Republican, but he's no conservative.
bump
Again, there would be no conservative Republican party without the Evangelicals. Pure and Simple!!
None of those is one whit worse than McCain.
Actually, my views encompass all of the Republican categories that are actually conservative. :-)
ok
If it's Giuliani or McCain vs. hillary clinton in '08 and you vote 3rd party or sit out the election, you will be placing a de facto vote for hillary clinton. Period.
To think otherwise is delusional.
To fail to think through the consequences of placing a de facto vote for hillary clinton is smugly self-serving.
Ironically, it is also self-defeating.
You may not care that the clintons were the proximate cause of 9/11. You may not care that the clintons rape and otherwise abuse power.
But I suspect you care about your religious freedom... in which case I can only assume those of you on the Religious Right who, like Dr. Dobson, would so cavalierly place a de facto vote for hillary clinton simply aren't aware of her view of Evangelicals... or her plans for them....
It would be wise to educate yourself about what the clintons think of you and what they intend to do to you before you so nonchalantly place that de facto vote for the lovely couple.
WHY THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT MUST MOBILIZE AGAINST HILLARY:
CLINTON CONFLATES EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS AND ISLAMO-FASCIST TERRORISTS
AFTERWORD: A Note to the Religious Right
JIM TOWEY DEBUNKS KUO BOOK
BOOK ANOTHER CLINTON-SIMON SCHUSTER MACHINE EFFORT
TO MARGINALIZE EVANGELICALS, SUPPRESS TURNOUT
What's black and white and read all over and is more self-destructive than pre-9/11 thinking?
Pre-clinton thinking, that's what....
Putting doctrinal purity ahead of making sure a defective and dangerous clinton never again controls this country is pre-clinton thinking.
We no longer have the luxury of time or circumstance to massage our sensibilities, to indulge our indignations.
We will not survive another clinton. (We may yet not survive the first one.)
Nonsense. Right now it appears that either Edwards or Saddam Hussein Obama will beat Hillary.
Lo, how the mighty have fallen.
I'm not going to let the hatred and fear of a Hillary Presidency force me to vote for a McCain or Giuliani under any circumstances. It is up to the Republican Party to nominate a uniting candidate to defeat the Democrats, not blackmail us into voting for a compromise liberal RINO.
I believe he claims to have said these things, but I don't believe he actually said them. Sort of like how DUmmies make up stories about their encounters with FReepers or some random right wing person.
I don't give a Godd**n. I hate mccain with every fiber of my being as much as I hate hillary. I am from TN so I know the clinton bloodsuckers before the rest of the country did. If the Rebulican party picks mccain, they are committing election suicide.
I am not alone in this feeling. Continuing to stick your head in the sand will not make mccain any better. I refuse to be held responsible for the stupidity of the Republican party any longer. I have done my bit in my 45 years on this planet. I have always been a Republican. I voted for President Reagan in 1980 with my very first vote at 19 years old. I voted for Corker in TN in 2006 (who was not my first choice) and he won the only close contest for the Republicans in the Senate.
But NOTHING in this world will get me to vote for mccain. Not even a suitcase full of cash. Can I make this more clear?
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