Conservative Christian groups reportedly plan to ensure that any candidate they endorse for the 2008 Republican nomination has their views by conducting what will in effect be a joint job interview.
As USA Today, notes, this could greatly increase their clout. One of the arguments people have used in the past who noted that these groups did not really exercise as much influence over the GOP as some have charged is that Christian conservatives comprised a loose collection of groups, and didn’t reall have monolithic command structure. If USA Today’s report is correct, conservative Christian groups more than ever will resemble a pillar of power in the GOP akin to unions in old Democratic party’s New Deal heyday:
WASHINGTON — Leaders of conservative Christian organizations plan to jointly interview Republican contenders for the 2008 presidential nomination, perhaps even endorsing one of them — steps that could expand their already considerable political influence.
“We’d like to try to stay together,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said at a breakfast with reporters Wednesday. The ad hoc group includes “free thinkers” and “strong personalities,” he says, but they might unite behind a candidate who “unquestionably” best represented their views and priorities.
Gary Bauer, president of American Values, said in an interview that the sit-down sessions, likely to begin after the 2006 elections, would be “a very effective way to nail down where people are on cultural issues.” He said candidates have become “very astute” at answering written questionnaires in ways that avoid making firm commitments.
Indeed: that is a GOOD point, not just for conservative Christian groups but any groups who want to find out where either party stands. Since many politicos are lawyers a written statement can be filled with loopholes. It’s harder to slip in a loophole when you’re staring someone who’s staring you in the puss as they grill out about your political stand. MORE:
Those who plan to participate include leading figures of the Christian right: James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, Perkins and Bauer. Others also would join them.
Their groups, which represent millions of social conservatives, have taken the lead in lobbying to restrict abortion, ban same-sex marriage and confirm conservative judges. Their top priority, Perkins said, is winning confirmation of conservative Supreme Court justices.
Evangelical Christians, who overwhelmingly backed President Bush in 2004, already are an influential constituency in the Republican Party. Coordinated action could increase that influence, especially in a crowded GOP primary field.
So it could have an impact. On the other hand, it could also prove to be a double-edged sword:
But being seen as the “candidate of the Christian right” would be a “very, very mixed blessing” in the general election, said Stuart Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report— akin to Walter Mondale’s stamp as the “candidate of labor” in the 1984 campaign.
“That would really pigeonhole a candidate,” Rothenberg said.
But some candidates wouldn’t mind being pigeon-holed since the first task is winning the primaries.
Still, if the group does in a sense become more cohesive and definable as not simply a political interest but a formal GOP political power, it could be used against the Reublicans by an effective Democratic presidential nominee. If a Democrat tries to use it and does so clumsily (a la Howard Dean’s recent comments) it could backfire.
The trick for the Democrats in 2008 is to FIND that nominee who is effective and not weighted down down with political baggage — a trick that is not an easy one.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.