October 12, 2005
Greg Saunders: James Dobson is a fraud.
After James Dobson spent the last week bragging about the insider
information he
received about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, the Focus on the Family
founder went to the airwaves yesterday to cover his *****
[http://www.family.org/welcome/press/a0038214.cfm] (via C&L
[http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/10/11.html#a5324]) :
What did Karl Rove say to me that I knew on Monday that I couldn't
reveal?
Well, it’s what we all know now, that Harriet Miers is an Evangelical
Christian,
that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally
pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue
of
abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion,
that
she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life. In other words, there is
a
characterization of her that was given to me before the President had
actually
made this decision. I could not talk about that on Monday. I couldn’t talk
about
it on Tuesday. In fact, Brit Hume said, "What church does she go to?" And I
said, "I don’t think it’s up to me to reveal that."
. . .
We did not discuss Roe v. Wade in any context or any other pending
issue
that will be considered by the Court. I did not ask that question. You
know, to
be honest, I would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers views Roe v.
Wade.
But even if Karl had known the answer to that and I’m certain that he
didn’t,
because the President himself said he didn’t know, Karl would not have told
me
that.
In other words, though his certainty about how Miers would rule on Roe is
the
reason for his endorsement, it never even occurred to actually ask about
Miers'
views on abortion. Hey James, is lying a "family" value?
To translate my feelings about Dobson into a phrase easy for his followers
to
understand, I think the man's getting way too big for his britches. It's
one
thing to be outspoken on your own radio show about a political issue, but
let's
not forget that Dobson also participated in the Administration's conference
calls to conservative activists as well. He's gone from objective bystander
to
fully-integrated cog in the spin machine.
Dobson's part-time job as a Bush shill is just the latest attempt to fully
integrate himself into the political establishment. He wants to be an
insider so
bad it hurts, as you can tell from the first two paragraphs of his official
biography [http://www.family.org/resources/itempg.cfm?itemid=5524]:
For James Dobson, the stakes on November 2, 2004-Election Day-couldn’t
have
been higher. The renowned child psychologist, best-selling author, popular
radio
host, and founder of Focus on the Family had devoted his entire life to the
preservation of the family, and now all he held dear seemed to be hanging
in the
balance. Although he had rarely before campaigned in a way that could be
considered strictly partisan, this election year Dobson had become
convinced
that he had no choice but to jump into the political fray with both feet.
And
when he did, he determined to give all he had for the cause.
By the time the 2004 campaign was over, Beltway heavyweights from Tom
Daschle to Arlen Specter, media pundits, Democratic operatives, Focus on
the
Family listeners, and Dr. Dobson readers from coast to coast had gained a
much
better appreciation for who Dobson was and what he could accomplish.
Dobson seems keen on reinventing himself as a kingmaker in the Pat
Robertson
mold, and he's already had good practice in using his multimedia empire to
go
after Big Brothers Big Sisters, Procter & Gamble, Disney, Macy's, and
Microsoft.
The Miers nomination is just the latest test to see if Dobson's homophobic
armies can be mobilized to support political friends as efficiently as
they've
been used to destroy corporate enemies. There was a time when political
activity
was seen as an unseemly diversion from "God's work", but selling Jesus to
the
already-saved doesn't feed the ego the way it used to.
Considering the direction that Dobson is steering his career, I think it's
just
a matter of time before his hubris brings him down. I wouldn't be surprised
in
the least if God's humble servant eventually finds himself brought down by
a
scandal. Real or fake, white collar crime or sexual affair, at some point
Dobson's activism is going to catch up to him. I can't wait to see it.
http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2005_10_09.html#002487
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http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://www.rightard.org/ http://www.thedarkwind.org/
Bush is a Christian. Get over it!
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