Dobson scratches another Republican off his list

May 18, 2007

In January, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson ruled out Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a Republican presidential candidate he’d even consider. “Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances.”

Yesterday, Dobson added another name to the list: the other leading GOP candidate.

A prominent Christian leader said Thursday that “my conscience and my moral convictions” prevent him from voting for Rudy Giuliani should he win the Republican nomination.

In a blistering online column, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson wrote that, should the former New York mayor become the nominee, “I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran — or if worse comes to worst — not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life.”

“Many liberal Americans will agree with the social positions espoused by Giuliani. However, I don’t believe conservative voters whose support he seeks will be impressed,” Dobson said on WorldNetDaily, a conservative news Web site.

Dobson not only pointed to Giuliani being an “unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand” and gay rights, but also touched on the former NYC mayor’s shameless adultery. Dobson there were “moral concerns” surrounding Giuliani, including that he’s on his third marriage to “his mistress” from his second marriage and “appears not to have remorse for cheating on his wife.”

I’d only add one thing: Dobson isn’t bluffing.

Occasionally, we’ll see an ideological heavyweight, from either side of the aisle, denounce a presidential candidate, only to see everyone close ranks once there’s an official nominee. Grudges are put aside for the sake of political expediency — partisans invariably hate the other party’s candidate more than their own.

As regular Dobson watchers know, that’s not how he operates.

That’s not necessarily a compliment, just the reality. There are two types of religious right leaders: partisans and ideologues. Dobson, who’s far more interested in issues than party, is definitely part of the latter.

TV preachers like Pat Robertson are just as extreme in their beliefs as Dobson, but at their core, they’re just Republicans who think it’s fun to get invited to sit at the big kids’ table. Robertson has always gone out of his way to help Republican candidates, even those he disagrees with on important issues, to help advance the party’s broader agenda. In the Christian Coalition’s infamous voter guides, for example, Robertson would promote GOP moderates by skipping over issues that might anger the religious right’s rank and file. It’s always been more important to a guy like Robertson to elect Republicans than it was to achieve ideological purity.

Dobson’s different. The conventional wisdom throws Dobson in with characters like Robertson, which makes sense to the extent they’re part of the same movement, but they’re not cut from the same cloth and they approach their leadership roles in entirely different ways.

In 1996, for example, the Bob Dole/Jack Kemp ticket wasn’t doing much to electrify the far-right GOP base. Robertson was touting the ticket on his 700 Club program and Ralph Reed was hobnobbing on the floor at the Republican National Convention. What about Dobson? He not only steered clear of Dole/Kemp, he didn’t even vote Republican, opting instead for the radical Constitution Party.

Two years later, when Newt Gingrich omitted any reference to social conservative issues in his Contract with America, and paid little attention to the movement’s biggest issues, Dobson threatened to pull evangelicals out of the Republican Party altogether. The consequences for the GOP were irrelevant.

Robertson sees his GOP allies as his buddies at the country club who invite him to cool parties; Dobson sees his GOP allies as a means to a right-wing end. Robertson wants a seat at the table; Dobson wants to own the table and will let Republicans sit at it if it suits his interests.

It’s what enables Dobson to take on the two top Republican presidential candidates, announcing that they’re both unacceptable.

Well, as a confirmed and proud “liberal”, I’d have to say I agree with Dobson about Guiliani’s maritial woes.

Except, that I think Guiliani’s a hypocrite. Dobson thinks he’s a sinner.

  • If you have the likes of Brownback and Huckabee running, why bother supporting someone else who doesn’t totally sing the relgious right’s tune. I don’t see the likes of someone like Dobson making the cold calculaiting choice to support someone based on electability. In his non-compromise world you either support your guy regardless of other concerns or you don’t support anybody

  • what jimBOB said.

    Who’s Dobson gonna pick then? Is Fred Thompson pure enough? All those years as a bachelor, a trophy wife, is that the new face of Wingnutville?

  • Giuliani now has the advantage of being able to appear as the anti-theocracy candidate. Remember how much of a boost McCain’s 2000 maverick image got from his dissing the megapreachers? And how that was caviar to the independents? And wowed the state-run media?

    Giuliani is now more dangerous in the general, if less dangerous in the primaries. So the chance of a disaster — Mussolinetto is the GOP nominee — goes down, but the magnitude of the disaster — President Giuliani — goes up.

  • Two things: at TPM, Josh Marshall notes that CNN’s report of this story includes some background info that Dobson’s show is heard on 3500 radio stations, with 220 million American listeners (out of, ahem, 300 million Americans). The AP version says Dobson has 7 million listeners.

    Second, I find it sad that our system is “take it or leave it” when it comes to parties and candidates. It’s too bad we’re all forced to support candidates we may not agree with, or nobody, because the only alternative is the guy we don’t agree with at all. It’d be nice to have more options.

  • So when will the third shoe drop of finding a pandering Mormon unacceptable to Big Jim? It’ll be interesting to see if Dobson takes his followers and sits this one out. ’08 could be a Dem landslide of epic proportions.

  • Keep in mind that a condemnation from Dobson is like a testimonial from somebody not crazy. Having James Dobson kick you to the curb is like a validation of your fundamental humanity.

  • Dobson there were “moral concerns” surrounding Giuliani, including that he’s on his third marriage to “his mistress” from his second marriage and “appears not to have remorse for cheating on his wife.”

    I guess the same could be said about ol’ Newt as well. And Newt one ups Rudy because in that case the cheating was going down while Newt was playing grand inquisitioner during the Lewinsky affair.

  • who cares about what Dobson says… it’s not like he’s a rational person. Why waste space on him…

  • Yeah—just gotta love those CNN radio numbers that Grumpy brings up. I guess if I listen to a radio station during the week that plays a Dobson broadcast on Sunday morning, that makes me a Dobson listener. I’m leaning more towards the AP numbers myself, and even those might be an overestimation, given that a lot of these stations play the broadcast while people are actually sitting in church. I never saw anyone with an earphone wire running to a portable radio during a sermon in my life.

    Dobson can rot in an open cornfield for all I care. It’s a tossup as to who goes next—him or SuperShakeBoy—but they’ll both be joining Falwell pretty soon, I think….

  • Partisan or idealogue, which is worse? What other choices are there? It’s a fucked-up system in so many ways, and virtually impossible to change.

  • Rudy’s stock price just went up among the moderates. The more the right wing Bible pushers hate him, the more the moderate majority will like him.

  • Steve… the funny thing about the CNN numbers is that whoever wrote it didn’t notice anything odd about them. As written, it literally means, “Look to your left, look to your right, one of you three isn’t a Dobson listener and the others are.”

  • I am not paying any attention to the Democratic presidential race because it is too early for me, but the Republican race sure is fun to watch.

  • brian #9, you forget that the Newtster ostentatiously kissed Dobson’s flabby whitebread ass before that national radio audience of 7 to 220 million. Thus, all is forgiven.

    I still think Radical Cleric SpongeDob should just run for President himself…

    “Sometimes it takes a Christatollah: Dobson ’08!”

  • Paging the IRS… IRS to the white courtesy phone…why the hell is Dobson allowed to do this? Aren’t there laws prohibiting this sort of thing? OH WAIT! That’s right – IOKIYAR. Silly me for even thinking things should be fair.

  • I honestly think Giuliani is the dimmest of all the candidates. The taint actually makes Bush look like a learned scholar. He’s not getting any support from this ‘liberal American.’

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