The company that they keep

September 16, 2006

Charles Pierce beat me to a point that I’ve been meaning to mention for days. It’s worth mentioning anyway.

The Family Research Council, DC’s most powerful religious right lobbying group, is hosting a major conference this Friday called the “2006 Values Voter Summit.” For a mere $95, attendees can hear three days worth of far-right, theocratic rhetoric from nearly all of the movement’s most prominent leaders and activists, including James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins, and Don Wildmon.

Perhaps most importantly, a featured guest will be none other than Ann Coulter. Will she be enough to keep high-profile politicians away from the summit? As Pierce explained, not so much.

I count at least five people — George Allen, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and my own governor, Mitt Romney — who are rumored to be running for president and who come to wallow with a woman who recommends the assassination of Supreme Court justices…. Not that we here at Tapped engage in guilt by association, but, wow.

In addition to the names Pierce mentioned, I’d also add that confirmed speakers also include Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), and Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.). (John McCain has been invited but has not confirmed.)

How on earth is this considered politically acceptable?

Obviously, members of Congress and presidential aspirants can speak to whomever they please. But in 2006, there seems to be no far-right fringe nut too far over the conservative cliff for GOP leaders to avoid. If Ward Churchill organized a conference in DC, no elected Democrat would want anything to do with the event. If one were foolish enough to agree to speak at the event, Republicans and the media would, with some justification, quiz the lawmaker on whether he or she agreed with every foolish remark ever uttered by the guy.

And yet leading conservative lawmakers seem to think nothing of an appearance — six weeks before nationwide elections, no less — in front of a thousand fringe activists, hate-filled personalities, and theocons anxious to establish a Taliban-west like government in the United States.

Here’s a thought: why shouldn’t Dems raise a serious fuss about this? Doesn’t this cry out for some kind of press attention?

It seems like it’d be pretty simple: the guest list includes one prominent conservative who believes America deserved the 9/11 attacks (Falwell), and another who lashed out at 9/11 widows (Coulter). Couldn’t some liberal senator write a letter to, say, George Allen, Rick Santorum, and Alberto Gonzales, asking them to explain why they plan to stand alongside these demagogues, particularly so soon after the fifth anniversary of the attacks?

For that matter, the campaign ads seem to write themselves — “James Webb stands with the 9/11 widows. Why is George Felix Allen standing with Ann Coulter?”

Isn’t this a valuable opportunity?

Ya know normally I’m against pre-emptive nukular strikes, but with this line-up all in one place maybe it’s time to rethink the policy. (Is this a Coulterish enough post?)

  • I have to admit Dale’s comment crossed my mind when I was reading the post. Talk about an axis of conservative evil. I can not name another place on the planet where so much hate will be so highly concentrated in one spot. Maybe they should have called it hate-a-palooza instead.

  • “If Ward Churchill organized a conference in DC, no elected Democrat would want anything to do with the event.”

    Um, Ward Churchill did not organize, but was a speaker at the Congressional Black Causcus’ annual conference last year at the invitation of Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia). His topic was “Countering Culture – COINTELPRO Attacks on Political Musicians.”

  • The vultures are roosting with the chickenhawks. No good can come of this unholy union of faith based hate and greed based power.

  • “Here’s a thought: why shouldn’t Dems raise a serious fuss about this?”

    Because, at best, they believe in free speech for everyone, no matter how odious? Less naively, the Dems are all cowards.

    Love your proposal for “James Webb stands with the 9/11 widows. Why is George Felix Allen standing with Ann Coulter?” ads. Doubt Shrum and the boys have the courage to run them, though. It might interrupt their steady string of losses.

  • I guess that for the far right Jesus is now in a power suit and driving a BMW with a bumper sticker that reads “F the Poor!”.

    On weekends he puts on a t-shirt that reads “I live to fist” (the nasty fetish that riddles Coulter’s writing) and hits the beach with everyone’s favorite scary ugly woman with an adam’s apple to enjoy her spewing bile on people in public.

    Sad, just sad…

    -jjf

  • Don’t want to lower the discourse, but (and it’s a big BUT unlike Ann’s) fisting Ann Coulter would involve a lot of ambiguous emotions.

    Thanks? for the image, jjf. 🙂

    PS As Democrats I think we should come to a consenus each morning of what the color of an orange is. Then ACT!

  • Here’s a thought: why shouldn’t Dems raise a serious fuss about this?

    One or two elected Dems should, at least. And they don’t need to give a half-ass, hedging speech on it that wastes words on talking about how the conference is supposed to be about religion, or how we all get to speak in this country “except when…”– they just need to name the people, say what those people have said, and say who they’re gathering with.

    And say, this is wrong. This is reprehensible. This is not what should be going on in a democracy and it is usually a symptom of worse things.

    No one really does that for the Dems, although they notice that there are a few people who do that on for the Right.

  • There’s a distinction to be made, too, between the kind of speaking out Dems have been doing and speaking out about this. Talking about who Dems meet with at a parallel kind of conference is something Republicans already do, and they’re not going to stop.

  • Here’s a link of confirmed speakers, aka People Commiting the Political Equivalent of a Swan Dive off The Empire State Building: http://www.frcaction.org/index.cfm?i=WX06C15

    I say let them. Let them talk. Let them stand next to Ms. Madam’s Apple while people take lots of pictures. Let them be filmed nodding along to the hateful spew of a fellow whack job. If we’re lucky someone will get busted for trying to rent a little love and affection from a hooker.
    And then let them explain it to the voters.

    Or we could go with suggestion #1

  • I hope some mole will be taping this. I suspect lots of ammo for lefties and moderates will be thrown around.

  • I wish someone would tape this event, and that they would produce a split screen of Ann Coulter doing her thing and the politicians themselves laughing away at everything she says. That tape would be pure gold, and we could play out-takes from it as a commercial completely unedited and it would disgust half of the country at least.

  • “…why shouldn’t Dems raise a serious fuss about this? Doesn’t this cry out for some kind of press attention?”

    No one in America can publically say anything negative that is remotely related to the christian religion and survive intact. It’s the ultimate in PC. Kind of strange, that the folks who love to disparage political correctness are the ones who hide behind it in the form of religion.

  • ***Ya know normally I’m against pre-emptive nukular strikes, but with this line-up all in one place maybe it’s time to rethink the policy. (Is this a Coulterish enough post?)
    ———————————————————————Dale

    Don’t think of it as “pre-emptive,” Dale. Coulter and this shrill horde of snake-dancers have been at war with the “real” United States for several years now. And, it doesn’t require huge amounts of mega-tonnage. 30 or so kilo-tons worth of Neutron device ought to put paid on these squirming little quibblers of hate, and it’ll lessen the infrastructural damage.

    As for the miniscule prophets of the political Reich attending this “function,” and why—it’s a no-brainer. Santorum and his ilk already consider this to be a “xian” nation; they’re waging a war against the enemies of “their” nation on the grounds that “we” (being the vast majority of Americans) will not bow down to their self-declared authority over us. That majority of Americans, those in positions of power that agree with them, and a few rather simple pieces of paper (the Constitution being one such piece) are a “clear and present danger” to the “already founded” Theofascist State that these bug-eyed xenophobists truly believe to be in existence.

    The proof in their rhetoric will come after the midterms, though. If they lose one House of Congress, they may be expected to “ramp up” that rhetoric, arguing the validity of stalling any Dem-based legislation, and putting out the stumbling blocks to hamper any criminal investigations. BUT—and this is a tsunami-sized one—if they lose BOTH Houses, some of these medieval morons might well decide to set aside the talk and apply the end-result actions of their veiled threats. To make matters worse, the administration, a big chunk of the legislature, and who-knows-how-much of the bureaucracy “at all levels” tend toward supporting these wingnuts, in one way or another….

  • No one in America can publically say anything negative that is remotely related to the christian religion and survive intact. It’s the ultimate in PC. Kind of strange, that the folks who love to disparage political correctness are the ones who hide behind it in the form of religion.

    Yes!
    That’s one of the “taboos” I wondered about in a thread last week.

    The first one:

    Thou shalt not question the statement that Iraq is better without Saddam….

    And now a second one:

    Thou shalt not say anything negative about Christianity…

  • Reading the list of the invitees (whether featured speakers or no), I’d say let’s go for Dale’s (#1) option, but make sure Cheney’s there too.

  • The Dems won’t do anything about this because they are corporate bootlickers.
    Corporations contribute almost evenly to both Dems and Fascists(GOP). Corporations are run by scared old white men, who are Christians without conscience.

    We can expect nothing until this changes.

    You are all absolutely correct, the Dems should seize this moment, and begin a discourse of tolerance and understanding, but they won’t. They know that we Americans have devolved into such unthinking, reactionary slime that we are beyond resonable thought.
    We make for better consumers that way. And Democrats are still capitalists.
    We can only slither in the muck of the Corporate fascist state, where our choices are just for which boot to be stepped on by, and we like it. Such entertainment value to be found in others’ misery.
    Only if we denounce capitalism, and the Corporation, (and organized religion too!), will we begin the long road to true freedom.
    See you at the polls!!

  • Sorry to burst your bubble “Al B Tross”, but beep52’s pegged it square on the nose. This has absolutely nothing to do with capitalism or being ‘corporate bootlickers’ and everything to do with the fact that a politician in America who criticizes any facet of Christianity (no matter how disgusting) effectively destroys their career.
    If there’s one thing that destroys a religious person’s ability to think rationally it’s criticizing something they consider sacrosanct. Kind of like when someone tells an idealistic and ideologically motivated anarchist that talking like they’re an ignorant-to-reality college freshman with delusions of ‘destroying the fascist corporate state’ will ensure they’re never taken seriously…

  • USA Today 6-24-06
    “Democrats screen ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ in D.C.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — To Sen. Tom Harkin, Michael Moore’s documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 is an “unvarnished presentation” of facts surrounding the worst terror attack ever on U.S. soil.”

    “Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and California Sen. Barbara Boxer were among the 800 invited guests. Actress Sally Field also planned to join Moore for the red-carpet premiere.

    Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe came, relished the movie and said he thought it would gain traction in this election year. ”

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-06-23-fahrenheit-dc-premiere_x.htm

  • Unfortunately, I have lost all faith in the democratic part to actually develop effective campaign ads (although the votevets.org ad is awesome). This will probably go down as another lost opportunity. You know, if we actually started holding these people to (a) what they say and (b) the company they keep, we could really show the american people who they are supporting.

  • The media had breathless and widespread coverage of all the politicians who associated themselves with the “radical left wing bloggers” at the Yearly KOS meetings earlier this year. How many stories about attending politicians do you think you will see about this conference of lunatics? Enquiring minds want to know.

  • So who’s going to go in as the mole and pretend to be a fundie whackjob to get the needed footage? You’d have to have some kind of puke factor suppressor just to be in the place and talk to people, which you’ll have to do a lot of. This is no job for the faint of heart. I sure hope somebody can manage to do it, though. I think an ex-fundie would be the best, ’cause you gotta be able to talk the talk.

    Sorry, that leaves me out. Volunteers, anyone?

  • On the same lines I eas shocked to see Ann Coulter among the list of Republicans who the Post asked to give advice to Republicans running for Congress for an article that ran in today’s “Outlook” section.

  • “No one in America can publically say anything negative that is remotely related to the christian religion and survive intact.”

    Simple – we have to shout loud and often that these people have nothing to do with Christianity. James “Child Abbuser” Dobson?

  • If God wanted to give the earth an enema this Friday, I think he’d know exactly where to stick the hose.

  • Either their webmaster messed up the speaker page, or these guys have an unusual idea of what constitutes “entertainment”.

    Real site:Here

    Saved image: Here

  • I think this right here speaks to something I’ve said for years – and something I *wish* liberals would speak up on more. We get slammed for being ‘pansies’; for wanting to ‘coddle terrorists’, for wanting to ‘cut and run; for ‘living in a field of happy bunnies’ etc…

    We get slammed for these things even though 90+% of it comes from us defending our constititutional rights against an over-reaching government. (Oddly – isn’t that some of what old-style conservatism was? I mean really – I’m not a conservative at all – but I can respect that kind of view; what we have today is beyond bull).

    Ok, continuing – what I’ve said for years is this:

    Conservatism – in particular Neo-Conservatism – is a philosophy of fear.

    That’s right. *FEAR*. They call us cowards; yet most of their policy is based on being terrified.

    They *fear* equality for homosexuals.

    They *fear* equality for all religions (and for those who do not wish to be a part of a religion).

    They *fear* equality for all races.

    They fear everyone outside of our country (and a good number of people in it.)

    Ever notice how so many neocons bash the UN as if its somehow going to take us over and suck us in? Or if not that as a crumbling and useless instititution?

    Why is that? Why are they afraid of other nations?

    I think that is something we need to start really focusing on. We need to start pointing out that not only are neoconservatives liars and corrupt – but they are such because they lack any sort of moral fortitude whatsoever.

    They called John Kerry a “Flip-Flopper”; what the heck is Bill Frist then?

    In the late 90s, during the operations in Kosovo – they made many of the same comments we make today about Iraq – except that that war was short, and successful; and theirs is a quagmire.

    So what do they do? After repeatedly attacking our president in a time of war; when the tables are shifted and they find themselves in a far worse position – they have the nerve to say we should blindly support the president.

    I could go on… I’m angry and probably only half coherent. Blah.

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