Divisions on the right

by vj, Fri Nov 12, 2004 at 08:55:57 PM EST

Widely perceived as having won the election for Bush, the Religious Right is flexing its new found muscle. Meanwhile, the pundits are getting irritated.

Karl Rove says 'Moral Values' Carried Bush

I do think it was part and parcel of a broader fabric where this year moral values ranked higher than they traditionally do," he said, adding: "I think people would be well advised to pay attention to what the American people are saying."
Charles Krauthammer says there's a Moral Values Myth
...on what does this victory-of-the-homophobic-evangelical voter rest?

The American Family Association doesn't like the fact that Mary Cheney is flaunting her sexuality:

...A Virginia pro-family advocate says the people who helped re-elect President Bush don't support homosexual relationships -- the administration apparently does. Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, has worked tirelessly for family values, including the fight against legalized homosexual "marriage." He says it was conservative Christians who put the president back in office and who held to the belief that the president shared their views. But Glover says the day after the election, that all seemed to go out the window. "The day after George Bush was elected president again, because of this morals revolution taking place in our country, he allows his vice president to not only put his lesbian daughter on the platform, but to bring her lesbian 'partner' up on the stage with him," Glover says. "It almost seems to be a slap in the face from the get-go against the very conservatives that re-elected the president at a time when he ought to paying them some homage and respect." Glover says the Cheney daughter's open flaunting of her homosexuality is the antithesis of what the administration claims to stand for -- and that the post-election display sends a mixed message to Bush supporters.

The religious right is determined to get Specter.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Critics seeking to keep moderate Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter from chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee were broadening their offensive on Friday by attacking his record on curbing lawsuits. Specter, who supports keeping abortion legal, is already engulfed in a political firestorm fanned by opponents of abortion rights, who do not want him to head the committee that

Please post more examples of pundits saying the Values Voters aren't important. I'm loving this stuff.

Update [2004-11-12 23:48:30 by vj]:

Now they're going after Santorum too.

Jan LaRue, chief counsel of the Concerned Women for America, agreed that Santorum "has got to do something here. The Senate controls its own rules; there are a number of ways they can address this. It's up to them, but get rid of him [Specter].

"Santorum would like to become the president of the United States, but he alienated a lot of pro-family, pro-life people when he came to Specter's aid over Toomey, who is a strong pro-life man...," LaRue said. "If he wants to get back that kind of support for his future political ambitions, he's got to do something" about Specter.

Also, a good article on this in the LA Times: Evangelicals Want Faith Rewarded

Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, told reporters this week that he believed evangelicals deserved much of the credit for Bush's reelection, and that future candidates should heed the lessons of the 2004 election when it came to voters' opposition to same-sex marriage.

"This is an issue about which there is a broad general consensus," Rove said. "People would be well-advised to pay attention to what the American people are saying."

At the same time, Bush and his aides have focused most of their comments on other issues in the days following the election, such as revamping the tax system and reworking Social Security.

Moreover, Bush's most recent remarks on same-sex marriage infuriated some Christian conservative leaders.

"I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do," Bush said on ABC in an interview that aired a week before the election. His statement put him at odds not only with some social conservatives but with the Republican Party platform.

"The president has to stop endorsing homosexuality indirectly by supporting civil unions," said Knight of Concerned Women for America.

Will the republicans screw their most important constituency again?




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