[leftist] Joe Conason: Lamentations from the religious right

StarTribune.com ^ | May 28, 2007 | Joe Conason

[Jim Robinson]

For more than three decades, the Rev. Jerry Falwell guided the white evangelical masses of the South into the Republican Party, culminating in the most outwardly pious presidency in modern American history. Having first gained notoriety as a hard-line segregationist in rural Virginia, he won power as the televised prophet of a partisan gospel. Scarcely had he gone to his ultimate reward, however, before his friends and allies threatened to dismantle that legacy -- and the dominance of the party to which he had devoted his ministry. The late preacher can hardly be blamed for the ruinous condition of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. But with the tandem rise of Rudolph Giuliani, a prochoice Catholic, and Mitt Romney, a highly flexible Mormon, Falwell's old flock is feeling deeply alienated. Within days after his death, the leaders of the movement he symbolized began to proclaim a message of dissension.

The most significant voice raised against the notion of a Giuliani nomination belongs to James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, which is now widely reckoned to be the largest religious-right organization. On May 17, Dobson declared he could not support the candidacy of the former New York mayor under any circumstances.

"Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008," he wrote in an essay on WorldNetDaily, a right-wing website. "It is an irrevocable decision." Even if forced to choose between Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, he said, he would "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."

[Doctor Raoul]

I once asked Joe Conason if taking a loss in Salon stock was a tax cut for the stupid because only the stupidist 1% of American’s had Salon stock.

[Doctor Raoul]

A photo of Conson who just figured out that the girls
said "threesome" not "foursome" and that he'd be
sleeping alone once more.

[Grunthor]

“Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008”

Cannot be said enough.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

He can't in any honest way accuse the "religious right" of being partisan and at the same time too principled to stick with a liberal party nominee.

I think Joe Conason columns are nearly always a hate crime. Why do the sensitivity police keep ignoring him?

[Democratshavenobrains]

If the Religious Right is too stupid to vote for Romney instead of ANY of the Dims, we deserve Hillary.

[mkjessup]

‘Who put the CON in Conason?
‘HE did baby, HE did!’

Conason is a one trick journalistic pony. He so much wants to be considered one of the ‘big boys’ but his style and ability barely qualify him for the position of copy boy with ‘Weekly World News’.

Indeed, most tabloid writers put Conason to shame.

He’s not a has-been, he’s a never-was.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

I wish libs would make up their mind. On one hand they say say that Falwell ruined America and then on the other hand they say his influence was waning.

As an aside I've noticed watching the Live From Liberty TV show which is uaually on sunday has as far as I can tell has made no mention of Falwell's death.