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ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins is a rising star in a crowded universe of evangelical Christian leadersEarlier this year, Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council (FRC - website), spent a great deal of time rallying the troops in support of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died in late-March after being in a "persistent vegetative state" for more than 15 years. Barry Lynn: "I've never seen anything as manipulative as what [Tony] Perkins and the FRC did over Terri Schiavo" On June 15, after Schiavo's autopsy was performed by Pinellas-Pasco County Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin and was released to the public, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United - website) issued a press release lambasting the Religious right for their shameful behavior during the Schiavo Affair. Americans United's executive director, the Rev. Barry Lynn, had special words for FRC's Perkins: "During the controversy Perkins repeatedly issued Schiavo commentaries that referred to her husband as 'estranged,' despite the fact that Michael Schiavo was caring for her, and [he] mention[ed] the 'questionable circumstances' surrounding her collapse, clearly implying foul play." "I've worked in Washington a long time, but I've never seen anything as manipulative as what Perkins and the FRC did over Terri Schiavo," Lynn said. "They took a terminally ill woman and turned her into a political tool to gain leverage in Congress." In fact, Michael Schiavo actually became a nurse after his wife's injury so he could better care for her. Shortly after Terri Schiavo's death, Perkins' FRC was the primary sponsor of an event called "Justice Sunday," subtitled "the filibuster against people of faith," held in a Louisville church in late April and "simulcast to churches, television and radio stations nationwide," according to Steven Thomma of Knight Ridder. The rally's organizers claimed the broadcast "reached 61 million households, which if accurate would put it on a par with the first presidential debate last year, which was broadcast on all the major television and cable networks and drew an estimated 61.5 million viewers," Thomma pointed out. [Editor's note: Thomma should have written 61.5 million potential viewers; the real number is unknown.] In early June, Perkins was among a coterie of religious conservatives who shared the stage with Texas Governor Rick Perry at a bill-signing ceremony held in a church school gymnasium. Perkins dismissed critics' objections to the location of the event, saying that "People of faith are not backing up, we are not giving up, we are here to stay." And on Tuesday, June 14, Perkins applauded a New Jersey Appellate Court ruling that the New Jersey Constitution does not include same-sex couples in its definition of marriage. According to an FRC Press Release, Perkins pointed out that the "decision strengthens the legal battle against same-sex marriage but the need for a federal marriage amendment is still very much valid." Perkins the Man"To be honest, we don't know that much about Tony Perkins," the Rev. Barry Lynn told Media Transparency in a recent telephone interview. "One thing that seems clear is that he doesn't bring immediate negatives to the table as someone like the Rev. Jerry Falwell does. When people see Falwell, they immediately get a sense that they do not like him. Perkins doesn't appear to evoke that response." While the FRC's Tony Perkins appears to have little in common with the late actor of the same name, who died of pneumonia, brought on by AIDS in 1992, there is a shared flair for the spotlight. The actor Tony Perkins, whose first starring role was as the psychologically troubled Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall in "Fear Strikes Out" in 1957, captured the nation's attention by playing Norman Bates, the demented owner of the Bates Motel in Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho" three years later. Similarly, the FRC's Perkins boyish good looks and winsome smile give him a leg up on other, older, Christian Right leaders. Tony Perkins seems like a modern-day Ralph Reed, the right wing political operative now caught up in the Tom Delay / Jack Abramoff / Indian Gaming scandal. Reed made his reputation as executive director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition during the organization's heyday in the early 1990s. At the time, key to Reed's success was his looks -- boyishly appealing; his disarming manner -- he was soft-spoken and seemed to effortlessly deflect the media's thornier questions; his refusal to use over-the-top, smarmy, or intentionally harmful language when commenting about the opposition -- in public discourse at least; and his uncanny ability as a fixer, cleaning up the messes emanating from Pat Robertson's mouth before they could cause trouble. "Perkins is very political, very tough, and a very good tactician," the Rev. Lynn said. "He has surrounded himself with lots of people who are smart and telegenic and he appears to pick his own interview spots very carefully." The Man with a MissionTony Perkins is not a man given to uncertainty. Same sex marriage? It will destroy traditional American marriages, and a constitutional amendment banning it is needed. Comprehensive sexuality education? It encourages promiscuity among America's youth and abstinence-only sex education is needed in our public schools. Covenant marriage? It is one of the only ways to ensure that people will take their marriage vows seriously and reduce the skyrocketing divorce rate in the country. Judicial activists? Those judges who do the wrong thing need to be suitably penalized. Money to combat AIDS in Africa? At the urging of conservative U.S. churches, several African American bishops have been rejecting aid to African AIDS victims from churches that allow gay clergy. According to a recent posting at John Aravosis' Americablog (website), Perkins congratulated the bishops: "I applaud the actions of the African Anglican churches. No amount of silver is worth sacrificing your duty to your congregation and to God," Perkins said. One of the most disturbing features not listed on Perkins' resume was his involvement in securing the mailing list of Ku Klux Klansman David Duke for a Louisiana Senate campaign he managed in 1996. Four years ago, reporter Max Blumenthal revealed in an April 26, 2005 article for The Nation, "Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) … the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South." Blumenthal wrote that in 1996, while Perkins was running the campaign of longtime conservative Woodie Jenkins, the right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana, he "paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list." Blumenthal explained: For years, Jenkins had been grooming Perkins as his political successor. "To Jenkins, Perkins was like a son, and the feeling was and is mutual," wrote former Jenkins staffer Christopher Tidmore. In 1996 Perkins cut his teeth as the manager of Jenkins's campaign for US Senate. It was during that campaign that, in an attempt to consolidate the support of Louisiana's conservative base, Perkins paid David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. After Jenkins was defeated by his Democratic opponent, Mary Landrieu, he contested the election. But during the contest period, Perkins's surreptitious payment to Duke was exposed through an investigation conducted by the FEC, which fined the Jenkins campaign. Six years later, in 2002, Perkins embarked on a campaign to avenge his mentor's defeat by running for the US Senate himself. But Perkins was dogged with questions about his involvement with David Duke. Perkins issued a flat denial that he had ever had anything to do with Duke, and he denounced him for good measure. Unfortunately, Perkins's signature was on the document authorizing the purchase of Duke's list. Perkins's dalliance with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens in the run-up to his campaign also illuminates the seamy underside of his political associations. Despite endorsements from James Dobson and a host of prominent CNP members, Perkins was not even the leading Republican in the senatorial race. Dr. James Dobson: The FRC's Founding FatherThe Family Research Council did not exactly have humble beginnings; it was originally founded in 1983 to serve as Focus on the Family's (FOTF - website) up-close-and-personal voice in the nation's capital. In recent years it has become one of the most powerful and politically well-connected Christian conservative lobbying groups in the nation's capital. According to FRC's website, the organization: "Champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society. FRC shapes public debate and formulate public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and the family. Believing that God is the author of life, liberty, and the family, FRC promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society". The idea of the Family Research Council "originated at the 1980 White House Conference on Families … [where] James Dobson stood out because of his rare combination of Christian social values and academic and professional credentials." Three years later, the FRC incorporated as a nonprofit educational institution in the District of Columbia; its founding board included Dobson and two noted psychiatrists, Armand Nicholoi, Jr. of Harvard University and George Rekers of the University of South Carolina. The FRC website claims that "under the leadership of Jerry Regier, a former Reagan Administration official at the Department of Health and Human Services, FRC began to link policy makers with researchers and professionals from a variety of disciplines. Gary Bauer, a domestic policy advisor to President Reagan, succeeded Regier in 1988 and by the mid-1990s the organization had grown into a $10 million operation with a nationwide network of support." During his tenure Bauer was a conservative whirling dervish, although "he always appeared to be somewhat overshadowed by Ralph Reed," the Rev. Barry Lynn observed. Unlike other Christian right leaders, "Bauer was pretty much a straight shooter who was willing to call a spade a spade," said the Rev. Lynn. Dkospedia, the free political encyclopedia from the Daily Kos website, fills out the story on Bauer's early political involvement: "Bauer, represents the nexus between the Christian right and the neoconservatives. A close friend of neocon bigwig William Kristol, Bauer's dossier of political activities dates back to the Reagan Administration, where he served in a number of posts under Education Secretary William Bennett. From this perch he lambasted "moral decay in public schools" and advocated controversial policies like school prayer. According to a 1986 Washington Post article, Bauer blamed "the public schools for what he called the decay in thenation's morals," criticized textbook publishers "as soft on the Soviet Union for saying that Russians enjoy some freedoms," and criticized teacher unions for promoting "leftist indoctrination aimed at turning today's students into tomorrow's campus radicals." Bauer ran the organization from 1988 through 1999, when he left to seek the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2000. Replaced by Ken Connor, Bauer went on to found American Values (website). Connor's tenure was significantly shorter than Bauer's, and when it was over Perkins replaced him. Through his daily online Tony Perkins' Washington Update, Perkins comments about the days significant and buzzworthy issues. "I have to admit that I have a certain amount of respect for his public relations abilities," the Rev. Lynn added. Perkins apparently "recognizes the power the Family Research Council currently wields in Washington," the Lynn noted. "He understands the importance of the organization's historic and current connection to Focus on the Family, and he makes good use of that connection." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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