American Politics Journal -- Yanking the Chains



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Yanking the Chains
Religious Right Forces Bush Campaign to Dump Ridge, Tap Dick
by Tamara Baker

Thursday, July 27, 2000 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA -- Was it only two weeks ago that George W. Bush told religious-right crusader James Dobson to mind his own business regarding Dubya's choice of a running mate?

Monday, July 17, 2000
Bush says abortion not only factor he'll consider for veep
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush said Sunday that his vice-presidential selection will be based on factors other than the candidates' views on abortion, despite the urging of conservative Christians that he pick a running mate who is opposed to abortion.
Bush was responding to James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, who recently said that the likely Republican nominee "cannot and will not" be elected president if he "does not energize his base" of conservative Christian voters by picking an abortion opponent. Bush said he gets "all kinds of interesting advice."
"I'm going to pick somebody who can be president of the United States and somebody with whom I can get along," he said on ABC's "This Week."
"I'm going to take a lot of factors into consideration: Obviously, issues matter, a person's voting record matters, where they're from matters, their gender matters."

Yessir, as recently as July 17, the Shrub was exhibiting an inordinate amount of backbone, essentially telling the same religious right crowd that saved his bacon in South Carolina that he was going to go with his pro-choice buddy Tom Ridge, Governor of Pennsylvania and the only person whose selection would give Bush any sort of boost with the general electorate.

Somebody from the religious-right Council of National Policy must have quietly put the equivalent of horses' heads in the beds of Shrub's minders, because the only way Bush's sudden, bizarre lunge for Cheney makes any sense is as a fear-driven move to placate the Weyrich-Robertson-Dobson contingent.

I mean, really! Dick Cheney?

Chickenhawk Cheney sought and received five draft deferments -- four more than that paragon of evil, Bill Clinton -- yet Shrub's daddy still made him his Secretary of Defense. (In 1989, Cheney said that "Military service wasn't very high on my list of priorities." But voting for aid to the Contras certainly was later on, when he made elected office.) This ticket is ridiculous: Two scions of Big Oil who both dodged Vietnam, coming from the very party that still considers Bill Clinton a demon for having received four fewer student deferments than did Cheney.

By the way, here's a hint to Al Gore (though this is probably needless on my part):

Pick John Kerry for YOUR running mate.

Matching up two bona fide Vietnam vets against two chickenhawk silver-spooners who kept their heinies out of the jungles and the fire zones will make the 1964 Democratic cakewalk look like an extra-innings pitching duel. Besides, Senator Kerry is nothing if not quick off the mark: When asked for comment on Cheney's voting record as Wyoming's lone Congressional representative, Kerry had this to say: "I don't know how you vote against Head Start. I don't know how you vote not to free Nelson Mandela from prison. I don't know how you vote against Superfund and the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act."

I have no idea what the religious right is trying to prove here. Are they so anxious to preserve their power that they are willing to force Dubya into a move that can only ensure that he loses the election? Or do they sense that he's a dead duck anyway?

Whatever their motivations, one thing is perfectly clear: the religious right's leadership has been yanking the chains again, of the GOP in general and Dubya in particular, and their muscle-flexing will ensure a Democratic sweep in November.