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Feb 25 07

A group of influential Christian conservatives and their allies emerged from a private meeting at a Florida resort this month dissatisfied with the Republican presidential field and uncertain where to turn. Bubba asks, "Who is the anointed one, who is the perfect one to be like us the 60 chosen?"

The event was a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive club whose few hundred members include Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Although little known outside the conservative movement, the council has become a pivotal stop for Republican presidential primary hopefuls, including George W. Bush on the eve of his 1999 primary campaign.

But in a stark shift from the group’s influence under President Bush, the group risks relegation to the margins. Many of the conservatives who attended the event, held at the beginning of the month at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla., said they were dismayed at the absence of a champion to carry their banner in the next election. Bubba said, "We must have a champion, we need someone that we can influence, one like the Red leader was in 2000 he came in and begged and we bestowed our beliefs for him to carry. After McCain called us agents of intolerance, he is out there trying to convince us that the snake has shed it's skin but is still a snake and he is not worthy of our anointment. The Mayor of NYC and a true hero but three wife's and gay friends he will not pass the hate test, in order to get our anointment, you must hate gays not tolerate them.  Gov. Mitt Romney will not be anointed even though he is now saying how conservative he is but his view on stem cells is not to our liking, God wants people to suffer this makes them more humble and God doesn't want them cured with stem cells."

And some members of the council have raised doubts about lesser known candidates — Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Representative Duncan Hunter of California, who were invited to Amelia Island to address an elite audience of about 60 of its members, and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who spoke to the full council at its previous meeting, in October in Grand Rapids, Mich. Bubba said, "Hucabee of Arkansas after praying in unison, the great spirit voice said, "Hucabee Who?" and Brownback is a lot like us in lives in fairy land, that's not fairy as in gay, the man wants to follow the yellow brick road to DC, this road could be construed as false worship of a road above God. Hunter came before us and does carry our beliefs of keeping the Mexicans out of the USA, I mean did God let sparrows fly with the snow white doves? of course not the doves must remain pure and with there own but he has a down fall! How can we deliver infidel souls to heaven if he brings home the troops, the 60 will receive a higher place in heaven the more souls we deliver to the Lord."   


Finally, in a measure of their dissatisfaction, a delegation of prominent conservatives at Amelia Island tried to enlist as a candidate Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a guest speaker at the event. A charismatic politician with a clear conservative record, Mr. Sanford is almost unknown outside his home state and has done nothing to prepare for a presidential run. He firmly declined the group’s entreaties, people involved in the recruiting effort said. A spokesman for Mr. Sanford said he would not comment.

“There is great anxiety,” said Bubba, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation. “There is no outstanding conservative, and they are all looking for that. We do like Sanford but he turned us down Falwell stamped his feet and threaten the wrath of God, Dobson prayed that God would send a curse on him, but with every negative action he act like he was better than us” 

Mr. Weyrich, a longtime member of the council, declined to discuss the group or its meetings. The council’s bylaws forbid members from publicly disclosing its membership or activities, and participants agreed to discuss the Amelia Island meeting only on the condition of anonymity. In fact a lot of the members wear white hoods and robes so they will not be recognized even among there own paranoid souls.

Bubba said, "For eight years and four elections, President Bush forged a singular alliance with Christian conservatives — including dispatching administration officials and even cabinet members to address council meetings — that put them at the center of the Republican Party. We need some one with no back bone to suck up to us like Bush, but it seems the one's that suck up are not respected by the voters." 

But in the aftermath of the stinging defeats in the midterm elections, and with discontent over the Iraq war weighing heavily on the public, some Christian conservatives worry that they may find themselves on the sidelines of the presidential race. One member thought we should help eradicate diseases in Africa instead of playing power broker but it was ruled out, that we can save more souls by imposing our morals on the American people.

The Council for National Policy was founded 25 years ago by the Rev. Tim LaHaye as a forum for conservative Christians to strategize about turning the country to the right. Its secrecy was intended to insulate the group from what its members considered the liberal bias of the news media. In recent years the group has brought together a cross-section of the right from Edwin J. Feulner to Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association who wants the ban on assault rifles lifted, how can souls be saved if you don't have an assault rifle, how can Christian Soldiers march into battle with just a bible, they need an assault rifle strapped across there shoulder, then the infidels can be killed, if not converted. 

“Right now there is still a vacuum among conservative Republicans,” said Gary Bauer, a Christian conservative who was a Republican primary candidate in 2000. Conservatives, he said, “want a more provable conservative who also is demonstrating that they can put together the resources necessary to prevail.” He declined to comment on the Amelia Island meeting.

(Hooded People who attended the Amelia Island event said Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, delivered a well-received address to the council about what he called the gathering threat of radical Islam and Evangelistic Fanatics.) 

Mr. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who was the head of the Arkansas Baptist convention before becoming governor, has the advantage of strong personal ties to many council members. Many prominent evangelical Christians consider him a friend, and he has appeared several times as a guest on Dr. Dobson’s popular Christian radio program "the Evil Ones".

In an interview, Mr. Huckabee said he believed his roots in the evangelical world helped set him apart from his rivals. “I am not going to them,” he said. “I am coming from them, I have sit among the hooded.” He said he did not remember speaking about his opposition to abortion or same-sex marriage, “although I am sure that I must have, after taking a pill some times the memory is fussy.” He said he emphasized education, among other issues, and talked about a continuing war “with a radical form of Islamic fascism and Evangelistic Fanatics,” which he called “a bastardization of religions and as all speakers I signed a pledge to put an assault rifle in every Christian Church, home and car.”

But many conservatives, including several participants in the Amelia Island meeting, said Mr. Huckabee faced resistance from the limited-government, antitax wing of their movement. Some antitax activists fault Mr. Huckabee for presiding over tax and spending increases. (He says the only tax increase resulted from a public referendum.) 

In the interview, though, Mr. Huckabee said he was now leaning toward signing a pledge not to raise income taxes that is presented to all the candidates, I am also leaning of signing a pledge to ban same sex marriages by Mr. Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.

Mr. Norquist said he remained open to any of the three candidates who spoke to the council or to Mr. Romney. He argued that with the right promises, any of the four could redeem themselves in the eyes of the conservative movement despite their past records, just as some high school students take abstinence pledges even after having had sex, then break them and have sex.

“It’s called secondary virginity,” Mr. Norquist said. “It is a big movement in high school and also available for politicians, it's qualifying to get on the yellow brick road .” Feb 26 07