How come it's a liability for the Republican, but not for the Family Research Council?In the
WSJ:
Democrats' Hopes Rise for House Seat
By SUSAN DAVIS
April 7, 2008
A conservative firebrand with a connection to a former Ku Klux Klan leader will run for a Louisiana seat in the House of Representatives, raising Democrats' hopes they can pick up what has been a reliably conservative district for more than three decades. [...]
Conservative Woody Jenkins won Saturday's Republican run-off ... Mr. Jenkins, a local newspaper editor, is well known in Louisiana politics as a conservative firebrand. He served in the state House and ran unsuccessfully in the 1996 Senate race against Democrat Mary Landrieu, who currently holds the seat.
Among his political liabilities, however, is a connection to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, from whom he purchased a phone list during his 1996 Senate run. He was fined $3,000 in 2002 by the Federal Election Commission for illegally concealing the purchase. Democrats see the Duke issues as factors in their favor, according to a party memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
About
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian think-tank and public policy foundation:
The Nation claims that in 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for use of his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was campaign manager for Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the Jenkins campaign $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.
The Family Research Council says Blumenthal's claims about Perkins connection to David Duke are false. They say Duke's "connection was not known to Mr. Perkins until 1999. Mr. Perkins profoundly opposes the racial views of Mr. Duke and was profoundly grieved to learn that Duke was a party to the company that had done work for the 1996 campaign." The response to the Nation article does not address the appearance before the Council of Conservative Citizens.
Setting aside what Perkins knew at the time, the Republican candidate, Jenkins, is seen as having a problem vis-a-vis Duke. But is Perkins, who has a closer connection to Duke (he was the one that purchased the list), and, by extension, the Family Research Council saddled with a similar problem? No. How come?
posted by Quiddity at 4/07/2008 04:11:00 AM
I suppose that my opinion on the issue would depend on just exactly what he mailed to that mailing list.
Until you can show that he mailed anything inappropriate, this is just a liberal smear-by-association. Mailing lists are commercial property, not ideological instruments.
Because Dobson and the rest of the Family Research Council is at least as whacko as Duke and this is well known.
Because as long as you mouth the right words and they think they can control you, the christian right wing is happy to spot you a damascus road conversion when necessary to gain more political power for their leadership.
