CPAC

Right-Wing Groups Pull Out Of CPAC Because Gay Group Will Be There

Eric Kleefeld | December 28, 2010, 4:03PM

Ryan Sorba at CPAC 2010

The feuding on the right continues over the gay conservative group GOProud, with two more social conservative groups announcing that they won't attend the big Conservative Political Action Conference this February -- in part because the gay group is participating.

As the right-wing World Net Daily reports:

"We've been very involved in CPAC for over a decade and have managed a couple of popular sessions. However, we will no longer be involved with CPAC because of the organization's financial mismanagement and movement away from conservative principles," said Tom McClusky, senior vice president for FRC Action.

"CWA [Concerned Women for America] has decided not to participate in part because of GOProud," CWA President Penny Nance told WND. [Ed. note: Penny Nance's title is chief executive officer of CWA. Another individual, Wendy Wright, holds the title of president.]

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Family Research Council

Boehner, Cantor Back Family Research Council Campaign Against SPLC

Jillian Rayfield | December 15, 2010, 5:50PM

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)

A number of prominent Republicans have signed on to the Family Research Council's "Start Debating, Stop Hating" campaign in response to a Southern Poverty Law Center report that labeled the Family Research Council a "hate group."

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Family Research Council In A Panic Over Looming DADT Vote

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 8, 2010, 5:44PM

Tony Perkins

The prospect of a vote moving Don't Ask, Don't Tell one step closer to being repealed in the Senate tonight is sending the vehemently anti-repeal Family Research Council into a bit of a tizzy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to call for a cloture vote on the defense spending bill that includes a repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service -- possibly sometime this evening -- and the FRC is firing up its phone banks in response.

"Call your Senators today," an "Action Alert" email sent this afternoon by the FRC reads, "and tell them to stop using the military to impose this Administration's radical anti-life/pro-homosexual agenda."

The FRC, a leader in conservative social politics, has led some of the most ardent opposition to repealing DADT. The action alert email tonight could signal that the group is worried that the end of the fight is near -- and that it's not ending the way they hoped.

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Southern Poverty Law Center

Family Research Council Rips SPLC Over 'Slanderous' Hate Group Designation

Ben Frumin | November 27, 2010, 9:05AM

Tony Perkins

The Family Research Council, one of the most prominent voices in conservative social politics and host of the annual Values Voter Summit, has responded to being called a "hate group" with a scathing statement of its own.

As we reported earlier this week, Southern Poverty Law Center added the Family Research Council to its list of hate groups due to anti-gay speech from its leaders.

In a statement, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins calls that designation a "slanderous attack and attempted character assassination."

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Family Research Council

Family Research Council Labeled 'Hate Group' By SPLC Over Anti-Gay Rhetoric

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 24, 2010, 11:18AM

Tony Perkins

The Family Research Council is perhaps the most prominent voice in conservative social politics and the hosts of an annual rite of passage for many Republicans who hope to run for president. And now, FRC is on the same Southern Poverty Law Center list of hate groups as the Ku Klux Klan.

The SPLC gave the Family Research Council the designation due to anti-gay speech from its leaders, which the SPLC says includes calls for gay men and lesbians to be imprisoned.

Labeling the Family Research Council a hate group puts one of Washington's most powerful social issues advocates into the company of groups like the Nation of Islam and the now mostly defunct Aryan Nations in the eyes of the SPLC, which tracks 932 active hate groups in the U.S.

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Values Voter Summit

Mike Pence Sweeps Straw Poll Voting At Values Voter Summit

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 18, 2010, 3:52PM

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) is the valueiest politician around. At least that's what participants in the 2010 Values Voter straw poll think. Pence, whose 2012 presidential aspirations are no secret, swept both the presidential and vice-presidential polls.

Pence gave a raucous and engaging speech to the crowd here Friday, which Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told me was at least partially responsible for his double win. Pence, of course, wasn't the only presidential hopeful to address the crowd yesterday. Rick Santorum spoke, too, though his sixth place finish suggests (by Perkins' logic) that people here were unmoved by his morality-focused speech. Mitt Romney tried to slay 'em in the aisles with a series of one-liners that seemed to amuse the crowd here. He came in third in today's results.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Morals, Morals, Morals! Conservatives Gather For Values Voter Summit]

Last year's winner straw poll winner, Mike Huckabee, also addressed the crowd yesterday, ripping into the health care reform law with what can only be described as true relish. He finished second in the presidential poll.

Sarah Palin, who didn't show up here at all, finished fifth in the presidential poll and second in the veepstakes. Because Pence won both polls, Palin was declared the winner of the VP straw poll, meaning -- if it means anything -- that participants here hope to have Pence/Palin bumper stickers on their cars come 2012.

"What a dream ticket," Perkins told the crowd.

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Values Voter Summit

Moralists Unite: Values Voter Summit Kicks Off In DC Today

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 17, 2010, 8:35AM

Mitt Romney

Hey, remember when Republicans talked about family values? Those halcyon days when every third word out of the GOP was "traditional" or "the children" instead of "bailout" or "the Constitution doesn't allow for taxes if you really read it closely"?

The Family Research Council remembers. And this weekend, it's setting the party's collective WayBack machine to "before the Tea Party." Starting this morning, some of the most powerful names in conservatism will descend on (or is that ascend to?) the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC to talk about morality. I'm sure the deficit will come up at some point, but it's really not the point.

I'll be there all day. Follow my live coverage here. And watch it all live here.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Family Research Council Suggests DADT Keeps Soldiers From Getting HIV

Christina Bellantoni | July 30, 2010, 2:26PM

A gay veteran and the president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins.

In its bid to block the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Family Research Council is arguing that soldiers could get HIV if gay men and lesbians are allowed to serve openly -- and that kids might read porn instead of the Bible. In a 98-minute Webcast caught by the LGBT POV blog, FRC's Tony Perkins promised to explain, "How the military is being used to advance a radical agenda."

Perkins began the webcast (watch it in full below) with a warning: "What you will see and hear tonight may enrage you." The broadcast included Oliver North, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO). FRC has been campaigning adamantly against the repeal of the Clinton-era ban on gays in the military.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Family Research Council: End Of DADT Means More Gay Rape In The Military

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 26, 2010, 5:07PM

Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council

Here's how the Family Research Council envisions things going if Don't Ask, Don't Tell is repealed: first, more straight soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines will be fellated in their sleep against their will. Then, commanders afraid of being labeled homophobes will refuse to do anything about it. Eventually, the straight service members will quit out of fear.

On a conference call with reporters today, FRC Senior Fellow for Policy Studies Peter Sprigg delivered the results of what he said was the first-ever study of "homosexual assault" in the military. Joined by several former military officers opposed to allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces, he warned Congress that the DADT repeal language currently under discussion with the agreement of the White House will turn the U.S. military into a terrifying free-rape zone where no heterosexual is safe.

"We are today releasing an analysis of publicly available documents which show that homosexuals in the military are three times more likely to commit sexual assaults than heterosexuals are relative to their numbers," Sprigg said. "We believe this problem would only increase if the current law against homosexuality...were to be repealed."

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Republicans

Tony Perkins On Steele's RNC: 'If You Can't Run A Party, You Can't Run A Country'

Christina Bellantoni | April 1, 2010, 5:45PM

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins

Family Research Council's Tony Perkins today defended his group's decision to ask donors give to individual candidates instead of to the Republican National Committee given recent problems there.

Speaking on MSNBC this afternoon, Perkins said the RNC -- and its spending and the flap over a staffer expensing a trip to a bondage-themed nightclub -- is "tone deaf" to social conservatives.

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Family Research Council

Religious Right Including Members Of Congress Pray For God To Stop The Health Care Bill

Eric Kleefeld | December 17, 2009, 1:59PM

Men praying outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

The Family Research Council Action PAC held an extraordinary "prayercast" event last night, praying for the intercession of God to change Senators' minds and stop the health care bill.

(The full streaming video is available here.)

The event was an excellent display of the theocratic right -- that is, for the literal institution of religious doctrines in public policy, and appeals to the Deity for active direction and intervention in politics.

As I reported last night, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins began the evening with a false statement, confidently saying that history records the Founding Fathers praying for God's intervention at the Constitutional Convention. (They did not pray, mainly due to the financial inability to get a chaplain, as well as the political pitfall that even seeking a chaplain would alert the public to their internal dissensions.)

Co-host Lou Engle focused the event as a protest against abortion, alleging that the bill would result in government funding and promoting it, and likening their prayers to Biblical figures who worked to stop the genocide of the Jews. "But the Bible's very clear that prayer affects government," said Engle. "Esther's three-day fast changed public policy; Daniel's fast changed public policy; and it's the same, yesterday, today and forever, and that's why we're here."

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Family Research Council

Religious Right Holds "Prayercast" To Stop Health Care Bill

Eric Kleefeld | December 16, 2009, 10:19PM

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

The Family Research Council Action PAC just finished it's spend 90-minute "prayercast," an online event to pray for God's intercession to get Senators to stop the health care bill, and it sure was interesting to watch.

Overall, the event provided a good look at the theocratic right, about which we'll have more to write tomorrow. Guests included -- either live, by phone, or on pre-recorded video -- Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Sam Brownback (R-KS), Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Randy Forbes (R-VA), Todd Akin (R-MO) and others.

But let's start our review with one fun moment from tonight. At the beginning of the event, FRC president Tony Perkins and his co-host Lou Engle spoke of a stirring moment from the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Benjamin Franklin called for the feuding delegates to join together in prayer to God, and how "without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel."

"And you know what happened?" Perkins asked. "History records that they prayed."

Actually, history records that they did not pray -- and this has been a recurring myth of the American religious right that never goes away. As the Library of Congress says: "Franklin's motion failed, ostensibly because the Convention had no funds to pay local clergymen to act as chaplains."

We'll have more tomorrow.

Abortion

Family Research Council Doing Calls On Health Care, Malaria And 'Taxpayer Funded' Abortion

Christina Bellantoni | December 10, 2009, 4:01PM

The Family Research Council is doing a robo-call on health care reform suggesting the bill includes taxpayer funded abortions but also asking about malaria.

TPM readers have flagged a handful of calls coming in the last few days.

Reader WK of Northern Virginia said the call was an ABBC survey sponsored by the Family Research Council and reader PC in South Dakota said it was from UMBI.

FRC spokesman JP Duffy told TPMDC the calls are part of a "very expensive campaign."

He said they are going into every home in Arkansas, Louisiana and South Dakota, and to pro-life households in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

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Olympia Snowe

Family Research Council PAC: We Would Support A Primary Against Olympia Snowe

Eric Kleefeld | November 11, 2009, 5:40PM

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

I just spoke to Connie Mackey, president of the Family Research Council Action PAC, and she told me that if a conservative candidate were to emerge to run against Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in the 2012 Republican primary, FRC Action will back them.

"Well of course there is an audience that would love to see Olympia Snowe out of office, within the ranks of social conservatives, that's for certain," said Mackey.

A new survey from Public Policy Polling (D) found that a generic conservative challenger would lead the moderate Snowe in a Republican primary by a whopping 59%-31% margin.

"I think a couple years ago, we wouldn't have thought it was possible," said Mackey. "However, those numbers are interesting, and I think those numbers might just track the fact that a lot of Americans are waking up to the liberal policies, what they mean and how they're playing out. And it may be affecting her, with her votes for the stimulus, and breaking from her party. And we would like to see a conservative have a chance to remove her from office up there."

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