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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
‘We’re back,’ says the Georgia Christian Coalition
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the more awkward encounters of next year’s legislative session has been set in motion.
The exact day isn’t marked on the calendar. But it will occur the moment that Sadie Fields and Jim Beck greet each other on the marble floor of the state Capitol.
Until last October, Fields was the long-time chairman of the Georgia Christian Coalition. She split with the national organization back in September, as did several other state Coalition chapters, to form the Georgia Christian Alliance.
On Tuesday, Beck was named as her replacement.
“We want word to go out and let people know that the Christian Coalition is alive and well in Georgia,” Beck said.
Just in time for the Legislature’s winter session, lawmakers have been presented with an abundance of networks claiming to represent the interests of conservative Christian voters.
Although they won’t say so publicly, many politicians wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ll explain in a bit. But first, a word or two about Beck.
He first came to the Capitol with Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard, a Democrat. Afterwards, he served for a time under state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a Republican. Right now, Beck, a resident of Carrollton, does public affairs and government relations for Nationwide Insurance Co. Beck has also worked with the Georgia Family Council, a group affiliated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family in Colorado.
(A fourth group, Georgia Right to Life, also maintains a high-profile at the state Capitol.)
Beck’s chairmanship of the Georgia Christian Coalition will be unpaid. “I’ve worked for Democrats and Republicans, and I believe in the power of the idea. Party affiliations to me really don’t mean a lot.
“My faith walk is a journey. I didn’t come up from my knees as a born-again Christian knowing all the answers. Therefore, I’m willing to listen to people who maybe have a differing point of view.”
Pay attention to the paragraphs above. Certain biblical admonitions prevent leaders of Christian groups from talking smack about each other. That’s the closest they come.
As the Thanksgiving holiday approached, Fields couldn’t be reached for comment. She’s widely considered Georgia’s most influential figure in evangelical politics. Fields was the force behind the 2004 referendum to add a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution.
Fields has described herself as a middle-aged grandmother who sits in front of a computer, trying to start a revolution. She can be fiery, uncompromising, even confrontational. In other words, the typical Southern steel magnolia.
When she split with the Christian Coalition, Fields criticized the national organization for drifting into liberalism — delving into such issues as the minimum wage, and control of the Internet.
But recently, Fields has also placed herself opposite some of Georgia’s most powerful Republicans. She personally sided with Ralph Reed in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor, though she backed Casey Cagle in the general election.
In south Georgia, Fields involved herself in a Republican state House race, against the hand-picked candidate of Speaker Glenn Richardson.
Here’s a crass, Machiavellian prediction. Beck and the revived Georgia Christian Coalition will need money to survive, and — at least for a time — certain people will make sure he finds it.
As much as Republicans need conservative Christians to maintain power in Georgia, GOP powerbrokers are also unwilling to see their access to these essential evangelical voters determined by one or two or even three gatekeepers.
In their mind, it’s a matter of the more, the merrier.
Reed, Armey, and whither the GOP
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GOP strategist Ralph Reed and former House majority leader Dick Armey swapped views on the future of the Republican on National Public Radio on Monday. You can listen to the entire exchange here, including an interjection by author Andrew Sullivan.
Armey, you’ll recall, has become a critic of what he sees as Republican pandering to social conservatives. Here’s a bit of what he and Reed said.
NPR: Is Dick Armey right, though, that perhaps the party pandered too much to what he calls extreme social conservatives?
REED: I don’t think so. I think if you - if you look at, actually, the way that the other party conducted themselves, they apparently didn’t think that those issues were a liability. They deliberately went out and recruited more socially conservative pro-life candidates like Bob Casey in Pennsylvania after losing that seat in the two last elections with pro-choice candidates.
Yet people like Heath Shuler, who was pro-life, pro-gun, socially conservative, win a tough race in North Carolina.
I think what the Republicans have to recognize is that social - look, a political party is not a church. It’s a political institution. And so you shouldn’t let any one constituency dominate to the exclusion of others.
But you want to hang a welcome side outside your party and let voters of faith and conservative values know that they’re welcome, that you want them to participate and that you view them as an asset and not a liability.
NPR: Dick Armey, I’m sure you would agree with that.
ARMEY: Well, that’s exactly right. It’s the big tent philosophy. But the fact of the matter is, if you look at election losses by Republicans during the last 20 years, George Herbert Walker Bush lost his reelection for president because the economic conservatives were disillusioned with him.
I believe the economic conservatives were largely disillusioned with our people in parties now overspending excesses, earmarked excesses and so forth.
One of the things that I would argue is if you’re going to have a big tent, there must be a balance in there. But there’s another thing: people from - of every political persuasions, every demographic classification - expect people that hold these privileged and highly responsible positions in revered institutions such as House and Senate of the United States to do serious work there.
One of the things that they saw the Republicans doing very late in this election cycle and very dramatically was entertaining what was nothing other than political discourse with no serious legislative intent on the floor of these two bodies. That’s an affront to most American voters.
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