Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- April 10, 1998
GOP vows to push religious-right issues
By Ralph Z. Hallow
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Republican congressional leaders, eager to avoid an open split with religious conservatives, have promised legislative action on religious persecution, abortion, parental choice in education and voluntary school prayer.
GOP leaders have promised to hold floor votes on these and related issues before Congress adjourns for this fall's election campaign season.
But the pledge to act does not mean a guarantee to enact, GOP leadership sources stressed, and some conservative activists remain skeptical that very many of the proposals -- especially those entailing amendments to the Constitution --will actually pass Congress.
The conservative leaders also question whether the GOP leadership, and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in particular, will put real muscle into the effort.
"What realistically can we look to see passed?" asked Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council. "I think there will be a real effort to get the last three votes in the Senate to override President Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban."
Asked if Mr. Lott would lead that fight as a way of signaling the issue's importance, Mr. Bauer said, "I think [Sen.] Rick Santorum [Pennsylvania Republican] will lead it."
As for Mr. Lott's role, that "remains to be seen," Mr. Bauer said, adding that "a few" Republican senators, including Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, "have not voted our way" on the partial-birth abortion ban "and it would be very helpful if Trent would twist arms on this one."
House Speaker Newt Gingrich's office bridled at the suggestion that GOP leaders were responding to pressure from religious conservatives.
"Those items have been on our agenda since the leadership retreat at the beginning of this year," said Christina Martin, Mr. Gingrich's spokesman.
Others noted privately that not all agenda items get acted on and that the pressure from social conservatives and threats from James Dobson in particular have helped promote the moral issues to action status this year.
In a March 24 letter to selected GOP House members, Mr. Dobson, who heads the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, threatened to withhold his support from the party in November if it doesn't shape up on moral issues.
Mr. Dobson, whose radio show reaches millions, had traveled to Washington the week before to chastise Republicans for not pushing the moral-values agenda he claimed they had won on in 1994.
Socially conservative House Republicans chastised Mr. Dobson in return. They said they were fearful that his wrathful words painted as sellouts not just the GOP congressional leadership, but also members who actually were trying to get moral-issues legislation to the forefront. They feared his criticism might hurt their re-election prospects this fall.
Some Republicans also worried that Mr. Dobson's public denunciations of the party would lead many voters to believe the GOP is in the hip pocket of religious conservatives if congressional Republicans then turned around and enacted Mr. Dobson's agenda.
Congressional Republicans in general worry that they could lose their majority in November if they keep getting hammered by activists on the right.
Donald Hodel, chairman of the Christian Coalition, reinforced that concern Thursday, saying in an interview, "I do not believe conservative voters are going to turn out in the fall elections unless they see some distinction between conservative and liberal candidates."
But Mr. Hodel also said that, on balance, Mr. Dobson's tactics were salutary. "I think the news here is that the ferment, the increasing drumbeat of criticism that conservatives issues are not being served, is finally getting attention," he said.
"We are seeing increasing awareness that important action needs to be taken that will show these key constituencies that who is in charge of the Congress does make a difference," said Mr. Hodel.
Mr. Dobson has come under pressure to stop getting involved in primary elections. Some friends are telling him he can't choose sides in primaries. But others are telling him that if he wants to give meaning to his positions, he has to get involved in primaries to help stop GOP centrists from emerging as the party's nominees.
One item on the GOP agenda that stands little chance of passage, because it would require the approval of two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate and in three-fourths of state legislatures, is a "religious freedom" constitutional amendment sponsored by Rep. Ernest Istook, Oklahoma Republican.
But supporters in and out of Congress said that holding a vote on it would allow religious conservatives to take note of their friends in Congress and to work to unseat those who are not, something that labor unions and business organizations have done from the beginning.
A measure co-sponsored by Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, and Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, would restrict subsidies and visas for countries shown to be engaged in religious persecution.
"It has a certain foreign policy price attached," said Mr. Bauer. "To get that through will require the leadership to really help. The Clinton administration doesn't want it because it doesn't want its hands tied on foreign policy. And a lot of Republican members are under pressure from the business community that doesn't want anything that impairs trade."
Mr. Istook's religious-freedom amendment says that neither the federal government nor the states may establish any official religion. But the right to pray and to recognize religious beliefs, heritage or traditions on public property, including schools, "shall not be infringed."
Christian Coalition spokesman Arne Owens said the measure is important because "the First Amendment has been misinterpreted by our courts, from the Supreme Court on down.
He cited the example of an Albuquerque, N.M., high school choir director who was suspended, even after he had changed the name of a holiday performance from "Christmas" concert to "winter" concert. "He was still suspended because the concert had Christmas carols, which mentioned Christ's name," Mr. Owens said.
In Jersey City, N.J., a holiday display in front of City Hall featured the Christian manger and Jewish menorah, as well as Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus figures and Kwanzaa symbols. "And still a court ordered it shut down after a ruling on an American Civil Liberties [Union] suit that said the display violated the establishment-of-religion clause in the First Amendment," he said.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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