Extry, Extry: Dobson is Ticked

Family Blah Blah puppeteer James Dobson held a rally yesterday to wag a finger at the Republican Party for not fulfilling their promise to the Religious Right.

He booked a room for 17,000 people. Three thousand showed up.

Standing before an enormous American flag in Mellon Arena, conservative evangelical activist James Dobson told thousands of supporters he was deeply disappointed in the nation's Republican leadership, but that the nation's future depended on re-electing them.

"I have flat-out been ticked at Republicans for the past two years," he said, to some applause from a crowd that arena security estimated at around 3,000.

However, he said, "This country is at a crisis point. Whether or not the Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening."

Dr. Dobson, who has built an enormous following in three decades as a Christian radio psychologist, is renowned for his ability to turn out the conservative "values voters" who tipped the last election. Dobson preaches mixed message

It's weird when the news media use a group's euphemistic self-label to describe them. "Values voters." I consider myself a "value voter," but I vote against everything they vote for. Can you imagine this happening with anything else? Like, if I described myself as "the world's most intelligent blogger," do you suppose that when I did something the newspaper would say JimK, the "world's most intelligent blogger," said yesterday that blah blah blah?"

Somehow I doubt that I could pull that off. But Dobson can. The media give him what he wants without even blinking -- I guarantee, this reporter had no second thought about using that phrase to describe these people.

Ha! This next paragraph is pretty funny.

Although tax law forbids Dr. Dobson's Focus On The Family Action, the nonprofit organization that sponsored the rally, to endorse candidates, organizers said that last night's Stand for the Family Rally was held in Pennsylvania because of its high-profile U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Rick Santorum and Democratic challenger Bob Casey. Issue guides being distributed last night clearly favored Mr. Santorum. So Dr. Dobson's warning shot across the bow of the Republican Party was unexpected.

Amazing, isn't it? Somehow this guy leads a political organization that's so big it needs its own zip code, and yet they don't pay any taxes. Somehow I am not expecting the Bush IRS to come knocking on his door anytime soon.

He accused the Republican House and Senate of "sitting on their hands" on key conservative social issues. He said they had squandered a growing public sentiment that abortion should be limited or banned.

They wanted your votes, Smart Guy, they never intended to do any of those stupid things you wanted them to do. They'll do and say just enough to keep your people's votes.

But, he asked his audience to consider what would happen if Republicans lost control of key committees on education, the judiciary, and especially, the armed forces.

"We are at war in this country with an enemy who wants to destroy us," he said. He stressed that only a small minority of Muslims believe that their faith justifies violence, "but let's say 4 percent of Muslims want to kill us ... . That's 48 million people who want to bring us to our knees."

I love that political correctness, he's not saying anything about "most" Muslims, just 48 million of them. I doubt they'll be offended by that.

Skipping...

Rally organizers had split the 17,000 arena with a curtain. It's central sections were packed, though the upper decks and farthest side sections were empty. Local conservative organizers had said before the rally that 3,000 was the maximum that such an event rally would ordinarily draw in Western Pennsylvania. Dr. Dobson thanked those who came for taking time out on a busy weeknight.

It wasn't that it was a "busy weeknight," you big excuse-maker. It was that nobody cared.

In the exhibit area of Mellon Arena, organizers gave away copies of Dr. Dobson's biography and his book on the debate over gay marriage. Other exhibits by local socially conservative organizations included written comparisons of Mr. Santorum and Mr. Casey, as well as a comparison of Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and his challenger, Lynn Swann. The comparisons were produced by the regional anti-abortion lobby, LifePAC.

In summary, they described Mr. Santorum as a leader in the anti-abortion movement and Mr. Casey as someone who claims to oppose abortion but has no track record of doing so and who had received support from groups that favor abortion rights.

It described Mr. Swann as "pro-life'' and Gov. Rendell as "extremely pro-abortion."

But there was nothing political.