Major bible beaters gather with Daddy D to whine over GOP prez choices

by: Pam Spaulding

Mon Oct 01, 2007 at 13:00:00 PM EDT

Some of the top leaders in Christian pro-family activism – including James Dobson of Focus on the Family – met in Salt Lake City yesterday to plot a strategy if Rudy Giuliani or another supporter of legalized abortion is nominated by the Republican Party as its presidential candidate.  Not only was there a consensus among activists to withhold support for the Republican nominee, there was even discussion about supporting the entry of a new candidate to challenge the frontrunners.  ...Dobson reportedly drove from his headquarters Colorado Springs to the private meeting, held between sessions of the Council for National Policy in Salt Lake City this weekend, just to weigh in with other leaders of family groups, including the Family Research Council, Bott Broadcasting, Capitol Resource Institute, Salem Communications, Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America.

Apparently some are still trying to find a way to accept flip flopping Mitt Romney, others, like Dobson, have no use for the Freeper flavor of the month, Fred Thompson.  Thinks are so bleak that WND reports another name was floated as a possible candidate: Jackson, Wyoming-based billionaire Foster Friess (!?).

You can read more about the CNP, which was founded by fundie Rev. Tim LaHaye in 1981, in this ABCNews piece, Inside the Council for National Policy: Meet the Most Powerful Conservative Group You've Never Heard Of.

***

No wonder Daddy D and his peeps are worried. His coffers are low enough to warrant layoffs, and the AP confirms that the big fundie gathering in Florida last week wasn't very big at all -- even worse than believed. Only half the number of people organizers expected showed up:

By Friday evening, just over 100 people had registered to hear speakers that included Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and the American Family Association's Don Wildmon.

A workshop on grass roots activism drew a handful of people -- and one was a spy, an activist for Americans United for Separation of Church and State researching the opposition.

I can vouch for the low turnout, especially during the morning and afternoon sessions. It often felt as if there were more volunteers, exhibitors and speakers milling around than actual attendees.