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Christian right scatters support in GOP

By Ralph Z. Hallow
November 8, 2007

BEST BET: The Rev. Pat Robertson surprised many evangelicals when he endorsed pro-choice Rudolph W. Giuliani for the Republican presidential nomination. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./The Washington Times)

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Christian conservative leaders, unable to coalesce around a single candidate, instead are spreading their blessings among several Republican presidential hopefuls — and drying up talk of a third-party "Christian values" ticket.

The Rev. Donald Wildmon, who founded the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss., and whose evangelical Christian message reaches several million radio listeners and Internet subscribers, will throw his support to Mike Huckabee today, a Republican close to the Huckabee campaign told The Washington Times.

That support will come a day after the Rev. Pat Robertson shocked fellow evangelicals by endorsing Rudolph W. Giuliani, the only pro-choice Republican running.

Merrill Matthews, an evangelical Christian and health care policy analyst at the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, said Mr. Robertson's endorsement can mean one of two things: "Either abortion is no longer the defining issue for evangelicals that it used to be or the fear of a Hillary Clinton presidency is so great that at least some evangelicals will compromise on a three-decades-old non-compromisable principle to beat her."

The doling out of endorsements began Monday when Paul M. Weyrich, who holds a regular Wednesday meeting of conservative leaders in Washington, gave the nod to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who ended his run for the Republican nomination last month, yesterday embraced Sen. John McCain of Arizona. James Dobson, whose Focus on the Family reaches millions of followers through radio and newsletter subscriptions, is expected to reveal his choice this week.

Some evangelical insiders predict that Mr. Dobson will back Mr. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

The Robertson endorsement is considered a clear signal that the evangelical broadcaster thinks that the former New York mayor will emerge as the Republican nominee next year and is the candidate most capable of defeating Mrs. Clinton in the fall.

"The theme of the endorsements of both Giuliani and McCain seem to be less about conservative beliefs and more about who can beat Hillary," said Jessica Echard, executive director of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. "For Republicans to use that criterion is to hand over the primary process to the Democratic Party, rather than to the grass roots."

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