A Brief Overview of Key Political Relationships
and Strategic Networking Resources
By Lee Cokorinos, IDS Research Director
The nomination of former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) for the post of U.S. Attorney General by George W. Bush has been greeted with widespread condemnation by those concerned with civil rights, reproductive rights,[1] environmental protection, preserving the constitutional separation of church and state,[2] and a fair and equitable judicial selection process. In opposing this nomination, many have pointed to former Sen. Ashcroft's long history of vigorous opposition to their concerns, particularly his hostility to the rights of women[3] and minorities.
Ashcroft's past record of opposition is indeed a matter of deep concern to all who remain committed to democratic values. However, while much attention is appropriately being focused on Ashcroft's retrograde views, it is equally important to see him as part of an organized political movement with an extreme agenda.
Perhaps most troubling, however, is the potential future damage that Ashcroft will do should he be confirmed. This is because a Senate vote for confirmation would bring the far right closer to the exercise of real national legal authority than they have ever been.[4] Should Ashcroft come to power, so also to that extent will the movement that he embodies.
To understand why this is so it is necessary to look at some of the key political relationships Ashcroft has maintained with the extreme right. These relationships, some of them longstanding, others occasional, give a clear indication of why Ashcroft is not, as his defenders describe him, simply a conservative, but an extremist.
Ashcroft's connections to the far right have been essential for the advancement of his political career at every stage. They have directly led to his nomination and potential confirmation, and would frame his tenure as Attorney General. These relationships are of a piece, but fall into two general categories:
Limitations of space and time preclude full treatment of this set of Ashcroft's relationships, but each will be treated in turn, and would become more visible if he is confirmed.
Seen as one of their own, Ashcroft has been backed for many years by the top leadership of the religious right. Some key Ashcroft supporters are well known, such as Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation. Others are less well known nationally, such as Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association, televangelist D. James Kennedy, and Adrian Rogers of the Southern Baptist Convention. Following is a brief overview of some of these relationships.
Pat Robertson: Pat Robertson's ability to keep the extreme Christian right from opposing the Bush candidacy is largely responsible for the fact that the Texas governor was able to avoid a potentially damaging challenge from the Christian right, and fend off the McCain challenge in the key February 2000 South Carolina primary.[5] If the Ashcroft nomination is payback for anything, it is for the efforts of Robertson and other top leaders of the Christian Right to elect Bush (this includes the active role that the Florida Christian Coalition played in supporting the Bush forces during that state's disputed election).[6] Both Ashcroft and Robertson were honored together for their work for the Christian Right in August 1998 by the Florida Christian Coalition.[7] Robertson, who with his wife, Adelia, donated $10,000 to Ashcroft presidential campaign,[8] is one of Ashcroft's strongest backers for confirmation as attorney general. Ashcroft had been tipped as a possible attorney general for Robertson himself when he ran for president in 1988.[9]
Ralph Reed and David Kuo: The former chief strategist for Robertson's Christian Coalition, who subsequently left to form a political consultancy operation, Century Strategies, Ralph Reed has played a vital role in building up John Ashcroft as the leading choice of the extreme right for president, and in defending his nomination to be attorney general.[10]
Reed's relationship with Ashcroft is close, as is illustrated by the case of J. David Kuo, one of Ashcroft's top former aides. Kuo, whose resume sports a one-year stint as intelligence officer at the CIA, went from working as Ashcroft's policy director -- a key strategic post -- to become managing director of strategic communications for Reed's Century Strategies,[11] from where he supported the Ashcroft for president campaign.[12] According to the Heritage Foundation, Kuo co-authored Ralph Reed's most recent book, Active Faith.[13] Kuo also served on the start-up team,[14] and as deputy policy director at Empower America, William Bennett's think tank, whose founding chairman was New York financier Ted Forstmann,[15] and whose directors include Trent Lott and Bush Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld.[16]
It will be interesting to see where Kuo ends up should Ashcroft be confirmed. Kuo is a longtime promoter of "charitable choice" -- a code word for the right wing for giving religious institutions access to government social services budgets -- also a major passion of Ashcroft. In January 1996, Kuo became executive director of the Center for Effective Compassion, which was founded by Arianna Huffington and Marvin Olasky -- G.W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" guru who is currently tipped to be head of a proposed White House Office of Faith-Based Programs.
In 1996, Kuo founded the American Compass,[17] a Virginia-based operation partly funded by right wing financier Richard Mellon Scaife's Scaife Family Foundation.[18] American Compass, whose directors included Ashcroft and Olasky,[19] was designed to promote religious involvement in social service provision, which it did in part by sponsoring (along with Foster Friess, a Greenville, Delaware-based fund manager and member of the far right Council for National Policy) a tour of key right wing politicians supporting such measures, including John Ashcroft and J.C. Watts. The tour "was timed," according an article posted on J.C. Watts' website, "to coincide with the beginning of welfare reform."[20]
American Compass received $100,000 from the Scaife Family Foundation from 1988-1999 for the Samaritan Awards, which were designed to promote small religious charities that perform their activities without any government dollars. The Samaritan Award judges in 1997 included David Kuo of The American Compass, Jeb Bush of the Foundation for Florida's Future, Whitney Ball of the Philanthropy Roundtable, Kay Coles James of Regent University, Marvin Olasky, and Rev. Robert A. Sirico the president of the Acton Institute.[21]
There is a longstanding relationship between Kuo, Reed and Ashcroft, important enough for Ralph Reed to mention in his announcement that he was leaving the Christian Coalition:[22]
| "I'm going to be working closely with the American Compass and with my good friend Senator John Ashcroft and Steve Largent at that organization. (...) Secondly, I'm going to be forming a new company called Century Strategies, that will offer and provide, at affordable prices, quality consulting services for campaigns and for pro-life, pro-family and pro-free enterprise candidates at every level of government. I expect this new company to be very active in the 1998 elections, first on dozens of campaigns, and eventually on hundreds of campaigns across the country. Our main focus will be on building a "farm team" of state legislators, school board members and other local officeholders who I believe hold the key to the future of our country." |
Michael Farris, Paul Weyrich, Paige Patterson, and Tim LaHaye: Among the leaders of the Christian Right who actively worked for an Ashcroft presidency were Michael Farris, Free Congress Foundation head Paul Weyrich; Paige Patterson, a top leader of the Southern Baptist Convention; and Tim LaHaye. This is the constituency to which Ashcroft will be beholden should he be confirmed as attorney general.
To promote Ashcroft's candidacy, these four formed, under the auspices of Farris' Madison Project (at the time of Purcellville, Virginia) the Committee to Restore American Values (CRAV), which included some of the most radical activists in right wing politics, including Judge Paul Pressler, key leader of the far-right takeover of the once-moderate Southern Baptist Convention, and Carl Herbster, head of the American Association of Christian schools, who weighed in heavily with Bush aide Karl Rove to push Ashcroft's candidacy for attorney general.[23] Other CRAV members included radical antiabortionist Stanley Monteith, former Sen. Bill Armstrong, leading antiabortion activist Dr. J.C. Willke, and Morton Blackwell.[24]
Farris recently launched Patrick Henry College, whose purpose is "to aid in the transformation of American society" by giving students "professional training in the field of government," through a '"directed research" component which will establish relationships between students and outside work sites (congressional offices, for example), funneling research and writing assignments through faculty members for hands-on monitoring and mentoring.'[25] Both John Ashcroft's wife Janet, and Donald Hodel's wife Barbara, are listed on the College's board of directors.[26] Donald Hodel serves on the board of visitors of the Federalist Society, and returned to the board of directors of James Dobson's Focus on the Family after departing as president of the Christian Coalition in January 1999.[27] Also on Farris' board is James Leininger, a key player in far right Texas politics.[28]
It is impossible to grasp the potential significance of an Ashcroft attorney generalship without understanding the key role that the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy is playing in the challenge to democratic legal values. The leadership of the Federalist Society is, quite simply, poised to transform the landscape of American law and society. The structure and history of the Society is more fully laid out in the Federalist Society and the Challenge to a Democratic Jurisprudence.[29]
Within the last three months, it is not an exaggeration to say that leading members of the Federalist Society have changed the course of American politics, and set the stage for what may prove to be some fundamental challenges to American democratic jurisprudence under an Ashcroft-controlled department of justice. Top lawyers affiliated with the society, including Theodore Olson (president of the D.C. chapter of the Federalist Society, and Bush's lead attorney in the U.S. Supreme Court case on the Florida vote), Douglas Cox, Alex M. Azar II, Michael Carvin, and Manuel Klausner, Timothy E. Flanigan, R. Ted Cruz, and James Bopp, Jr.[30] successfully prevented a Florida recount through successful litigation at the state and federal appellate levels. John Yoo, co-chair of the Role of the Courts Subcommittee of the Federalist Society's Federalism Practice Group, testified before the Florida legislature in favor of a special session to choose presidential electors, which Bush supporters were contemplating to override the decision of the Florida supreme court to conduct vote recounts.[31] Yoo also became a major presence on TV news programs advocating the Bush position.[32]
Following the Supreme Court decision not to allow the Florida recounts to continue, another leading member of the Federalist Society, the chair of its Religious Liberties Practice Group, Robert P. George, played an instrumental role in securing the nomination of Ashcroft over Montana governor Marc Racicot.
Despite his admiration for Ashcroft -- according to an aide Bush once praised Ashcroft as a potentially great Supreme Court Justice[33] -- Bush apparently preferred Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, until Racicot was shot down by the far right. Displeased with what they took to be Racicot's apparently insufficient zeal to uproot abortion rights and gay rights, the far right recruited Princeton Professor Robert P. George, one of the key ideologues of the extreme right-wing Catholic "natural law" legal movement in the U.S, to draft a paper on Racicot. Unsatisfied with the answers provided by the Bush camp, the far right was able to block the nomination and secure it for Ashcroft.[34]
C. Boyden Gray, former Bush Sr. White House Counsel and transition coordinator, who sits on the Federalist Society's board of visitors, is now playing a vocal role supporting the Ashcroft nomination. Gray thinks Ashcroft was a "great choice" for attorney general, and "will restore the luster to a department which I think has been tarnished in recent years."[35] David J. Porter, the president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Federalist Society, leaped into print to defend Ashcroft from criticism when his nomination was announced.[36] The chief counsel for the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism, and Property Rights -- which was chaired by John Ashcroft while he was in the Senate -- was Paul D. Clement. Clement is a member of the Litigation Practice Group of the Federalist Society, and chairs its Class Action Subcommittee. He handled all issues that came before the constitution subcommittee for Ashcroft.[37]
The role of the Federalist Society leadership is visible and prominent in shaping the new administration, and no doubt many of them will find posts. Spencer Abraham, one of three co-founders of the society, has already been nominated for Energy Secretary; Gale A. Norton, nominated for Interior Secretary by Bush, was honored by the Federalist Society as their Young Lawyer of the Year;[38] and Lee Liberman Otis, another founding member, is playing a key role in setting up the judicial selection process for the Bush administration. R. Ted Cruz, who is on the Federalist Society's Religious Liberties Practice Group, has been named as a coordinator for the Bush team overseeing policy transition for the Department of Justice.[39]
USA Today has reported that Ted Olson is among those under consideration for a Federal judgeship or the post of Solicitor General.[40] Should Olson secure the latter post, this top Federalist Society leader would play a key role on any assault on Roe v. Wade that Ashcroft might be contemplating.
The American Center for Law and Justice: One question is whether George W. Bush's need to pay back the religious right for his election will extend to such an all-out assault on Roe. This is, however, precisely what some other key leaders of the religious right wing have been advocating. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, has been vigorously mobilizing Robertson's base via his daily radio program and website, and has launched a petition campaign in support of Ashcroft's nomination.[41]
Sekulow and Robertson are interested in having judges who share their extreme views appointed. Greeting the Ashcroft nomination, Sekulow said, "I think attorney general was the one we were looking at most because there are so many vacancies in the federal judiciary."[42] Should they not be able to secure that, or should they consider that insufficient, there may be a more ominous politics ahead. In 1997, a number of extreme right politicians, including John Ashcroft and Rep. Charles Canady (R-Fla.), were singled out for praise by in a letter by James Dobson for considering a congressional move to challenge the Supreme Court's decision striking down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Dobson also praised Paul Weyrich and Thomas Jipping for their efforts "to pressure the president not to nominate activist judges, to warn senators not to confirm them if the president does so."[43]
The Christian Legal Society and Ashcroft: John Ashcroft was the main sponsor of the "Charitable Choice" clause in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. This provision allows churches to receive federal funds to administer social services and public health benefits on behalf of the government, without separating these services from the religious context in which they are rendered. Critics have drawn attention to the grave constitutional implications of this effort to devolve welfare services to the churches without adequate regulation of the boundary lines between church and state.
In introducing charitable choice, Ashcroft worked with members of the Christian Legal Society, who helped draft and support the clause. CLS member Annie Billings joined Ashcroft's staff upon his election to the Senate in 1994. Along with Billings, then CLS board member Carl Esbeck helped draft the Charitable Choice clause. Steve McFarland, who was then director of CLS's Center for Law and Religious Freedom, assisted in the drafting process, and the Center's chief litigator, Gregory Baylor, provided constitutional analysis when the clause came under attack.
The Christian Legal Society is an influential organization within the wider legal movement of the religious right. This main goal of this movement is to build a framework of legal protection, legislative initiative, and religious advocacy for the advancement of evangelical Christian views and practices within the public sphere.
| [1] | National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, "John Ashcroft: A Chronology of Assaults on Women's Reproductive Rights," January 9, 2001, at http://www.naral.org/mediaresources/fact/ash_chron.html. |
| [2] | Americans United for Separation of Church and State, "John Ashcroft: The Religious Right's Hand-Picked Attorney General," at http://www.au.org/pr1901rpt.htm. |
| [3] | As the Feminist Majority Foundation has indicated, not only did Ashcroft staunchly oppose the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), but as Missouri Attorney General he filed suit against the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1979, charging NOW with antitrust violations and attempting to break the ERA convention boycott of unratified states. In commenting on these actions by Ashcroft, Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority and former NOW President during the Ashcroft anti-ERA lawsuit, has said "John Ashcroft has been an ardent opponent of women's rights for over 20 years. His willingness to stretch the law and use Missouri tax dollars to launch a three-year unsuccessful fight against NOW and the ERA all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court foreshadows how far he will go to fight and deny women's rights. His utter lack of understanding of freedom of political speech and the right to take political action to achieve social justice exemplifies a track record where his right-wing ideology prevails over his legal judgment." "20-Year Anti-Women's Rights Record Disqualifies Ashcroft," Feminist Daily News Wire, January 9, 2001, at http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=4703. |
| [4] | Veteran conservative columnist Robert Novak has said, "to my surprise, president-elect Bush's Cabinet is really much more conservative than Ronald Reagan's was." CNN Crossfire, January 5, 2001; Transcript # 01010500V20. |
| [5] | In May 1998, with the backing of the Christian Coalition, Ashcroft beat G.W. Bush in a South Carolina straw poll. "Ashcroft Wins South Carolina Presidential Poll," Reuters, May 17, 1998. Robertson subsequently backed Bush after Ashcroft withdrew. |
| [6] | Support for Ashcroft long predated the election: According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ashcroft took 28 trips during the 1998 Congress, the expenses for which were picked up by the Christian Coalition of Florida (vigorous supporters of Jeb Bush's secretary of state, Katherine Harris, who certified the disputed election), Jerry Falwell's Liberty Foundation, James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Heritage Foundation, Louisiana Baptist University, the Assemblies of God General Council and HonorBound of Iowa. Jon Sawyer and Lia Dean, "Durbin, Ashcroft Let Others Pick Up The Tab For Travels," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 3, 1998, Pg. A1. |
| [7] | Mark I. Pinsky, "Robertson Is On His Way; Christian Coalition Dinner Will Bring Him To Orlando," The Orlando Sentinel, August 13, 1998; Pg. D3. |
| [8] | Thomas B. Edsall, "Christian Right Lifts Ashcroft," Washington Post, April 14, 1998, p. A1. |
| [9] | Jack Dolan, States News Service, January 28, 1988. |
| [10] | "Ralph Reed, Republican Strategist And Bush Adviser, Discusses The Controversy Over Several Bush Cabinet Nominees," Hardball With Chris Matthews, MSNBC, January 8, 2001. |
| [11] | Jodie Morse, "Consulting Game," The National Journal, November 11, 1997, p. 2258. |
| [12] | "It's been primarily with David Kuo that we've been working in terms of the Century Strategies operation," Ashcroft said on Evans & Novak, April 18, 1998, Transcript #98041800V38. |
| [13] | The Heritage Foundation, Policy Review, May-June, 1996. Ralph Reed, Active Faith (New York: Free Press, 1996). In the book, Reed writes that he viewed John Ashcroft and Spencer Abraham, two cabinet nominees of G.W. Bush, "as seasoned Reagan-era veterans... . we felt comfortable with any of them" (p. 159). |
| [14] | "Value America.com Names David Kuo Senior Vice President of Communications," Business Wire, June 4, 1999. |
| [15] | Forstmann is playing a key role, along with John T. Walton (son of late Wal-Mart founder John Walton) in popularizing the idea of privatizing education. Each contributed $50 million to a program to send disadvantaged youngsters to private schools. Andrew Ross Sorkin, "It's Buying Time Again; With Rivals Regrouping, Forstmann Prepares to Pounce," The New York Times, January 11, 2001, p. C1. |
| [16] | Empower America website, at http://207.153.229.66/ea/About/board.jsp, January 9, 2001). |
| [17] | When he left Ashcroft's office, some of Kuo's duties were picked up by Juleanna Glover, who subsequently became Richard Cheney's campaign spokesperson and then permanent press secretary. Sean Scully, "Clinton has pen; Bush has last word," The Washington Times, January 06, 2001p. A1. |
| [18] | Scaife Family Foundation IRS Form 990s for 1998 and 1999; and http://www.mediatransparency.org/display_recipients_by_scaife_family_total.asp. |
| [19] | Cheryl Wetzstein, "'Effective Compassion' Thrives in Delaware; Homeless Men Find a Way Back," Washington Times, March 21, 1997, p. A2. |
| [20] | Joseph N. DiStefano, "Republicans Visit Local 'Faith-Based' Programs," The News Journal, March 15, 1997, posted at http://www.house.gov/watts/faith.htm, January 9, 2001. SECTION: Pg. F5 |
| [21] | Acton Institute press release, "Charities Recognized for Easing the Burdens of the Needy; Financial Grants Awarded to Charities Throughout the U.S.," PR Newswire, December 8, 1997. In November 2000, Foster Friess presented the Acton Institute's inaugural Faith and Freedom Award to investment Sir John Marks Templeton, a key backer of efforts to blur the distinctions between science and faith. See Acton Notes, Vol. 10, No. 12 (December 2000), at http://www.acton.org/publicat/notes/index.html. On Templeton, see Lee Cokorinos, Antifeminist Organizations: Institutionalizing the Backlash (New York: Institute for Democracy Studies, March 2000), pp. 11-12. |
| [22] | "Major Leader Special Transcript Headline: Press Conference With Ralph Reed, Executive Director Of The Christian Coalition Announcing His Resignation The National Press Club Washington, DC," Federal News Service April 23, 1997. |
| [23] | On Herbster see David Johnston and Neil A. Lewis, "Religious Right Made Big Push To Put Ashcroft in Justice Department," January 7, 2001, p.1. |
| [24] | See http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~action/crav.html. |
| [25] | Patrick Henry College, "Overview of Institutional Mission," at http://www.phc.edu/about/mission.asp. |
| [26] | See http://www.phc.edu/legal.asp, January 29, 2001. |
| [27] | Information from Paul Hetrick, Focus on the Family, January 29, 2001. List of board members of Focus on the Family in letter by James Dobson, May 1999, at http://www.family.org/docstudy/newsletters/a0005936.html. "Christian Coalition President Quits," The Christian Century, February 24, 1999, p. 209. |
| [28] | See http://www.phc.edu/legal.asp, January 29, 2001. Leininger is a key backer of the right wing Texas Justice Foundation, and among other initiatives, backed a 1996 bid by the far right to gain control of the Texas State board of education. Also contributing to the campaign of one of the key candidates in this bid, Terri Leo, was Margaret Fagan Hotze, mother of key Texas right wing kingpin Steven Hotze [Kathy Walt, Religious Right Roaring Into Race; Leo's Funds Double After Contributions," The Houston Chronicle, March 9, 1996, p. A32]. Margaret Fagan Hotze is on the board of directors of the largest right wing anti-abortion organization in the world, Human Life International. See Lee Cokorinos and Gillian Kane, The Global Assault on Reproductive Rights: A Crucial Turning Point (New York: Institute for Democracy Studies, May 2000), pp. 8-9. On Leininger see also Kathryn Wallace, "Little-Known Texas Patron Guided Bush Policies On Vouchers, Tort Reform," Center for Public Integrity website, at http://www.public-i.org/story_01_073100.htm. |
| [29] | Institute for Democracy Studies, January 2001. See http://www.idsonline.org/fedsoc.html. |
| [30] | Bopp is the top counsel at the National Right to Life Committee, in which capacity he might argue for an overturning of Roe v. Wade. For more on Bopp see Julie Gerchik, "The Man in the Smoke-Filled Room: Attorney James Bopp Jr. Fights Campaign Finance Reform for the Religious Right and the Republican Party," IDS Insights, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2000). To obtain, see www.idsonline.org. |
| [31] | David Barstow, "Contesting The Vote: The Florida Legislature; Florida Lawmakers Moving To Bypass Courts For Bush; Judge Bars A Quick Recount," The New York Times, November 29, 2000, p. A1; and "Corrections," The New York Times, January 12, 2001, p. A2. |
| [32] | The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer December 7, 2000, Thursday Transcript #6914. |
| [33] | Nicholas D. Kristof, "The 2000 Campaign: The Decision; For Bush, His Toughest Call Was The Choice To Run At All," The New York Times, October 29, 2000, p. 1. /FONT> |
| [34] | "How Ashcroft Won," The Weekly Standard, January 1/January 8, 2001, p. 2. |
| [35] | Tom Bowman, "Bush Picks Conservative For Justice; Ex-Sen. Ashcroft, Abortion Foe, Named As Attorney General; 'Guided By Principles'; Nominee Stresses Intention To Establish Integrity In Office" The Baltimore Sun, December 23, 2000, p. 1A. |
| [36] | David J. Porter, "John Ashcroft Attorney General," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 31, 2000, p. E1. |
| [37] | "Paul D. Clement," Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S. Congress 1999. |
| [38] | Bush-Cheney press release, "Biography of Gale A. Norton," Federal Document Clearing House, Inc., Presidential Campaign Press Materials, December 29, 2000. |
| [39] | See "Bush Announces Members Of Transition Advisory Teams," http://www.bushcheneytransition.com/news.asp, January 10, 2001. |
| [40] | Joan Biskupic, "Bush Might Be Building Conservative Judiciary Scouts Are Looking For Possible Court Candidates," USA Today, January 8, 2001, p. 13A. |
| [41] | See http://www.aclj.org/news/nr_010110.asp. |
| [42] | John Solomon, "Cabinet May Be Diverse Overall, But 3 Plums Will Go To Conservatives; Ashcroft Is The First; Health And Defense Nominees Are Next," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 24, 2000, p. A6. |
| [43] | James Dobson, letter to supporters, October 1997. To discuss the issue, Dobson invited Robert P. George -- who wrote the paper that secured Ashcroft's nomination -- and Charles Colson on to his radio program. |