Republican Gomorrah

by Max Blumenthal

  48 Dobson’s approval rating: “Poll: America’s Evangelicals More and More Mainstream But Insecure,” Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, April 13, 2004, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/by-faith/evangelical/poll-americas-evangelicals-more-and-more-mainstream-but-insecure/939/.

  49 Fagerstrom on Dobson: Alexander-Moegerle, “James Dobson’s War,’ p. 53.

  49 250,000 visitors: Jen Mulson, “Focus on the Family/Institute Receives 250,000 Visitors a Year,” Colorado Springs Gazette, September 27, 2002.

  50 Dobson on Nazi experiments: Max Blumenthal, “Dobson Likened Embryonic Stem Cell Research to Nazi Experiments,” Media Matters for America, August 3, 2005, http://mediamatters.org/items/200508030007.

  50 Adventures in Odyssey memo: Buss, Family Man, pp. 137-138.

  50 Visitors are invariably told: Visit to Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado, October 13, 2006.

  50 Dobson and Prince: Buss, Family Man, pp. 111-112.

  50 described by journalist Jeremy Scahill: Jeremy Scahill, “Bush’s Shadow Army,” The Nation, March 15, 2007, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill.

  51 a vast security apparatus: Cara Degette, “How Focus on the Family Deals with ‘Difficult Guests,’” Colorado Confidential, October 29, 2006, http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=901.

  51 a bullet still remains lodged: Visit to Focus on the Family, October 13, 2006.

  51 Focus correspondence department: Gilgoff, The Jesus Machine, pp. 28-29, and Buss, Family Man, p. 52.

  51 Dobson and Neil Clark Warren: Buss, Family Man, pp. 278-279.

  52 in order to sidestep the lawsuit: Joshua Rhett Miller, “eHarmony to Provide Gay Dating Service After Lawsuit,” FoxNews.com, November 20, 2008, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454904,00.html.

  52 Dobson and O’Reilly: “Dr. James Dobson Talks with Bill O’Reilly,” Fox News Channel, February 16, 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185121,00.html.

  53 Dobson on “the secular media”: Focus on the Family, “Focus Clarifies Dr. Dobson’s Comments on Sen. Thompson,” Citizenlink.org, March 30, 2007, http://www.citizenlink.org/focusaction/pressreleases/A000006865.cfm.

  53 Dobson and Fineman: Howard Fineman, “Living Politics: Daddy Dobson,” Newsweek, May 4, 2005, http://www.newsweek.com/id/51655 Also see “Newsweek ’s Fineman Wrong About Dobson, Who’s No Political Newcomer,” Media Matters for America, http://comediamatters.com/items/200505060002.

  CHAPTER 6: THE KING OF PAIN

  54 On Dobson Sr.: Buss, Family Man, pp. 11-12.

  54 “Dad-gummit!”: Eileen Welsome, “And on the Eight Day, Dr. Dobson Created Himself,” 5280.com, July, 2006, http://www.5280.com/issues/story_for_print.php?pageID=400.

  54 “I learned very early”: James Dobson, Dare to Discipline (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), pp. 18-19.

  55 Dobson formed a close bond: Welsome, “And on the Eighth Day,” 5280.com; and Buss, Family Man, p. 18.

  55 Dobson and Nazarenes: Alexander-Moegerle, “James Dobson’s War,” pp. 94-95.

  55 “Entire Sanctification” doctrine: Alexander-Moegerle, “James Dobson’s War,” p. 98.

  55 Dobson born again at age three: Paul Apostolidis, Stations of the Cross: Adorno and Christian Right Radio (Durham, NC: Duke University Press), p. 22.

  56 “overindulgence, permissiveness, and smother-love”: Dobson, Dare to Discipline, p. 11.

  56 “My father was a gentleman”: Barbara T. Roessner, “Obedience, Diligence, and Fun: Bush’s ‘Extraordinary Family Life Recalled by Brother Prescott,’” Jacksonville Times-Courier, January 15, 1989.

  56 Agnew on Spock: Ann Hulbert, “Dr. Spock’s Baby: Fifty Years in the Life of a Book and the American Family,” New Yorker, May 20, 1996, pp. 82-91.

  56 Dobson vs. Spock: Buss, Family Man, pp. 44-45.

  57 “Farmer John could take his sassy son”: James Dobson, “Relating to Teens,” Focus on the Family, “Focus on Your Child” section of website reprinted in Cornerstone Connection Christian Magazine, October 21, 2005, http://www.cornerstone-osceola.com/archive/2005/10-21-2005/featured.php.

  57 “A little bit of pain”: Dobson, Dare to Discipline, p. 23.

  57 “There is a muscle”: Ibid., p. 26.

  57 Dobson’s Dirty Harry moment: Ibid., pp. 27-28.

  58 Dobson beats Siggie: James Dobson, The Strong-Willed Child (Mount Pleasant, MI: Living Books, 1992), excerpted by Chris Dugan, http://www.geocities.com/cddugan/DobsonsDog.html.

  58 “paralleled the decline in authority”: Dobson, Dare to Discipline, p. 99.

  59 Dobson’s ten-point plan: Ibid., pp. 96-98.

  59 Hard-hat riot: New York Times, May 7, 1970, p. A19, and May 8, 1970, p. A16. Also, for police encouragement of rioters, see Washington Post, May 19, 1970, and Washington Star, May 17, 1970.

  59 “brown shirts of Hitler’s Germany”: Emanuel Perlmutter, “Heads of Buildings Trade Unions Here Says Response Favors Friday’s Action,” New York Times, May 12, 1970, p. 18.

  59 Colson instigated attack: Seymour Hersh, “1971 Tape Links Nixon to Plan to Use ‘Thugs,’” New York Times, September 24, 1981, pp. 1 and (excerpts) 26.

  60 Colson and Philips: Max Blumenthal, “Born Again, Again,” Washington Monthly, July/August 2005, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0507.blumenthal.html.

  60 Colson, Schaeffer, and Dobson: Ibid.

  60 “a socially approved way”: Jonathan Aitken, Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005), p. 291.

  61 Colson and Rushdoony: Colson interviewed by Bill Moyers in “God and Politics: On Earth As It Is in Heaven,” Pacific Arts Video, April 8, 1992.

  61 Gideon’s Torch on Army of God site: ArmyofGod.com, http://www.armyofgod.com/CharlesColson.html.

  62 “The persistent ‘conservatism’ of American politics”: Philip Greven, Spare the Child (New York: Vintage Books), 1990, p. 187. Psychiatrist Alice Miller asserts links between child abuse and anti-Semitism in “For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 1990.

  62 “Pain is a marvelous purifier”: Dobson, Dare to Discipline, p. 16.

  63 “Whenever children suffer”: Greven, Spare the Child, p. 186.

  63 “The essence of the authoritarian character”: Fromm, Escape from Freedom, p. 221.

  CHAPTER 7: SATAN IN A PORSCHE

  67 blamed for eroding the country’s moral character: Political Research Associates, Gary Bauer Right-Web Profile, Right-Web, June 27, 2007, http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1022.html.

  67 Bauer and Dobson: Sara Diamond: Not by Politics Alone (New York: Guilford Press), 1998, p. 32.

  67 Focus hired 200 new staffers: Buss, Family Man, p. 68.

  68 “sex between women and bulls”: James Dobson and Gary Bauer, Children At Risk (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1994), cited by Nathan Callahan, “Corporate Vulture,” OC Weekly, May 8, 2003, http://www.ocweekly.com/2003-05-08/news/corporate-vulture/1.

  68 ChristiaNet.com porn survey: ChristiaNet, “Evangelicals Are Addicted to Porn,” 2007, http://christiannews.christianet.com/1154951956.htm.

  68 25 percent of calls: Jane Lampman: “Churches Confront an ‘Elephant in the Pews,’” Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0825/p14s01-lire.html.

  68 Sears and South Africa: Philip Nobile and Eric Nadler, United States of America vs. Sex (New York: Minotaur Press, 1986), p. 289.

  69 “their precious erections”: Cathy Young, “Bizarre Bedfellows: Andrea Dworkin’s Intercourse with the Right,” Reason Magazine, July 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_3_37/ai_n15998571.

  69 “skull-fucking”: Nobile and Nadler, United States, p. 149.

  69 They pored over “evidence”: Ibid., pp. 141, 158, 227.

  70 field trip to Times Square: Ibid., p. 95.

  70 Sears and enemas: Ibid., p. 321.

  70 In their final report: Ibid., p. 290.
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  70 “I couldn’t figure out why”: Ibid., p. 289.

  71 Sears’s divorce: Interview with Rev. Barry Lynn, Washington DC, October 26, 2007.

  71 “Pornography’s greatest harm”: Nobile and Nadler, United States, p. 284.

  71 Ritter and Kite: Mary Cronin, “Bleak Days for Covenant House,” Time, February 19, 1990 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,969410,00.html.

  71 Dobson at NRB: Nobile and Nadler, United States, p. 278.

  72 “river of smut”: Ibid., p. 214.

  72 “We urge that many of the recommendations”: Hendrik Hertzberg, Politics, (New York: Penguin, 2005), p. 406.

  72 Bundy read the Meese Commission report: Buss, Family Man, p. 92.

  CHAPTER 8: THE KILLER AND THE SAINT

  73 one man, whom he proclaimed a hero: Ibid.

  74 rumor about grandfather as biological father: Ted Bundy case background, Mystery Crime Scene, http://www.mysterycrimescene.com/ted-bundy.html.

  74 Grandfather’s abuse: Ibid. Also see Paula Bentley, “10 Weird Facts About Ted Bundy’s Childhood,” http://www.bukisa.com/articles/16246_10-weird-facts-about-ted-bundys-childhood.

  74 Bundy idolized his grandfather: Ann Rule, The Stranger Beside Me (London: Signet, reprinted 2001), p. 29.

  74 Bundy at crisis hotline: Ibid., p. 10.

  74 Bundy and Evans: Ibid., pp. 41, 44.

  74 Bundy and rape prevention pamphlet: Ibid., p. 44.

  74 “I just mingled with the crowds”: Rule, The Stranger Beside Me, p. 41.

  75 Bundy and Brooks: Ibid., pp. 26-27.

  75 Bundy and Tanner: Buss, Family Man, p. 92.

  75 to teach his children “spiritual things”: Derek Catron, “Your State Attorney: Man of God, Man of Law,” News-Journalonline.com, June 24, 2007, http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/flaglerpolice/frtHEAD01062407.htm.

  76 “bones-for-time scheme”: Michael Mello, Dead Wrong (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997), p. 108.

  76 “For [Bundy] to be negotiating”: Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness (Irving, TX: Authorlink Press, 2000), pp. 335-336.

  76 Jackson on Bundy: Buss, Family Man, p. 92.

  76 “So should I”: Ibid., p. 99.

  76 the Bundy tapes reaped a windfall profit: Ibid., p. 99.

  CHAPTER 9: A DANGEROUS WOMAN

  78 whipped her with a belt: Marlee Macleod, “Aileen Wuornos: Killer Who Preyed on Truck Drivers,” TruTV Crime Library, http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/wuornos/2.html.

  79 Wuornos and Mallory: Phyllis Chesler, “Sexual Violence and a Woman’s Right to Self-Defense,” Criminal Practice Law Report 1, 9 (October 1993), http://76.12.0.56/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=274&Itemid=97.

  79 “his emotional disturbance”: Ibid.

  79 “That’s his favorite time”: Catron, “Your State Attorney.”

  79 Wuornos finally lost her composure: Chesler, Sexual Violence.

  79 “She liked to be in control”: “Florida Executes Female Serial Killer,” News Channel2000.com, October 9, 2002, http://www.wesh.com/sh/news/stories/nat-news-171041320021009-071054.html.

  80 Chesler on Wuornos: Chesler, Sexual Violence.

  81 Wuornos and Merchant: “Merchant Allows Her song ‘Carnival’ to Be Included in a Film About a Notorious Serial Killer,” Natalie Merchant official fan site, September 2003, http://www.nataliemerchant.com/news/?paged=3.

  81 her huckster lawyer, Stephen Glazer: Nick Broomfield, “Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer,” First Look, February 4, 1994.

  81 Robertson supports Tucker: Teresa Malcolm, “Tucker’s Death Affected Robertson Views,” National Catholic Reporter, April 23, 1999, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_25_35/ai_54527745.

  81 Robertson against Barkett: John W. Kennedy, “When Killers Become Christians,” New Man, November/December 2002, http://www.newmanmag.com/display.php?id=6767.

  81 Tanner and Moorehead: Alex Fryer, “Florida Arrest Was Followed by Suspicions—His Lawyer’s Election as Prosecutor Ignited Newspaper Scrutiny, Had Repercussions Here,” Seattle Times, May 18, 1998, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980518&slug=2751424 also see factually accurate editorial account with satirical commentary “Anti-gay pastor finds cumfort fondling ‘the staff and rod,’” Totalbull.com, http://www.martinhiggins.com/PAGES/SACREDBURGERS/newbull/bull/masturbminister.html.

  82 “to inappropriately touch somebody”: Carol M. Ostrom and Alex Fryer, “Church Hires Private Investigator in Moorehead Case—More Sexual Misconduct Allegations Surface Against Overlake Pastor,” Seattle Times, February 19, 1998, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980219&slug=2735280.

  82 “Satan likes none of this!” Ostrom and Fryer, “Church Hires Private Investigator.”

  82 Berkowitz and Dobson: Charlie Brennan, “Killer Now Listens to Son of God,” Rocky Mountain News, June 23, 2004.

  83 “I was there when we interviewed Berkowitz”: Ibid.

  83 “I’m just incredulous”: Paul Asay, “Focus Denies Profiting from Son of Sam Recording,” Colorado Springs Gazette, June 25, 2005.

  CHAPTER 10: CHEAP GRACE

  84 Talent’s conversion: Safir Ahmed, “Talent for Deception,” The American Prospect, November 4, 2002, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=talent_for_deception.

  84 Largent a Family member: Michael J. Gerson, Major Garrett, and Carolyn Kleiner, “A Righteous Indignation,” U.S. News & World Report, April 26, 1998, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/980504/archive_003835.htm.

  85 quietly committed himself to their ouster: Gilgoff, The Jesus Machine, pp. 111-112.

  85 “Contract with America”: Jeffrey Gayner, The Contract with America: Implementing New Ideas in the U.S., The Heritage Foundation, October 12, 1995, http://www.heritage.org/Research/PoliticalPhilosophy/HL549.cfm; for House document: http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html.

  85 Dobson grumbled in 1995: Buss, Family Man, p. 159.

  85 Colin Powell polled highest: Max Blumenthal, “The Man Who Helped Drive Powell Away from His Party,” The Daily Beast, October 22, 2008, http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-22/the-bitter-back-story -behind-powells-defection/1/.

  85 Dobson’s war against Powell: Ibid.

  86 Phillips and Rushdoony: Michelle Goldberg, “In Theocracy They Trust,” Salon, April 11, 2005, http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/04/11/judicial_conference/index.html.

  86 AIDS and the gold standard: U.S. Taxpayers Party platform, Constitution-Party. com, undated, http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php.

  87 Trewhella’s address: Melinda Liu, “Inside the Anti-Abortion Underground,” Newsweek, August 29, 1994, http://www.newsweek.com/id/115829.

  87 Dobson’s influence: 1996 Presidential General Elections Results, US Elections Atlas, http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1996&minper=0&f=1&off=0&elect=0.

  87 DeLay on Gingrich: Robert Novak, “The Wrath of Tom DeLay,” Washington Post, March 15, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402179.html.

  87 “I think you can write”: Gail Sheehy, “The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich,” Vanity Fair, September 1995, posted to PBS.org http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/vanityfair4.html.

  87 Newt Gingrich was born Newt McPherson: Ibid.

  87 Gingrich’s abusive childhood: Jacob Weissberg, “Battered-Republican Syndrome,” Slate Magazine, March 23, 1997, http://www.slate.com/id/2269/.

  87 Gingrich, fascinated with zoos and dinosaurs: Jerry Gray, “Speaker Gingrich Mixes Politics and Paleontology,” New York Times, August 29, 1997, http:// query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE3DC1331F93AA1575BC0A 961958260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20.

  88 “Soon after his first extramarital tryst”: Gail Sheehy, “The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich,” Vanity Fair, September 1995, posted to PBS.org http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/vanityfair4.htm
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  88 “She wasn’t pretty enough”: Ibid.

  89 his national approval rating plummeted: Richard Berke, “Clinton’s Ratings Over 50% in Poll as G.O.P. Declines,” New York Times, December 14, 1995, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E5DF1739F937A25751 C1A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all.

  89 Bisek affair: Ben Evans, “Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe,” Associated Press, March 8, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030801847.html.

  89 Attempted coup: James Carney and Karen Tumulty, “Ready, Aim, Misfire,” Time, July 28, 2007, http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/07/21/time/gingrich.html.

  89 Dobson addresses CNP: Ben Winton, “Dobson Declares War on GOP,” Freedom Writer, March 1998, http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/fw/9803/dobson.html. See also Laurie Goodstein, “Conservative Christian Leader Accuses Republicans of Betrayal,” New York Times, February 12, 1998.

  90 “He immediately launched into a jeremiad”: James Dobson’s CNP address, February 7, 1998, Arizona Biltmore resort, Phoenix, Arizona, posted to Public-Eye. org: http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/cnp/dobson.html.

  90 “Armey confronted Dobson”: D. Michael Lindsay, Pew Forum’s Faith Angle Conference, Key West, May 2008, published at PewResearch.org June 30, 2008, pewresearch.org/pubs/883/american-evangelicalism.

  90 “was never so wrongfully and viciously attacked”: D. Michael Lindsay, Faith in the Halls of Power (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 65.

  90 ACLU rumor: Dick Armey, “Why Faith Requires Freedom,” FreedomWorks, October 12, 2006, http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/christians-and-big-government.

  90 “in a pool of my own blood”: Dick Armey, Jenny Woo interview, Gambling911, December 8, 2008, http://www.gambling911.com/maintest/gambling-news/jenny-woo-interviews-former-house-majority-leader-dick-armey-120808.html.

  91 Gingrich promptly resigned from Congress: “Gingrich Calls It Quits,” CNN.com, November 6, 1998, http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/11/06/gingrich/.