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Special Report From The Republican Convention
Religious Freedom Coalition
August 30, 2004 10:13PM EST

Monday at the convention

 

The political action committee of which I am chairman, Government Is Not God, co-sponsored a 1600 square foot suite at the New Yorker Hotel across the street from Madison Square Garden where the Republican National Convention was held. The New Yorker is also the official media hotel, which gives me a lot of media access not only for my PAC, but for the Religious Freedom Coalition as well.

 

Our first event at our hospitality suite on Monday morning was a prayer meeting headed by William Federer, a godly man who is author of America’s God and Country and a candidate for the 3rd Congressional district in Missouri. Bill is a great authority on American history and his leadership in the prayer meeting was enlightening. The meeting closed with a prayer for President George W. Bush and for our nation.

 

Also on Monday morning the premier of a new video documentary was shown in our suite. The producer, David Balsiger, answered media questions before the showing of George W. Bush, Faith in the White House. This video documentary, which is now available from the Religious Freedom Coalition, documents the deeply held faith of George W. Bush. This documentary has what could be considered private moments of faith the President has displayed. A brand new book, Thank You, President Bush, was also introduced at a news conference at our suite. Several of the co-authors of Thank You, President Bush were present including Steve Moore, President of the Club for Growth and Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Governor Huckabee and I have shared many a podium together promoting the social conservative cause.

 

A VERY INTERESTING SIDE STORY … A female reporter asked Steve Moore for an interview after he spoke. As they stepped outside, her photographer said to her, “You left your purse over in your chair.” To which the reporter responded, “Its OK, it’s a bunch of Republicans.” That says a lot.

 

The schedule of our staff during the convention was so fast and furious that we were not able to get out of the New Yorker Hotel and into Madison Square Garden until very late in the afternoon. The police presence around the Madison Square Garden is so staggering that on some streets no one can even walk on the sidewalk unless they are wearing convention credentials. Finally, this evening, I will be leading an “after glow” of convention events for the day.

Tuesday at the Convention

 

“For black people, the Democrat Party is a deception from Hell.” That was a comment from the first speaker Tuesday morning at the hospitality suite co-sponsored by Government Is Not God PAC in the New Yorker Hotel. The speaker was black theologian Wayne Perryman who has written a history of the Republican Party entitled, Unfounded Loyalty. How he came to write the history of the party and how he became a Republican is an interesting testimony. For years as a pastor he had advised blacks to vote Democrat. On one occasion a group of black parishioners asked him why blacks were supposed to vote Democrat and he could not answer. As he researched how to respond to them, he realized that the Democrat Party had a long history of racism and repression of blacks. 

 

That was replaced in recent years by a host of government giveaway programs that only served to destroy black families and contribute to social decline in black communities.  One of the main reasons he gives for this is that social liberals tried to solve problems in a way that discounted and ignored biblical values.  They disregarded the importance of God ordained family structure, and this led to great numbers of pregnancies outside marriage.  They then tried to solve this problem with solutions based on humanist reasoning such as abortion and sex education divorced from any sense of morality.  People depended more and more upon government instead of upon God, and problems in the inner city worsened. Perryman supports the Faith Based Initiative begun by President Bush.  The Republican Party, Perryman found, has been for freedom and equality of individuals since before the election of Abraham Lincoln and continuing until today.  A distorted version of history causes blacks to give the Democrats credit for giving them their civil rights, but in reality many more Republicans voted for civil rights legislation than did Democrats.

 

Rev. Robert Schenk is the founder and President of Faith and Action which operates The Ten Commandments Project, a Washington, DC based ministry. For many years he has placed the Ten Commandments in the offices of every congressman and Senator who would accept them. During our morning prayer for the nation he led us in prayer for all of the Supreme Court justices, two of whom he says will retire during the next term of George W. Bush. Thus began the day for the “hard core” of social conservatives – the religious right – at the Republican Convention in New York.

 (Filed 8/31/2004  11:45PM EST)

 

Before noon I was interviewed by both the Boston Globe and the New York Times. The European news agency, AFN also interviewed me on the “rift” between social conservatives and economic conservatives in the Republican Party. I explained that we don’t have single issue political parties as they exist in Italy and other nations. Rather than ten or twelve parties with central key issues, we have two large coalitions, one the Democrats and the other the Republicans. I explained that we social conservatives can do nothing to help America unless we have power, and unfortunately we have no power unless we have a coalition with the economic conservatives. Conversely, without us the big business interests and the economic conservatives are out of power as well.

 

This afternoon a rousing Faith and Freedom rally was held in the main ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where Vice President Dick Cheney is staying. It took our staff nearly half an hour to clear security to participate in the rally with keynote speaker Senator Sam Brownback.  Dr. Jerry Falwell and several other notable “religious right” leaders were present as well.

 

Early in the evening Ambassador Alan Keyes, candidate for U.S. Senator from Illinois,  spoke at an event in our hospitality suite in the New Yorker Hotel. Keyes told us he believes that God arranged events to allow him to run for the Senate. He said that marriage must exist for the “…purpose of child bearing and child rearing.” He said that Illinois s ready for a candidate such as himself who stands against abortion and against gay marriage. He received numerous rounds of applause from those present. The event was widely covered by the media. 

 

And finally at the convention itself, our staff sat just a few rows behind former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush during the evening session. Just before Arnold Schwarzenegger took to the stage, his wife Maria Shriver sat down next to the Bush couple and their other children. When Arnold spoke he brought the Garden crowd to its feet over and over again. He told his immigrant story and described the pride he felt the day he took his oath of citizenship. His testimony of loving America, his success story, and his support of President Bush moved all who heard. Following Arnold, Laura Bush gave a heart felt presentation of the loving, yet decisive man she is married to, President George W. Bush. 

(Filed 8/31/2004 - 1155PM)    

 

Wednesday at the Convention

 

The political action committee I chair, GING-PAC, may not have the largest presence in New York during the Republican National Convention, but that does not mean that the presence of our staff here does not have impact.

 

I started out my day at Madison Square Garden on “radio row.” Radio Row is a set of over 50 booths set up for the many daily radio hosts and their programs. Many nationally known radio show hosts are broadcasting their shows from the Republican National Convention. Of the many radio shows I did today, the ones more people would be familiar with are the Adam Nathan Show and the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Show on Liberty Broadcasting. Among the highlights of the activities on Radio Row was the arrival of boxing promoter Don King. During his interview with Pacifica Radio he was cut off and slandered for his support of President George W. Bush. Bottom line-- white liberals just can’t handle black conservatives. White liberals think they literally own all black Americans and the agitation of the Pacifica staff culminated with a female producer falsely accusing Don King of striking her when he was actually just shaking hands with an old friend of mine, Bill Federer, who is running for Congress in Missouri.

 

Late in the afternoon our staff attended a reception held by Senator George Allen of Virginia on behalf of Congressman John Thune who is running for the Senate from South Dakota, against Tom  Daschle, the chief obstructionist in the Senate.  John Thune has pulled ahead in the polls and Daschle has responded with one of the most dishonest ads ever. This man Daschle, who hates George W. Bush, is actually running a TV ad showing him hugging President Bush shortly after 9-11, and in the ad he tells the people of South Dakota how he supports the President. Actually, he has tried to block just about every judicial nominee and piece of legislation the President supports.  Daschle’s lie shows how desperate the campaign is. I spoke at length with John Thune and assured him that my PAC would continue to support him.

 

Later, after the speeches by Senator Zell Miller and Vice President Cheney, we returned from Madison Square Garden to our hospitality suite in the New Yorker where a reception was held for Dr. Alexandria Coronado who is running for Congress in California. She was well received and funds were raised for her campaign.

 

Our day at the convention was very full and very profitable for the conservative cause, but I do not have time right now to fully report on it.

 

A finalnote: Something is happening in New York and across America.

In the last 24 hours several states have moved to the Bush column in national polls. The Rasmussen poll now shows Bush ahead in electoral votes and Gallup shows Bush ahead in the popular vote.

(Filed 9/2/2004  9:30 AM EST)

 

Friday at the convention

 

President George W. Bush’s speech this evening was a smash hit in which he answered his critics and at the same time painted Senator John Kerry for what he is, a totally indecisive individual. (See President’s speech here)

 

His introduction by Governor Pataki of New York was sobering. During that introduction he thanked all of America for the response to 9-11 and acclaimed President George W. Bush for his steadfast reaction to the events of the Jihad attack upon our nation. My favorite line from the introduction was “We can win one in November for the Gipper and the Democrats can lose one for the flipper.”

 

Because so many conservative pundits will be writing about the comments of the President I will not dwell on them here, but rather discuss the accomplishments of the day for our conservative organizations.

 

We began the day with a prayer meeting in our hospitality suite in the New Yorker Hotel led by radio personality Janet Parshall. Her sincerity in her relationship with the Lord is genuine. Before leading our morning group in prayer for our leaders and our nation, she asked the television and still photographers present to shut down their cameras. The prayers of our group were not for the sake of publicity, but for the sake of our leaders.

 

Later in the morning I was once again on radio row in Madison Square Garden appearing for the conservative cause on various programs.  Two of the shows I appeared on were very liberal and nationwide. On both the Thom Hartmann Show and the Arnie Arnesen Show I was able to discuss threats to our society by the advance of same-sex marriage and to promote the involvement of faith in our society. In the afternoon I taped a program on religious liberty and government for European television at the corner of 8th and 34th directly in front of the convention location. A large crowd of New Yorkers gathered around as I defended traditional marriage and the rights of pastors to tell the truth of the Gospel unrestrained from their pulpits. I actually received applause from the gathered New Yorkers at the end of the interview and many came forward to shake my hand.

 

We were not the largest group of conservatives present, nor did I do the greatest number of TV and radio shows … However, we did what we were supposed to do, add buzz to the overall conservative nature of the news coming from New York. Every radio show I did was one less radio show that had a liberal on it. Interviews on social conservatism I did with the Boston Globe, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times will present our cause to an otherwise hostile audience. In other words, we did our part and it was worth every penny it cost.

(File 09/03/2004 AM)

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