Actually, it's the scorecard for the 2nd session of the 109th Congress, and the fundamentalists in question, the Washington D.C. lobby shop at the Family Research Council (a spin-off of James Dobson's Focus on the Family) don't represent ALL fundamentalists, of course. But FRC is currently the most powerful of the Washington Christian Right organizations, particularly adept at buttressing its militant faith with pseudo-social science that manages to persuade the dimwitted and/or opportunistic.
First prize in those categories must be shared by the four Democrats to get 100% "True Blue" ratings from FRC, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee's Fourth District, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina's 7th, Collin Peterson of Minnesota's7th, and Jim Marshall of Georgia's 8th...
For perspective, most Democrats scored 0%; a few pro-life Democrats got low scores of 28% or 57%, but most of this legislation was just so mean-spirited and unconstitutional that even conservative Democrats -- and quite a few Republicans, too -- would haave nothing to do with. Not so our coaltion builders!
Of course, this being Kos, I don't want to bash Democrats. So if you want to get in touch with Davis, McIntyre, or Marshall and fill them in the Constitution's Establishment Clause -- a perfect score from FRC means you're not only zealously anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-stem cell but also supported two laws the eliminate or reduce the judicial branche's ability to rule on church/state issues -- you can be a nice, helpful Democrat by contacting Lincoln here, McIntyre here, Peterson hereor Marshall here. You might want to point out to them that their scores put them solidly to the right of nearly half of the Republican House contingent, which is, perhaps, a tiny bit out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party.
The FRC based its score on six votes and the co-sponsorship of the anti-gay marriage amendment. Actually, they inexplicably count the amendment twice, which shows how important to them it is. I happened to interview the head of Tony Perkins about this a year ago. Don't get the wrong idea, he assured me. It's not that FRC hates queer people THAT much; it's just that they love black people that much.
HUH?
That's right. FRC's lobby features a display of African American wedding photographs, because, as Perkins explained, FRC hopes that in the long term "marriage" can unite white evangelicals and African Americans the way abortion united evangelicals and Catholics, traditional enemies. Here's his strange logic, which unfortunately isn't as far from reality as it should be:
[Black evangelicals] have broken with their party over marriage issues, have begun not only communication, but a relationship with white evangelicals, and there you could eventyally see, if Republicans treat white evangelicals as Democrats have treated African-Americans, the two of them could come together some time in the future and become a viable political force.
We already know which Democrats may be on board. Who will the Republican coalition builders be? Noted bi-partisanites such as Mike Pence, Mariln Musgraves, and Joe Pitts, House chair of the Values Action Team created by Tom DeLay? Sounds like a team. And Perkins is a man to make this historic wingnut/African American alliance happen. As a Lousiana politico, he was famous for buying David Duke's mailing list for his mentor. When he decided to run himself, he came in fourth in the Republican party, denounced as racist and bigoted by Republicans who might, by most ordinary standards, be considered racist and bigoted. That might have been the end of him if his only remaining big league GOP friend, Senator Sam Brownback, hadn't intervened by bringing him to Washington. Brownback gave him a couch to sleep on, and then, rumor holds, rigged his appointment to the helm of FRC -- a position in which he has found his true calling, as a capitol bully and as the promoter of the "Justice Sunday" television series.
The craziest thing about it all? It's working. Perkins and FRC are not being marginalized, they're mainstreaming themselves into one wing of the Republican party. Democrats can cheer and say this spells certain electoral victory, but I'm not so sure. I worry that it also marks the maturation of a new, slicker right, much smoother than James Dobson, from whom Perkins has distanced himself, and much better at counting votes than the old dragons like Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer.