Valuing The Values Voter (And Tony Perkins)

As a candidate for Senator in Louisiana, a state legislator named Tony Perkins received about ten percent of the statewide vote. As a Washington lobbyist, Tony Perkins is a celebrity. To the 1,000 or so pastors and activists attending the Family Research Council’s Washington Briefing this weekend, he is responsible for carrying their voice into the inner sanctums of the White House. As such, to leaders of these state groups, he has enhanced their personal brand.

So he received star treatment: rounds of applause, a harried young entourage, and even a walk-and-talk with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, who, with camera crew and producers, were filming a segment on “values voters.”

The FRC is not a large organization and it does not have formal state affiliates. The extent to which it drives policy on Capitol Hill and in the White House is debatable. But it certainly is an engine of debate. The FRC has become the to-go group in DC for journalists seeking the social conservative point of view, for television producers seeking a guest, and even is willing to provide its expert on family policy for the Daily Show to mock.

This election year, they're about the “Values Voter." VV might be a term of art and convenience The idea was midwifed from a single number on the 2004 exit poll. Within months, it was conventional wisdom. These VVs, the schema goes, are concerned, primarily, with threats to the family. They like politicians who share their dread and who commit themselves to defending the nuclear unit from attack. Not encroachment. Attack. So -- those gay marriage amendments turned out Bush voters. (Maybe, but in red states without competitive races). Evangelical votes comprised about 40 percent of Pres. Bush’s total. (True, but terrorism was their top issue.) Evangelicals are a growing and potent political force (True, but so are conservative Catholics, and they’re far less tethered to the Republican Party).

Fiction or fact, Perkins has leveraged the concept into a powerful rallying cry for cultural conservatives. So, Republican presidential aspirants flocked to this small conference: Gov. Mitt Romney, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Sam Brownback and even Sen. George Allen. So did one aspiring majority leader or Speaker: Indiana’s Mike Pence. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales bowed out at the last moment. He was supposed to speak after a panel of state attorneys general at the forefront of the culture war. Every speaker, the who's whos to the whose thats, spoke in the language of threat. Homosexuality; secular liberals who want to ban the bible; weak-kneed Republican leaders in Washington; illegal immigration; terrorism; government; France; George Soros; Nancy Pelosi; homosexuals; gay adoption; taxes; Democrats; activist judges; the liberal media.,

Tony Snow, the White House press secretary took his place. His topic was “defending the family.”

As Snow spoke, a television producer (not from 60 Minutes) carried on his own narration. He rolled his eyes. He sneered when Snow mention 9/11. He whispered sarcastic asides. He, plainly, was not a VV. [MARC AMBINDER]