The following piece is published on Colorado Confidential as well as OffTheBus.
By Cara DeGette
In late October, during the gathering in Washington that drew a reported 2,600 conservatives plus every Republican presidential candidate, Huckabee mopped the floor with the other contenders. His 51 percent triumph came from those who were actually at the conference.
Trailing in second was Mitt Romney, with 10 percent - followed by Tom Tancredo at 9 percent. Fred Thompson followed on their heels with 8 percent. No one else even came close.
Stuart Shepard, the managing editor of Focus on the Family's CitizenLink online magazine, practically crowed over the straw poll results in a videotape synopsis of the weekend's festivities, which is posted at the Colorado Springs ministry and media empire's Website:
"It threw the news media for a looooop!" Shepard reported.
Of the event in general, Shepard opined of the media, "It was as if they'd never seen a conservative before! Attention network news, you're spending too much time in New York!"
During the weekend's festivities, in which Dobson was also joined by far-right leaders ranging from Edwin Meese to Chuck Colson to Tony Perkins and Phyllis Schlafly, Dobson also weighed in on reports of his movement's demise:
"The media's been telling everybody for months and months and months that the pro-family movement and the pro-life movement are dying," Dobson told the crowd. "Well, to the media who's here, may I say, `Welcome to the morgue!'"Big cheers.
Then, "It ain't dead yet."
In the weeks following, plenty of news outlets and blogs have taken another look at Huckabee. Is he really Dobson's guy? And, almost in the next breath: Could voters ever elect a president named "Huckabee?"
Shepard may be hawking the Huckabee results on the Focus on the Family Web site, but if Dobson plans to actually give his personal nod of approval, well, so far he's remained coy. That's a stark contrast to his past thump-on-the-head-with-a-two-by-four tactic when rejecting GOP candidates Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson.
Rather, this week Dobson and his ministry spent much time during a three-part radio series that aired this week rehashing the "values voters" summit, during which Dobson was honored.
Rather than embracing Huckabee - or anyone else- Dobson spoke to his followers in more general terms. In fact, on the radio he talked more about Frank Rich of The New York Times than of Huckabee. Plus he had a lot to say about one of his favorite topics: How the secular media always seems to get everything wrong. Here are some of the main themes this week:
• According to Dobson, this is what really happened when he recently joined a group of conservative leaders at a super-secret gathering in Salt Lake City that turned out to be not so secret. A majority of the group, including Dobson, agreed to support a third-party candidate for president if no suitable Republican could be found to carry their mantle of no-abortion-ever and man-woman marriage only. But Dobson wants everyone to know that he never, never, never said that he would help to start a third party.
• Dobson said he has been unfairly criticized by his own followers over reports that he's starting a third party. He wants everyone to know that, "I'm not starting a third party!" He'll only vote for a third-party candidate, he says, if the GOP candidate is no good.
• Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. Dobson says he "ain't playin'."
• The Republican Party, Dobson says, has treated the pro-family, pro-life movement like a mistress, inviting her to come over for a little afternoon fun and then pretending not to know her when running into her in the street - and, sure as heck not inviting her to the club.
• Of the many secular media personalities out there that Dobson doesn't like, Frank Rich of The New York Times probably wins some sort of prize. This week longtime Focus on the Family exec Tom Minnery rattled off the various names that Rich has called Dobson over the years, including, "Godzilla of the Right," "A man who operates a radio-driven theocratic crusade" and "A guy who would smack you down if you gave him any lip."
Said Dobson: "I am really convinced that Frank Rich hates Christians."