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Archive: 1/03 - 3/03

Monday  3/31/03

Antiwar Stance Helps Dean Gain Support and Funds  3/31/03 Republicons 


Sunday  3/30/03

Clyburn's blessing give Gephardt boost  3/30/03 The State, South Carolina: "Most veteran observers saw it as an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt. The occasion was an ecumenical prayer breakfast last Monday with Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of Columbia. The guest speaker was Gephardt. An estimated 200 black leaders, many of them Columbia-area ministers, were present."


Saturday  3/29/03

Michigan Republicans considering canceling 2004 presidential primary  3/29/03 Detroit News: "Michigan Republicans are considering canceling next February's presidential primary because they say President Bush is likely to be unopposed and it would save local clerks millions of dollars."

Speaking Out on Bush - Sharpton stirs 1,300 with a mix of war views, politics and Scripture  3/29/03 Journal Now, North Carolina: "Bush has silenced many people and made them afraid to question him, like they're hurting the troops," Sharpton told an enthusiastic crowd of about 1,300 during a sermon at Union Baptist Church last night. "Don't act like we don't love the troops," he said. "Why send troops where they may not have had to go?"

House speaker calls for increase in minority staff  3/29/03 Michigan Daily: "In an effort to garner minority support for future congressional endeavors, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) called for fellow Republican House members to increase the number of minorities on their staff earlier this week… "He met with several African American conservative leaders, and this is all part of an effort to expand our base," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said. "(The African American leaders) said if you want to get a few more African American votes, you should have a few more African Americans on your staff, and the speaker liked the suggestion." "

State's Presidential Primaries May Change Dates  3/29/03 News2, Nashville: "State lawmakers want to make your vote count in the presidential primaries. To do that, the lawmakers might move the state's presidential primary from March 9th to February 10th. This follows talk of abolishing it to save money."

Moseley-Braun Says Her Potential Presidential Bid Won’t Divide Blacks  3/29/03 NNPA: "Moseley-Braun has her supporters as well. Among them is C. Delores Tucker, chairwoman of the non-partisan National Congress of Black Women. Tucker and Moseley-Braun were among 250 women who formed the Future Political Action Committee last September to support Black women candidates for public office. Tucker says that if Moseley-Braun does not get the top slot and ends up as the party’s vice presidential nominee, it will be considered a victory. “She has skills that some candidates don’t bring to the table and certainly it would be nice to have a woman there,” says Tucker."


Friday  3/28/03

Gephardt Visits Black Leaders in Columbia, Talks About Campaign and War in Iraq  3/28/03 South Carolina Black Media 


Thursday  3/27/03

Antiwar Stance Buoys Howard Dean in Iowa  3/27/03 NYT: "Dr. Dean, the former Vermont governor who spent the winter methodically positioning himself as the antiwar candidate for president, has emerged at the start of the Iraq conflict as one of the few Democratic contenders who can show up in this state, with its sizable contingent of antiwar Democrats, and have no fear of being shouted down. As other candidates steer clear of Iowa, at least in the first weeks of war, he is making the most of his moment alone on the stage."

Sharpton causes stir at A.C. Council meeting  3/27/03 Press of Atlantic City 


Wednesday  3/26/03

Sharpton Hits South Carolina Looking for Votes  3/26/03 Loris Scene, South Carolina: "In an appearance in the Palmetto State, Sharpton criticized members of his own party for failing to speak out against the Iraqi war and for being afraid to raise issues and fight for them. "They're not true believers," he charged. "They only want to be Republicans in Democratic clothing, and we already have too many donkeys running around here who are really elephants with donkey clothes on."

Brazile says her party must support troops  3/26/03 Washington Times: "She said she has not decided whom she will endorse among her party's presidential contenders. But she came close to revealing her first preferences Monday, saying she could support Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and possibly Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. "Gephardt is a personal friend. I worked for him on the Hill. Dick would put America first," she said, but then she added: "I could also support Lieberman. Gephardt or Lieberman," she repeated."


Monday  3/24/03

Sharpton takes aim at Bush  3/24/03 BlackAmericaWeb: ""Don't be too cowardly to speak out now," he said in a speech that repeatedly brought the packed audience of low-income voters to its feet. "If you can't open your mouth now, you don't deserve to run for president." Sharpton said instead of spending billions on the war, the Bush administration should focus on funding education, housing and prescription drugs for military families and other low-income Americans."

Sharpton: Bush Ignoring Domestic Issues  3/24/03 Guardian 

Sharpton says Bush neglecting domestic problems  3/24/03 Newsday 


Sunday  3/23/03

Kerry Eyes Revival of Idealism - Confident in presidential bid  3/23/03 Newsday: "The race is really about who he is," said Donna Brazile, a top Democratic adviser. "John Kerry, if he is to succeed, must become a lot more comfortable with who he is. He is very confident, but confidence is one thing, comfortable another."


Thursday  3/20/03

Alabama's presidential primaries could be moved to March  3/20/03 Crimson White, AL: "Alabama may receive significantly more attention during presidential primaries this year if a bill backed by the state Democratic Party passes through the Legislature. House Bill 80, sponsored by House Majority Leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, received unanimous approval on March 12 from the Alabama House Constitution and Elections Committee. It would move the state's presidential primaries from June to the second Tuesday in February, giving Alabama more priority on the nation's primary campaign trail."

Primary Pains: Respect The Calendar Now, Fix It for 2008 Race  3/20/03 Roll Call: by Donna Brazile, requires subscription

Cattle Call - The Democratic presidential candidates talk war in California.  3/20/03 The American Prospect: "As the imminence of war in Iraq has increased -- and even as American public opinion has become more supportive of that war -- opposition emerged as the central theme of a California Democratic Party convention last weekend that was visited by a half-dozen Democratic presidential hopefuls. In the first major campaign "cattle call" outside Washington, the opponents of war with Iraq, most notably former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.), were rapturously received. The supporters of war, widely regarded as the leading candidates in the nascent campaign, were not."

Braun asks Bush to change course  3/20/03 Tir-Valley Herald, CA: "Hours before the first cruise missiles hit Baghdad, Democratic presidential contender Carol Moseley Braun was urging President Bush to "call off this war" before it further erodes America's moral authority and standing in the international community. "


Monday  3/17/03

Tight times spell end for some primaries  3/17/03 Baltimore Sun: "At $4.98 a vote, democracy can get pretty expensive. At least that's how it looks to some people in Missouri, where the budget is in such dire straits that state maintenance workers have unscrewed every third light bulb in government buildings."


Sunday  3/16/03

Doves sway state's Demos  3/16/03 San Mateo COUnty Times: "Whether Democratic presidential candidates addressed state convention delegates or spoke outside to antiwar protesters from the Bay Area on Saturday, the crowds cheered the doves and booed the hawks. The liberal-leaning party delegates were sharply different in their responses to two leading contenders on the issue of Iraq, wildly applauding former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean but roundly booing U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Slipping away from the pack of six hopefuls expected at the convention center in Sacramento, one candidate -- former Illinois U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun -- drew cheers while addressing a rally of several hundred peace activists at the nearby state Capitol."


Saturday  3/15/03

Kerry courts California boosted by polls, minus computer  3/15/03 AP: "The others at the convention are North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former Senator and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, civil rights leader Al Sharpton, and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Three other contenders - Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Florida Sen. Bob Graham and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri - are not attending."


Friday  3/14/03

Sharpton Leads Demonstration At Downtown Bank  3/14/03 NewsNet5, Cleveland 


Thursday  3/13/03

Putting the Democrats through changes  3/13/03 Black Commentator: "The national Democrats ponder the polls and wonder why they can't touch Rev. Al Sharpton's core of Black support. The answer should be obvious: you can't hold Black people at arms length and move them from place to place at the same time."


Wednesday  3/12/03

State Republicans Look to Scrap Primaries - Republicans in Five States Look to Scrap Presidential Primaries to Ease Budget Crunch  3/12/03 AP: "Republican-led legislatures in five states believe they've found a way to ease the budget crunch eliminate the costly 2004 presidential primaries."

Barden to Oversee Finances for Presidential Bid  3/12/03 Black Enterprise: "Don H. Barden, CEO of Barden Companies Inc., has been named national finance co-chair for Rep. Dick Gephardt's race for Democratic nomination for president of the United States. As Gephardt makes his second bid for president, he says he is confident that Barden, one of the largest African American donors to the Democratic National Committee, will play a significant role. “Don will help provide me with the resources necessary to effectively argue for bold, new ideas that will return this country to economic prosperity,” he says."

Moving the Party Primaries  3/12/03 CS Monitor: "The Democratic and Republican national conventions of August 2004, seem a long way off, but voters should take note: The Iowa party caucuses are set for January 19, just about nine months away. The New Hampshire primary is in Jan. 27 - not in February. And a half dozen states are considering moving their primaries to early February."


Tuesday  3/11/03

Democrats on the stump plot their war rhetoric  3/11/03 Boston Globe: "Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and former senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois plan to maintain their staunch antiwar rhetoric, even if fighting breaks out between the United States and Iraq."


Monday  3/10/03

Democrats shift primaries for early decision in 2004  3/10/03 Washington Times: "The more front-loaded primary schedule will save the party money, Democrats say, and give their candidate more time to make a case against President Bush's bid for re-election. Party strategists, however, say the accelerated nominating process could edge out lesser-known candidates who need more time to raise money and build support. With the Democrats' emerging primary schedule, the nominating contest could be all but over by late February or early March."


Sunday  3/9/03

Dems Deploy Blacks To Block Sharpton  3/9/03 Black World Today: By Ron Daniels - "The specter of the charismatic Rev. Al Sharpton, delivering brilliant and incisive orations on the stump and pointedly outshining a dull cast of candidates in the debates, is sending seismic shockwaves through the leadership of the Democratic Party. With a growing field of candidates (Richard Gephardt is the most recent to announce), the prospect of Sharpton breaking through to win some primaries, especially in the South, is looming as a distinct possibility."

For House, Democrats Need Discontent - A Weak Economy and a Messy War Could Help Party Rebound on the Hill  3/9/03 Washington Post: "One Democrat at the recent retreat, according to participants, raised the prospect of challenging nine-term GOP Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana. Bill Clinton twice carried the district, which has a significant African American population, and President Bush won it in 2000 with a modest 53 percent margin. But McCrery, who sits on the influential Ways and Means Committee, noted he won reelection last November with 72 percent of the vote, and got roughly half of the black vote. "If they have to go down on the list to me [for potential targets], then they're in pretty poor shape for the '04 cycle," McCrery said. "I've been in there a long time and have been able to get a foothold in the African American community and some pretty Democratic areas, like the rural areas. I would hope they spend lots of money on me." "


Friday  3/7/03

Presidential Preference Poll [2004]  3/7/03 Dogon Village 

Lieberman and Sharpton may make or break 2004 race  3/7/03 Jewish Bulletin: ""The relationship between Lieberman and his backers, and Sharpton and his backers, may well determine whether the Democratic party remains united for the fall '04 campaign or suffers grievous wounds that make its victory impossible," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato."


Thursday  3/6/03

Unnamed Democrat Edges Bush In '04, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Most Americans Are Not Satisfied With Life Today  3/6/03 Quinnipiac University: "By a 48 -- 44 percent margin, American voters say they would vote for the as yet unnamed Democratic party candidate for President over Republican incumbent George W. Bush, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today."


Wednesday  3/5/03

Obama a worthy heir to Washington legacy  3/5/03 Chicago Sun Times: "On the 20th anniversary of Harold Washington's election as the first African-American mayor of Chicago, state Sen. Barack Obama (D-Chicago) is forging a coalition that could make him the only black U.S. senator. Obama, 40, is coming on strong in the wake of former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun's decision to pass up next year's Democratic primary to win back her old job. If Braun had made this race, polls indicated that she would have been a solid favorite over the Democratic field."

District Insists On Early Primary - City Seeks to Highlight Its Struggle for Rights  3/5/03 Washington Post: "A unanimous D.C. Council voted yesterday to move next year's presidential primary to Jan. 13 -- ahead of every state -- in what members characterized as a bid to highlight the city's long struggle for home rule and congressional voting rights."

Sharpton Leads In New York! Well, Sort Of  3/5/03 Washington Post: "Sharpton was ranked first among New York City Democrats. That he could pull 13 percent of likely Democratic voters in his own city should not come as a surprise to anyone. But the bigger point is, the campaign's use of the NewsMax.com story demonstrates how campaigns use polls: When a poll looks good for a candidate, they're important. When the poll looks bad for a candidate, polls don't matter. For instance, in a January interview with Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press, the host noted that one recent poll that showed "even amongst black Democratic voters, look at this, Joe Lieberman, 24 percent; Sharpton, 16; Gephardt, 10; Edwards 10. Black Democrats prefer a white Jewish Democrat over a black Democrat like Al Sharpton." "

Sharpton Image - He's a Long Shot Who Made Mistakes, but He's Not a Candidate the Media Can Ignore  3/5/03 Wqashington Post: "We cannot be tricked into using diversity to cover up the nomination of reactionary judges," he says. "During the abolitionist movement, we didn't fight to have more diversified slave masters." Slamming trickle-down economics, he says: "We never got the trickle, we got the down." Griping about the military's failure to find Osama bin Laden, he cracks: "A man who comes out every two months with a new video! Bin Laden has out more videos than any rock star in Hollywood!" And he brings down the house with this line about George W. Bush: "He's the ultimate recipient of a set-aside program. The Supreme Court set aside a whole election."


Tuesday  3/4/03

Moseley-Braun says her potential bid won't divide Blacks  3/4/03 Final Call: "Not everyone is excited about the prospect of Ms. Moseley-Braun entering the race. She failed to get re-elected to the Senate five years ago. "Many were disappointed that she hadn’t performed as strongly as we’d hoped one would. She lost based on a deflationary feeling about her performance," says Dianne Pinderhughes, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-paign. "[The Black vote] didn’t defect to [her Republican opponent]. It just didn’t have the turnout." Ms. Pinderhughes says that Ms. Moseley-Braun’s legislative record left a lot to be desired in the Black community. Early in her tenure, she earned two C’s on the NAACP civil rights report card."

Carol Moseley Braun Drops the Hyphen  3/4/03 Guardian, UK 

MEET THE CANDIDATES: AL SHARPTON  3/4/03 News Hour: "Well, first of all, I think that there are many people who hold elective office that have no foreign policy experience. I've engaged in foreign policy for the last 20 years, whether it was fights around democratizing Africa or the Caribbean, dealing with various causes of world peace and world hunger in Europe and around the world or slavery in the Sudan. I have far more experience than many elected officials. I don't think that you can make holding elective office and foreign policy experience the same thing. I have traveled more extensively and dealt more extensively around the world than Pres. Bush did before he ran for president. So let us not mislead people into thinking that just because you hold elective office that you know anything beyond the maybe narrow district you may hold an office in."

Sharpton Has Twice the Support Among Blacks as Other Candidates  3/4/03 NNPA: "Presidential candidate Al Sharpton has twice as much support among African-Americans as his closest Democratic rival, ties North Carolina Sen. John Edwards for fourth-place among all registered Democratic voters and is ahead of former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Florida Sen. Bob Graham and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a new Time-CNN poll shows… Among Blacks, Sharpton led the field with 20 percent, ahead of Gephardt and Lieberman, who were tied with 9 percent. The other Black candidates in the race, Moseley-Braun, received support from 6 percent of African-Americans, followed by Edwards with 5 percent, Kerry at 4 percent, Graham with 4 percent, Dean at 3 percent and Kucinich in last place with 1 percent. Other candidates received 7 percent of the Black vote and 32 percent were undecided. There was a margin of error of 6.5 percent."

MEET THE CANDIDATES: CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN  3/4/03 PBS 


Monday  3/3/03

Many Big Democratic Donors Uncommitted  3/3/03 AP: "Despite aggressive courting, many big Democratic fund-raisers and donors from Hollywood to New York are waiting for presidential hopefuls to begin emerging from the pack before committing to a candidate. Among reasons cited are a desire to see the nine candidates distinguish themselves and prove their campaigns viable; misgivings that the Democratic donor base might be unable to sustain so many national campaigns; and the thinking that even if candidates are campaigning this early, party activists do not have to."

With BC-Democrats-2004-Money  3/3/03 AP: "Some of the Democratic presidential hopefuls' fund-raising strengths and weaknesses"

'It's time to take the men-only sign off the White House door'  3/3/03 Guardian, UK: "Moseley-Bruan represents a crucial demographic, both within the Democratic party and the anti-war movement. More than 80% of African-Americans vote for the Democrats. Among them black women are the most loyal, with more than 90% backing the party. On the anti-war front, women are less hawkish than men (63% to 73%), while African-Americans remain the racial group least likely to back military action. Only 44% of black Americans support a war, compared with 73% of whites and 67% of hispanics. The other two identifiable groups most likely to oppose the war are Democrats and those with a college education."

Sharpton Hits Bush Policies & Soft Dems  3/3/03 Ny Daily News: "Sharpton was particularly critical of Democrats who have not questioned the administration's erosion of civil liberties at home and plans for wider war abroad. "The Democratic Party that Ithink should be leading the opposition has come down with a bad case of political laryngitis," Sharpton said."


Saturday  3/1/03

Anti-War Candidates Revive 1968 Memories  3/1/03 Guardian 


Friday  2/28/03

Al Sharpton's Battle to Transform the Democrats  2/28/03 Black Comentator: "Black loyalty to Democratic Party structures has been misinterpreted as inertia - a racist conclusion that implies laziness of thought and action. This false reading of African American motives and intelligence has led whites in the Party - and some Black operatives - to miscalculate the cumulative effects of the savage compromises that have been foisted on Black Democrats since Jimmy Carter's "New South" term in the White House. Assuming that Blacks will "stay" simply because they have nowhere else to "go," national Democrats refuse to understand that Rev. Al Sharpton's support derives from deep anger and heartfelt disappointment, not with Trent Lott and the White Man's Party, but with them. Sharpton is dismissed as a mere showman, in effect relegating Black voters to the status of an Apollo Theater crowd on amateur night."


Thursday  2/27/03

Al Sharpton's Battle to Transform the Democrats  2/27/03 Black Commentator: "Forget about the smoke and fog spewed by corporate media and chattering consultants of all colors. Let us begin with a stark forecast: The Democratic Party primaries must result in a national ticket that is fit for Black participation. If the party cannot loosen the fatal grip of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) - the Republican wing of the party - it will die. Black voters and their allies will either purge the DLC from national influence this primary season, or leave the Democrats to spiral into deserved oblivion. That is what the polling data actually foretell - not an incipient Black conservatism, but levels of frustration with the national Democratic Party so high among Blacks that one more betrayal will likely spark a massive exit, even if the destination is... nowhere, the negative alternative that has already been chosen by a huge chuck of younger African Americans."

Support for Bush's re-election falls below 50 percent  2/27/03 CNN: "The percentage of registered voters who say they would support President Bush in 2004 fell below 50 percent for the first time, according to a new CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll, which finds more Americans concerned about the economy."

Saudi Link to LI Start-Up - Unnamed investors take over voting Web site  2/27/03 Newsday: "Election.com, a struggling Garden City start-up scheduled to provide online absentee ballots for U.S. military personnel in the 2004 federal election, has quietly sold controlling power to an investment group with ties to unnamed Saudi nationals, according to company correspondence."


Wednesday  2/26/03

A Possible Strategy for Two Black Presidential Candidates  2/26/03 Black Press USA: "Nevertheless, it is also clear from my interviews with the media on her campaign that Moseley-Braun may have some vulnerabilities. Reporters will be asking her some tough questions about other issues in her past. One of the highest-profile issues was a former boyfriend’s personal use of campaign funds and, although the figure amounted to little more than $311.00, questions about it hounded her throughout her Senate career. The reason was not tied to any proof of her having done anything was not relatively commonplace, but the fact that it was kept alive in Illinois as an issue to use against her in 1998—and it worked. There also was the matter of her public support Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, who was highly unpopular."

Black caucus playing it cool to 2004 hopefuls  2/26/03 The Hill: "There have never been two black Democratic presidential hopefuls competing at the same time in the party’s presidential primaries. But the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is not rushing to support them."

Black Candidates: We Can Do Better  2/26/03 Washington Post 


Tuesday  2/25/03

Hispanic Vote: A Key Battleground In 2004 Election  2/25/03 Hispanic Business: "The high-profile political showdown in the Senate over President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., gives Republicans a perfect opportunity to showcase their differences with Democrats and to make inroads into the U.S. Hispanic community. At 35.3 million and growing (about 13.5 percent of total population), the U.S. Hispanic population will be a high-stakes battleground between the parties over the next two years."


Monday  2/24/03

Illinois Black Turnout Key  2/24/03 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: "Currently two black Democrats, state Sen. Barack Obama and health care activist Joyce Washington, are among a crowded field vying for the Senate nomination, with Obama considered a top-tier contender. While most political observers believe that the presence of Moseley-Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton on the Democratic presidential ballot is likely to boost black turnout in Illinois, there are mixed opinions on whether the increase would give state Democrats a black Senate nominee for the third time in 12 years."

Black, female: Both impair Moseley-Braun's chances  2/24/03 USA Today 


Friday  2/21/03

ABC 2004: The Invisible Primary  2/21/03 ABC News: rating candidates electability.

Democrats seem bent on suicide  2/21/03 Detroit Free Press: "What happened was simple: Gov. Jennifer Granholm chose Detroit attorney Butch Hollowell, an African-American activist who could have been secretary of state if the Democratic Party had worked harder for it, to be the new state party chair. The UAW opted for Mark Brewer. The party named both. One is the face of the party and doesn't get paid. One is the brains of the party and draws the same salary he has for years. Guess which is which."


Tuesday  2/18/03

If Democrats lay low on war, Bush will defeat himself  2/18/03 USA Today 


Thursday  1/23/03

Black Republicans Coming Home?  1/23/03 Challenge Group: "Just as this moment, created by the racial thuggery of Trent Lott, is an opportunity to fashion a more progressive governing agenda on civil rights issues for the majority of Blacks and even Black Republicans who are not Conservative, it is also an opportunity for Black Republican spokespersons to move beyond the stock-and-trade vilification of mainstream Black leaders and to accept some real responsibility of their own, given the strategic power position they now occupy. The acquisition of the control of the entire governmental apparatus by the Republican Party also places Black Republicans in an historic position of accountability to the Black community. How will they exercise this accountability?"

Bush's Snake Dance on Race  1/23/03 New California Media: "President Bush appears genuinely discomfited by overt racism. But he is above all a consummate politician, writes PNS commentator Andrew Reding, and his Supreme Court challenge to college affirmative action shows he is not above capitalizing on racial resentments for votes from his white, male supporters."


Thursday  1/16/03

What About Those End Times, Mr. President? Sen. Joe Lieberman announces his candidacy, but not his association with lunatic fringe of Biblical prophecy  1/16/03 Hartford Advocate: "The image is jarring: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, presidential candidate, appears on an infomercial asking Evangelical Christians to donate money to "rescue a Jew.""'On Wings of Eagles' is a modern-day fulfillment of Biblical prophesy," the voiceover in the infomercial says, over images of huddled Russian Jews at the airport, smiling as they presumably wait to leave Russia for Israel. The half-hour appeal aired on the afternoon of Jan. 2 on Paxson Broadcasting (PAX) stations across the nation (locally on WHPX, channel 26), according to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), the Chicago-based nonprofit that paid for the spot. Alongside Lieberman, testimonials come from stars of the Christian Right, including convicted Watergate felon Charles Colson, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, and Moral Majority head Jerry Falwell."