European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 18, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                May 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 13 opinion Hes Hes to06hanphes a straight talker i could vote for this watching the Pear no Law and order Reagan like gravitas needed in gop Field by Jules Witcover Tribune Media services Washington nothing better illustrates the desperation of and the Republican variety for a political magician to pull their chestnuts from the fire than the latest outbreak of possible new presidential Candi n and although All of them have been going easy in criticizing the beleaguered none has been in any Rush to embrace wholeheartedly any aspect of his they Are All locked in for the time being on support of his at least As Long As his troop surge and dependence on David Petraeus As a Miracle worker in Iraq but that support is riddled with a particularly by John that the War has been horribly Unis with a full crop of hopefuls already on Dis Concession to Many Republican play in those televised chaotic cattle of which there was another tuesday night in South the names of three More entrants Are being bruised former Tennessee senator and current television actor Fred Thompson has already been showing a lot of leg at party he is relying essentially on his presiden tial looks and a righting voting record of unsurprising and uninspired plus some big Home state Money Prospect former House speaker Newt who earlier said he was waiting to see whether any of the announced republicans raised the key told Abc news Good morn ing America on monday it was a great possibility that he would join the and friends of wealthy new York mayor i juju i a Michael according to the Wash but in terms of a Legac which Egton Are saying that the demo of the horde of declared and prospective re  is ready to plunk publican candidates can effectively Cam Down a billion dollars to make an ind Epen pain he is leaving them very Little primary voters who it has been duly noted that vice president Dick Cheney decision not to seek the presi Dency will Mark the first time in 56 years in 14 presidential elections that neither a president nor a vice president will be on either party that fact frees the eventual Republican nominee of any compunction to run on Bush which is just As Well under the but neither can that nominee Call on the retiring incumbent As a Crutch for exam vice president George Bush was Able to do in winning the presidency in in Riding to a considerable degree on the re Agan record As a sort of third Reagan term without Reagan Bush was elected in the absence of a particularly impressive vice Junior Bush remains a prolific fund Dent run for the Gingrich credentials As a conservative cant be in Light of his author ship of the 1994 contract with America that helped gain gop control of the House but fizzled in As did Ging Rich himself As an ethics deprived As for he hardly qualifies As a having run for mayor originally As a Republican As a tactical decision in the big apples muddled political Environ with that other new yorker who occupied the mayors Rudy fac ing troubles in the party for his support of gun control and abortion Bloomberg is Wise if Hes looking to the Independent All this activity and scuttlebutt reflects this growing View within the gop that Lam Duck president Bush has made such a mess of the current six year Republican and at Home and that Only some larger Hanife figure of Ronald re Agan proportions will be Able to bail the party so none of the declared or any of the new characters flirting with run fills the Bill As the next great comm so being a gop presidential candidate in this election or even thinking of has the makings of a distinctly Uphill climb for All of slogging through an Earl Start ing and Long Marathon Well before the first state caucuses and primaries in the Jerry 19332007 the evangelicals voice Dallas morning news editorial of since Martin Luther King has a religious Leader left As powerful a Mark on americas political culture As the Jerry who died tues conservative evangelicals spent most of the 20th Century on the political Side Page often disagreed with the Southern Baptist such As when he said that 11 might be gods judgment on America because of pagans and those remarks were embarrassing and and a Long line of ministers and Lay leaders rightly denounced them for their in that reaction demonstrated How Falwell Brand of political Christian by they focused on saving Ity was beginning to lose its Luster within 1 1 j1 1 t of t tvs vent 1 Vin souls and considered christians who talked about issues like social Justice to be advocates of the social which they saw As a worldly corruption of True Falwell turned them around by launch ing the moral majority in More than any single he gave organized voice to conservative protes Tants concerns Over sexual immorality and the ongoing Secu new leaders were pushing issues like care for the Environ ment and compassion for africans suffer ing from younger pastors like Rick Warren and Jakes have become voices of a less partisan movement that engages the wider world but is not As closely tied to the Republican Falwell death Marks not Only the passing of a but the passing of an Jerry Falwell was the Man who Lariza Tion of America the move led conservative evangelicals out of the ment Falwell helped Lead served As the Vanguard for the Reagan conservative evangelicals Are As integral a part of the gop As Afri can americans Are of the democratic the Dallas morning news editorial political wilderness and into the Public our democracy depends upon engaged like him or nobody can deny that the Virginia preacher who never held office was one of the most pub lic spirited and consequential political figures of his legacy Long on division Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial i to at the death of the Jerry to wonder whether he finally found what he seemed to be looking whatever his personal Faith might have Falwell Public and very Polit ical spirituality seemed based on a belief of the movement he helped to fal Well was an evangelical proponent of an America that offered prayer and creation ism in its schools and treated Gay and Les Bian sexuality As Falwell denounced the feminists refer ring at one Point to the National order of and people for the Ameri can he perceived a scriptural basis in a vengeful god aids was punishment for the War in and thought that re i for 11 was punish ment though he later recanted for Abor paganism and the of and so How might fal Well himself have characterized the Sud Den at of a Man who founded the moral majority and did As much As anyone to turn american christianity into a divisive political movement but Falwell Doest any More than do the groups he to be held up As a target of divine his death is an occasion to contemplate not his prospects in the next life but his effects on this the idea that religion and politics dont mix was invented by the Devil to keep christians from running their own Falwell declared in and that pretty Well summed up the ideology developments in the Middle East presaged the Quick approach of armager one did not have to believe in the rap Ture to see under Falwell Leader huge numbers of christians disappeared from mainstream he ran the moral majority almost As a party in its own and he claimed credit for helping put Ronald Reagan in the White even almost two decades after the moral majority was christians Are divided about their proper role in the Public instead of helping them see what they had in common for Billy Graham has done for Many Falwell urged them to focus on the issues that drove them its hard to see whats moral about by Scott Stantis Xou Vwe much of too wet to Ottow debate is of oni