Winter Storms Hit the Midwest; Examining the Role of Conservative Christians in Bush's Re-election
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's a fast-moving camera shot. As that truck makes its way down a snow-covered road in Louisville, Kentucky. That's coming to us from our affiliate...</s>BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Looked like that camera was on ice.</s>O'BRIEN: Whoa, it really did, it kind of slid across to get the shot. Eight inches of snow there. Those poor folks digging out this morning for sure. Well, the snow may have stopped the Midwest, but the headaches certainly keep on coming. Still some terrible driving conditions. And it is not going to be pretty for those of us on the East Coast, either. We're going to get to the forecast in just a moment.</s>HEMMER: Also this hour our series "They've Got the Goods" continues today. And this morning we focus on the impact evangelical Christians had in 2004, helping the president get re-elected. We'll talk to James Dobson, the chairman of Focus on the Family, why he got involved this time around, but stayed on the sidelines in election year past. So we'll get to that in a moment as well.</s>O'BRIEN: All right, headlines first, though Carol Costello is in for us this morning. Hello.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Good morning. Good morning to you. Bernard Kerik, the former nominee to head Homeland Security, said he has become a distraction at work. As a result, Kerik announced yesterday he is resigning from consulting firms headed by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani says he did not ask Kerik for his resignation. Hundreds of Iraqi refugees now heading back to the city of Falluja. They're passing through security checkpoints as they return today. Falluja was the scene of last month's U.S.-led campaign to retake the city from insurgents. Most of the residents fled just ahead of that operation. And there is word this morning that former Connecticut governor John Rowland has decided to plead guilty to a charge stemming from a corruption investigation. Rowland resigned from his office this summer. He's since been indicted for running a criminal enterprise out of his governor's office. Sources say Rowland will make the guilty plea to an unspecified charge during a court appearance next hour. Can you say plea bargain?</s>O'BRIEN: And this is the same guy whose wife made the big deal about blaming reporters for railroading her husband, and she did it in iambic pentameter and kind of took the blame for everybody but her husband, who I think you just said he's pleading guilty to a charge?</s>COSTELLO: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: OK.</s>COSTELLO: There you go.</s>O'BRIEN: Thank you, Carol. Appreciate it. Well, the first big storm of the winter, a holiday treat for some folks, but a big headache for drivers, certainly. Up to 20 inches of snow and ice, slowing travel all through the nation's midsection. In Texas, snow continues to fall around the panhandle. At least one storm-related death is reported in the Lone Star state. The weather also being blamed for at least six other traffic deaths in four states.</s>HEMMER: In our week-long series, "They've Got the Goods," we're profiling people who have made 2004 a year to remember. This morning, James Dobson is founder of Focus on the Family. Some say President Bush has conservative Christians to thank for his second term in office. In part one of my interview I asked Dobson why 2004 was such a good year for the religious right.</s>JAMES DOBSON, CHAIRMAN, "FOCUS ON THE FAMILY": Well, I think it's a whole lot broader than religious right. That has become kind of a pejority term. But actually, I think the president owes a good part of his election not only to evangelicals, which is a better term, from my perspective, but from conservative Catholics, and from mainline Christians who happen to have had some of the same values. So I think it was broader than what you call religious right.</s>HEMMER: So you would accept some of the credit, then, for the re-election in 2004, then?</s>DOBSON: Well, we worked pretty hard at it. But I'm not, you know -- an awful lot of people that get the credit for this. There are people involved all over the country, there are people volunteering, people praying, people involved in various ways, and so, I think it would be very arrogant for anybody to start taking large chunks of credit here.</s>HEMMER: Let me try and go back to my first question here. Anti- gay marriage ballot measures passed in eleven states, all eleven that had them. 22 percent of voters in exit polling said moral values were their biggest concern in 2004. If you put that together, you consider it a pretty good year?</s>DOBSON: I do. And again, I would quibble with your terminology. Those elections were not anti-gay. They were pro-marriage. They were efforts to strengthen the institution of marriage. And I think maybe more than any other issue, other than the Supreme Court, that that determined the outcome. And it was a good year.</s>HEMMER: In 2000, you did not actively support the president's campaign. Why did you consider it so critical in 2004 to be out there in front?</s>DOBSON: You know, I have never endorsed a presidential candidate until now. Because I was president of Focus on the Family, Focus on the Family's a nonprofit organization, and I didn't want to drag it into the political arena. I have now stepped down as president. I'm chairman of the board, but there's some distance there. And that allowed me personally to endorse the president. Focus on the Family is still a nonprofit organization, and it could not be actively involved in the elections, although those moral issues that you talk about were very, very important to us.</s>HEMMER: What kind of contact did you have with Karl Rove during the campaign?</s>DOBSON: Well, I wouldn't say that I was on the phone with him every day. And I have talked to him and to other people within the White House. But, we are not an operative for the Republican party or for the White House. We supported the things we supported because we believe in the moral values that were at stake. And also, because we're very concerned about John Kerry. So this was not an orchestrated thing. Our part in it was not orchestrated by the White House at all.</s>HEMMER: Give me a better sense of that. Did you approach Karl Rove, or did he approach you?</s>DOBSON: My conversations with Karl Rove were off the record, and I really wouldn't be willing to talk about that.</s>HEMMER: Would you tell me if you went to him or he went to you first?</s>DOBSON: No, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't be prepared to talk about that at all. I can just simply tell you that what we did was motivated by our own value system, our own concern, and you know, we have 250,000 letters and phone calls a month. I knew where the people are out there who draw strength and information from Focus on the Family. And so that's where our motivation came from.</s>HEMMER: You said this recently and I'll quote you on this, you said now, "This year I had to do everything I could to keep the loony left from capturing the United States Supreme Court and shaping its liberal decisions for the next 25 years." I don't know if you've answered that just yet, but if you haven't, why did you make that change for 2004?</s>DOBSON: I'm not sure what change you're talking about.</s>HEMMER: I don't know if you've answered that just yet, but if you haven't, why did you make that change for 2004?</s>DOBSON: I'm not sure what change you're talking about. I have been concerned about the Supreme Court for a long time. So that's not a new perspective.</s>HEMMER: I guess the change I'm referring to is the low profile you took in 2000, and then the change you took for 2004.</s>DOBSON: Well, I -- no, I took a high profile on the Supreme Court a long time ago, but that's different than endorsing political candidates and especially presidential candidates. We were very, very concerned about the Supreme Court, and still are, because of the attack on religious liberty. I mean, this has been going on for 43 years now, going back to 1962, when the Supreme Court struck down the right to pray in schools, or have Bible reading in schools, or the Pledge of Allegiance in 2002, I think it was. You know, there's been this continuing attack on religious liberty. And if John Kerry had had the opportunity over perhaps eight years to make as many as four or five Supreme Court appointees, that could have set in place a system of beliefs and values that would have stayed with us for maybe the rest of this century.</s>HEMMER: Listening to you, I get the sense of accomplishment from you. Is that a fair reading?</s>DOBSON: You know, that would be an arrogant reading. I really didn't go into this by trying to accomplish something personally. That's not what I'm all about at this stage of my life. You're looking at man who cares very, very deeply about the family, about children, about marriage, about unborn children, about taxes on the family, the marriage penalty tax, many of those kind of issues. And that's where I'm coming from; that's what motivated me. This was not an effort to try to, you know, aggrandize myself in any way.</s>HEMMER: In a moment, my conversation with James Dobson does not end there. If the president does not deliver for evangelicals, what are the consequences for the White House? Back with more after this.