{"id":177,"date":"2007-12-14T09:48:20","date_gmt":"2007-12-14T09:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2007\/12\/family-research-council-staffe.html"},"modified":"2007-12-14T09:48:20","modified_gmt":"2007-12-14T09:48:20","slug":"family-research-council-staffe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2007\/12\/family-research-council-staffe.html","title":{"rendered":"Family Research Council Staffers Join Huckabee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"yoest.jpg\"Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has raised doubts about Mike Huckabee<\/a>, but when God-o-Meter learned that FRC vice president of communications Charmaine Yoest<\/a> (pictured) had taken a leave of absence to serve as a Huckabee senior advisor earlier this month, it wondered where the group really stood. Then God-o-Meter learned that Family Research Council director of web communications Joe Carter<\/a> has also taken leave from FRC, the Christian Right\u2019s premiere DC lobby, to join Huckabee\u2019s online effort. A source at the Family Research Council tells God-o-Meter that no other senior staff has left to join any other presidential campaigns. But FRC government affairs chief Tom McClusky tells God-o-Meter that the organization\u2019s lending staff to the Huckabee effort\u2014neither Yoest nor Carter will be paid by FRC while they\u2019re with Huck\u2014does not represent the group’s tacit endorsement of his campaign. \u201cThey\u2019re not reflective of where the remaining brain trust is,\u201d says McClusky. \u201cNone of these candidates has everything we\u2019re looking for.\u201d
\nGod-o-Meter caught up with Yoest this week and asked why she signed up for Huckabee. \u201cI felt like he was the only the candidate who could beat Hillary Clinton,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is a guy who is willing to take hard stands and who articulates them with courage but also in a winsome way that is compelling for people who don\u2019t always agree. I get excited about bringing back the Reagan coalition\u2014those Democrats who have been disaffected by Republicans who\u2019ve not made a strong appeal to them.\u201d
\nTo God-o-Meter, this explanation hints at why Huckabee is the candidate best suited to the new evangelical political zeitgeist, characterized by a commitment to transcending the conservative orthodoxy on non-social issues even as the movement stands firm on old guard Christian Right issues like opposing abortion and gay unions. It explains why Huckabee\u2019s pro-environmental positions have raised the ire of the old line Christian Right but sit well with much of the evangelical rank and file. \u201cWhen did the Republicans cede the environment to the other party?\u201d Yoest asks. \u201cChristian conservatives more than anybody else see it as God\u2019s creation and that we are stewards of the environment. It doesn\u2019t make [Huckabee] a liberal. It makes him a forward-looking politician.\u201d
\nYoest and the old guard do share a common obsession in beating Hillary, however. \u201cYou can\u2019t beat a liberal with a moderate,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople who think Giuliani could beat Hillary Clinton are not accurately assessing how strong the voters feel about life and marriage. They\u2019re not going to come out strongly enough to put him over the top. And you look at Romney and see the money he\u2019s raised and how little traction he\u2019s been able to get\u2026 I don\u2019t\u2019 see why people would think he\u2019s able to knock out Hillary Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has raised doubts about Mike Huckabee, but when God-o-Meter learned that FRC vice president of communications Charmaine Yoest (pictured) had taken a leave of absence to serve as a Huckabee senior advisor earlier this month, it wondered where the group really stood. Then God-o-Meter learned that Family Research Council…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-huckabee"],"yoast_head":"\nFamily Research Council Staffers Join Huckabee - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2007\/12\/family-research-council-staffe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family Research Council Staffers Join Huckabee - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has raised doubts about Mike Huckabee, but when God-o-Meter learned that FRC vice president of communications Charmaine Yoest (pictured) had taken a leave of absence to serve as a Huckabee senior advisor earlier this month, it wondered where the group really stood. 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