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Aside from being Republicans, what do House Majority Whip Tom (The Hammer) DeLay, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Majority Leader Richard Armey have in common?
Besides their desire to drive President Clinton from office, they, and several other of their congressional colleagues, are members of the secretive, extremist religious right Council for National Policy (CNP).
Never heard of the CNP? You are not alone. While the CNP is a veritable who's who of the Christian right, it prefers to do its business in secrecy, as you will see in the articles that follow.
Whether it's a matter of ignorance, apathy or design, the major media have shown no interest in the CNP, despite the efforts of the Institute for First Amendment Studies to get their attention.
Patrick McGuigan, one of The News Hour's (PBS) regular regional commentators, is listed as a member of the CNP.
McGuigan is editorial page editor of The Daily Oklahoman which has called for Clinton's impeachment.
In addition to DeLay, Lott and Armey, senators Jesse Helms and Don Nickles, Lauch Faircloth, representatives Dan Burton, Ernest Istook and John Doolittle are listed as members of the CNP. They are
in the company of such right wing Christian luminaries as Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Joseph Farah, Reed Irvine, Larry Klayman, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, former Attorney
General Edwin Meese, Ralph Reed, Howard Phillips, Phyllis Schlafly, Donald Wildmon, Paul Weyrich, Oliver North, and the Rutherford Institute's John Whitehead.
Then there is R.J. Rushdoony, the founder of the Chalcedon Foundation and the father of the Christian Reconstruction movement, and his son-in-law Gary North of the Institute for Christian Economics.
Members from the business community include Richard DeVos of Amway, several members of the Coors family, Pierre S. duPont IV, Richard Wirthlin and Nelson Bunker Hunt.
What was Hillary saying about a "vast right wing conspiracy?"
The membership list may be found on IFAS's web site.
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