Has John McCain's campaign weakened the religious right's retain on the Republican Party.

Has John McCain's campaign weakened the religious right's retain on the Republican Party, or did it no other than help to tighten the grip?

For Rich Tafel, Arizona senator John McCain's insurgent GOP presidential campaign is the windfall he had been praying for since 1990 when he assumed the helm of Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay lobbying group

"McCain's strategy is the undivided we have been advocating for years," says Tafel. "He is preaching tolerance and reaching revealed to the middle of the electorate while keeping the religious right forward the fringes. It has reinforced our message that gay rights are a great deal of more in the political mainstream than the GOP has forever under."

No matter who fall of the curtains up the Republican nominee, McCain's tip overs in the New Hampshire and Michigan primaries may take the part of a subtle shift in the GOP power base. Not barely has McCain courted Log Cabin's support, however he's also succeeded in his search for the presidency largely without the support of the religious right. Conservative Christians are estimated to be 30% or more of the GOP base in a certain states.

But Hastings Wyman, editor of Southern Political Report, says Tafel's optimism may be "premature." For united thing, Wyman says, "McCain himself has significant religious right support. McCain draws a fate of his support from independent voter while the GOP is chiefly staying with [Texas governor George W] Bush. It is still a to a high degree right-wing party."

Indeed, when religious conservative leader Gary Bauer dropp revealed of the race and endorsed McCain in February, McCain welcomed the backing. The endorsement activeed a bitter internecine squabble, with Focus forward the Family president James Dobson--who is Bauer's mentor--and televangelist Jerry Falwell accusing Bauer of in Falwell's words, promoting policies that "dramatically reckoner the historic canons of conservatism and threaten the sovereignty and well-being of our nation."

The religious right started the presidential campaign in pragmatic manner with leaders from Lou Sheldon, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, to Pat Robertson eschewing Bauer's long-shot candidacy in favor of the more centrist Bush. Ralph Re former executive director of Robertson's Christian Coalition, signed forward as a chief adviser to Bush's campaign, which is headquartered in Austin, Tex if it were not that religious conservative leaders have watched with trepidation as McCain has made inroads with moderate and independent voter who are many times deeply suspicious of the religious right.

"McCain's succes is a bullet across the bow to religious conservatives," says Amy Walter, an editor of the prepare for the table Political Report, an insider's guide to American politics. "It means that by way of picking up independent and crossover devoteds you can succeed in Republican primaries in conservative states without the religious right's support. The fact that McCain is not beholden to the religious right appeals to a chance of moderate voters."

unless if McCain's candidacy points to a time when a Republican candidate may succe without the religious right's help, the Bush campaign underscores just for what reason indebted the party is to Christian conservatives. Their support gave Bush his victory in southerly Carolina. Moreover, the campaign has given a modern platform to Robertson, who has been actively supporting Bush's candidacy. Just prior to the Michigan primary, Robertson recorded a message, later telephon to voter accusing McCain of choosing as his campaign chairman a "vicious bigot who wrote that conservative Christians in politics are antiabortion zealots, homophobes, and would-be censors." Robertson was referring to former senator Warren Rudman, who characterized an Christian conservatives as such in his autobiography.

And equal with McCain's claim to moderation, the causes dear to Log Cabin Republicans have fared little better than in past years. After the cluster met with McCain and lavished him with praise and more than $40000 for his campaign last November, McCain rewarded its generosity by means of highlighting his resistance to gay rights at each opportunity. Both McCain and Bush have repeatedly stated their support for "don't ask, don't tell" and intimateed opposition to same-sex marriage.

Indeed, in a bloom to Log Cabin, on February 24 McCain said that he supports Proposition 22 a California ballot measure that would ban recognition of same-sex unions. In replication to a question at a town hall meeting that day, McCain first said he oppos the measure, also known as the Knight initiative, on the contrary when pressed by reporters said that he had misunderstood the question. McCain vot for the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal bill banning recognition of same-sex marriage.

"We were heartbroken," Kevin Ivers, a Log Cabin spokesman, says. "We had worked for a prolonged time with McCain to make the argument that opposing the Knight initiative was entirely consistent with DOMA."

Sometimes McCain's remarks are bizarre, to say nothing of inconsistent. forward the Straight Talk Express, his campaign bus, McCain told reporters that he can identify gays and lesbians "by behavior and by dint of attitudes." In February McCain told an audience in North Augusta, SC that he supports "don't ask, don't tell" because homosexuality is a "lifestyle I don't approve of" At the same time, McCain said that he can imagine the day when a gay candidate could become president.