Tony Perkins: Dances with Bigots

You are going to see a rarity here: a moderate Republican linking to an article in the left-leaning Nation magazine. Why am I doing this? Because there is an interesting story by Max Blumenthal about one of the leaders of last Sunday's Justice Sunday, an event where many leaders from the Religious Right gathered to denounce those mean Democrats for discriminating again judicial nominees who were "people of faith."

What's so interesting is that one of those involved, Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, has ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, considered a white supremacist group. Here's what Bluementhal says:

Four years ago, Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America's premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South. In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was the campaign manager for a right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.

Why anyone would want David Duke's mailing list is beyond me. And for some odd reason, several conservative lawmakers have been seem making speeches to this group, among them former Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia and Senator Trent "Foot in Mouth" Lott of Mississippi.

I had to see for myself what this Council of Conservative Citizens was all about so I checked out their website. It's amazing we still have people like this running around. Here's a bit from their statement of principles:

We believe the United States is a European country and that Americans are part of the European people.



We believe that the United States derives from and is an integral part of European civilization and the European people and that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character.



We therefore oppose the massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples into the United States that threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority in our lifetime.



We believe that illegal immigration must be stopped, if necessary by military force and placing troops on our national borders; that illegal aliens must be returned to their own countries; and that legal immigration must be severely restricted or halted through appropriate changes in our laws and policies.



We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called "affirmative action" and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.

Okay. I guess I won't bring up my uncle and aunt who are a mixed race marriage and their offspring.

The links page (for some reason, most of links are broken) has the web addresses of political parties in other parts of the world including two far right parties, the British National Party and the National Front Party of France. Both have been accused of racist beliefs.

Perkins has led the fight on the judges issue as well as same sex marriage all in the name of "values." I guess he forgot that tolerance and respect of other races is a value as well.

Special thanks to Eva Young for the tip.