Posted on Oct 18, 2005 | by Staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--President George W. Bush’s decision to tap White House counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Judge Sandra Day O’Connor has sparked plenty of debate -- and this time the nexus of the controversy is centered in his conservative base.

Richard Land’s early statement of faith in the president’s pick kept the phone in his Nashville office ringing, as representatives of the national media sought an interview with the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

An Oct. 9 spot on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” headlined the whirlwind week of interviews and guest appearances. Yet it was a Boston Globe article, “Baptist lobbyist walks a fine line,” that put Land front and center.

The article, second in a series on “key evangelical leaders,” profiled Land and his ministry, reporting that the SBC executive’s parents were married at a Baptist church in Weymouth, Mass. Land’s mother grew up in Braintree, Mass.; his father was stationed in Boston on the USS Boston for a time during World War II.

The series also featured Focus on the Family’s James Dobson and Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose-Driven Life” and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

“For 18 years, Land has walked this fine line as the Southern Baptist Convention’s influential point-man in Washington, where he uses his close ties to the White House and congressional leadership to promote a deeply conservative social agenda on behalf of the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination,” Boston Globe reporter Nina J. Easton wrote.

Easton, who began working on the story in June, added that Land “carefully distances himself from the far right,” saying Land asserts that Christians should be ministering to homosexuals while condemning those who say homosexuals are automatically consigned to perdition, with no chance for repentance.

“To his liberal foes, Land is easily the most confounding of religious right leaders,” the Globe article reports. “At least as steeped in Western history as biblical verse, this fan of Jane Austen and Thomas Wolfe boasts a doctorate of philosophy from Oxford and readily slips out of Southern Baptist vernacular into the language of the media elite.”

Land graduated with the bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University and a doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University in England. He also received a master of theology degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

“He doesn’t play to stereotypes,” the article says, quoting Joseph R. Crapa, the executive director of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Crapa served in the Clinton administration and was chief of staff for Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D.-N.Y. Land has served on the commission since 2001, appointed to the body twice by the president and most recently by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R.-Tenn.

“Land has a preacher’s charisma and a professor’s loquaciousness. And like any good politician, he’s a man constantly in motion,” Easton wrote. “He’s eager to advertise his friendships with liberals and says he relishes being the ‘token conservative’ on panel discussions,” she added, quoting Land as saying, “It’s always interesting to be around people with whom I disagree to see what they think.”

Land provided “much of the intellectual underpinning” for the SBC’s move to reclaim a high view of Scripture, Easton wrote, calling it “a shift toward fundamentalism and hard-right political views.”

Easton spotlighted Land’s work in forging “common ground with liberals on race when he orchestrated the convention’s apology for its forebears’ involvement in slavery” in 19995.

“It occurred to me that it’s one thing to denounce racism,” Land told Easton. “It’s another to apologize. There’s an empowering when you ask for forgiveness.”

According to the article, Land, a native Houstonian, first met George W. Bush when Bush’s father was president and Land was serving on the staff of Texas Gov. William P. Clement. That 1980s acquaintance grew to a much closer relationship when the younger Bush became president, Easton wrote.

“Unlike others on the right, Land didn’t require convincing when Bush nominated John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice -- despite an unclear record on abortion and other social issues -- and now stands apart from critics of the Miers nomination,” she wrote.

Land’s unequivocal support of Miers for the court post earned him a spot Oct. 10 on MSNBC’s “The Situation” with Tucker Carlson.

Carlson reminded Land that when then-President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to the high court Reagan was confident that O’Connor abhorred abortion and was supportive of pro-family issues. He asked Land if he is at all concerned that religious conservatives today were being too trusting, as many were back in 1981 when O’Connor was nominated.

“No, I’m not,” Land responded. “And the reason is I know President Bush. I’ve known President Bush since 1988. And with all due respect to Ronald Reagan, you know, a man I had tremendous admiration and respect for, Ronald Reagan had a bunch of people around him whose main job, they thought, was to keep Reagan from being Reagan.”

Land said in the current administration the president has “people around him who are there to help Bush be Bush, and one of those people is Harriet Miers. She has been at his elbow and at his side for the last four and a half years as they have been giving us the most stellar judicial nominees in the history of the republic.

“This president has known this woman for 15 years. He’s worked with her daily. That’s a little different than Ronald Reagan,” Land said.

Land went on to explain that even if the votes were there to overturn the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, it wouldn’t outlaw abortion. “It just restores it to the peoples’ elected representatives to make that decision,” he said.

Carlson noted Miers appears to have “a lot of supporters on the left,” while many conservatives “are withholding judgment, at least so far,” asking Land, “Why do you think she’s so popular with liberals on Capitol Hill?”

“Well, because she’s worked with a lot of them. They know her. They know that if they’re going to get a conservative jurist, that she would be a good one,” Land responded.

“I believe that she’s going to dazzle -- I use that term very carefully -- she’s going to dazzle the nation when the hearings are held before the Judiciary Committee. She may not be John Roberts. Who is? But she’s close,” he continued.

Land appeared on Fox News’ Special Report with Shepard Smith Oct.10. He was interviewed for stories on the Miers nomination that ran Oct.7 in the Dallas Morning News and Oct. 5 in The Los Angeles Times.

Clips from his appearance on Meet the Press were rebroadcast on CNN, Fox News and NBC Nightly News.
--30--