CREW files FOIA request for info abt WH visits of religious right leaders

[bobbieinok]

http://community.livejournal.com/dark_christian/648631.html#cutid1

Theocrats Running Scared Over FOIA Request

From AVN.com
By: Mark Kernes

WASHINGTON - Here's a development that should inspire industry leaders to buy a round of drinks: At least two religious right organizations are clearly worried about Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) finding out just how much access they and their buds have had to the White House.

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Now, the group has filed what should be a simple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the U.S. Secret Service, looking for the dates and times of visits by various religious leaders – James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Jerry Falwell (Liberty University), etc. – to the White House, whether to visit President Bush himself, Karl "Bush's Brain" Rove or any of the other staffers that closely attend the President.

CREW's rationale for the request is that the records are "likely to contribute to the public's understanding of the influence that conservative Christian leaders have, or attempt to have, on the president in the exercise of his authority."

D'ya think?

Under the law, the Secret Service will have 20 business days from the date of filing to respond to the request for records pertaining to Dobson, Perkins and Falwell, as well as Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America) (CWfA), Paul Weyrich (Free Congress Foundation), Louis Sheldon and Andrea Lafferty (Traditional Values Coalition), and Gary Bauer (Americans United to Preserve Marriage & American Values). Sadly, CREW left out a couple of semi-important ones: Jan LaRue, also of CWfA, Phil Burress (Citizens for Community Values) and Tom Minnery (Focus on the Family). Perhaps another request is in order.

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"Aside from my family and staff," wrote Perkins in FRC's daily e-"news"letter, "few people take much interest in my itinerary. A group misleadingly called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), however, has taken a sudden interest in my visits to the White House. The George Soros-funded interest group sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the White House asking for records of all visits I've made there since the inauguration of President Bush."

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Describing herself and the other objects of the FOIA request as "a constituency that put the president in the White House," Lafferty added, "The president has a lot of people that he listens to - he cares about every citizen - but our folks are the heart and soul of the Republican Party right now."

No doubt about that! But statistics are often revealing, and if it turns out that you and/or one (or several) of your buds have been visiting high administration officials on anything approaching a daily basis, the American people might like to know that – especially the ones who pooh-pooh the idea that your and your cohorts are trying to turn the Republic into a Theocracy.

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