
DATE: Thursday, September 18, 1997          TAG: 9709180342

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

COALITION FOE USES ROBERTSON'S WORDS AS AMMO

In Atlanta last weekend, Pat Robertson laid it on the line about the next presidential election for leaders of the Christian Coalition:

``I don't think the Democrats are going to be able to take the White House unless we throw it away. . . . We still haven't gotten the influence I think we ought to have inside the Republican Party. . . . We said by the year 2000 we'd have the presidency, and that's to me the next goal.''

Robertson also inadvertently handed new ammunition to his critics.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which argues the coalition should be denied tax-exempt status, released a transcript Wednesday of Robertson's remarks. It had obtained a tape of the conversation from an unidentified source.

Barry W. Lynn, director of Americans United, said in a statement, ``We have repeatedly charged that the Christian Coalition is nothing but a hardball Republican political machine with a thin veneer of religiosity. In this speech, Pat Robertson not only admits that, he boasts about it.

``The IRS should move promptly to remove the Christian Coalition's tax-exempt status.''

Technically, the coalition, based in Chesapeake, doesn't have that status. Since its founding in 1989, the IRS has never yet ruled on whether it is tax-exempt. But the coalition is working under a provisional designation, which means it has not been paying taxes.

Critics argue that that means taxpayers are subsidizing political campaigning by the coalition and Robertson.

The coalition maintains it is a political education group that does not endorse specific candidates.

Coalition spokesman Arne Owens did not deny the transcript's accuracy.

``He shared his personal views on the political landscape,'' Owens said. ``He promoted his personal assessments of where we stood as an organization. Nowhere in that transcript will you find us endorsing a particular party or candidate.''

Referring to the specific statement by Robertson that the Democrats can't take the White House ``unless we throw it away,'' Owens said Robertson was not talking about the Republican Party.

``I think he's talking about the conservative, pro-family movement there, as opposed to the Republican Party,'' Owens said. ``Pro-family, conservative people of faith are a large voting bloc.''

The coalition's critics have been spurred on recently by a Federal Election Commission lawsuit, filed last year and still pending, which charged that the coalition's ``voter guides'' and other efforts actually violate federal election law by making in-kind contributions to Republican candidates.

Robertson's remarks came during the coalition's annual ``Road to Victory'' conference. Robertson was speaking to state coalition leaders and activists.

Early on, according to Americans United's transcript, Robertson said, ``This is sort of speaking in the family. It's speaking out of my heart and not from any kind of a prepared text. If there's any press here, would you please shoot yourself. Leave. Do something.''

He went on to describe the coalition's strength, a core of committed people who organize the grass-roots effort, and a database of like-minded voters to contact.

``If we have that basic core and we have identified people, this was the power of every machine that has ever been in politics,'' Robertson said. ``You know, the Tammany Halls . . . and the Chicago machine and the Byrd machine in Virginia and all the rest of them.''

Tammany Hall was a 19th-century New York political machine known for its power, but also its corruption. Its leader was known as ``Boss Tweed.''

Lynn argues that remarks like that show that the coalition's primary purpose is not political education, but a political organization meant to elect the candidate the coalition supports.

``Pat Robertson is a fundamentalist Boss Tweed, preaching morality at Americans while running one of the most venal political machines in history,'' Lynn said.

He said he plans to turn the transcript over to the IRS and the FEC for review.

Robertson's speech also appeared to signal that the group's new leaders, Donald Hodel and Randy Tate, will move away from the political philosophy of founding director Ralph Reed, who had been attempting to align the coalition with more moderate politics.

``Moderates lose,'' Robertson said. ``You know, they lose. And we've had two major losers and I don't want any more losers, I want a winner.''

He appeared to be referring to George Bush and Bob Dole, the last two Republican presidential candidates.

Robertson also went on to deride the probable Democratic candidates, referring to Vice President Al Gore as ``Ozone Al'' and ``out of it.'' He said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt is ``probably worse, in the pocket of the labor unions, and we don't need somebody like that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

COALITION IN COURT

In a pending lawsuit, the Federal Election Commission accuses the

Christian Coalition of violating federal election law by engaging in

partisan political activity on behalf of Republican candidates

dating back to 1990.

The FEC alleges that the coalition made in-kind campaign

contributions, which as a corporation it is not allowed to do in

federal elections, by coordinating its voter guides, voter

identification and get-out-the-vote efforts with these campaigns:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee's efforts on behalf

of Senate candidates in seven states in 1990.

Sen. Jesse Helms' 1990 re-election effort in North Carolina.