Littwin: Focus on Family plays into Salazar's hands

By Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 15, 2005 at midnight

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Focus on the Family is not, despite what you may have heard, considering changing its name to Focus on Ken Salazar (FOKS?).

But you can't blame Salazar for hoping.

Every time Focus does a FOKS - in this case, a full-page attack ad on Salazar for comments he made about Sam Alito - it might as well come gift-wrapped.

Let's look inside:

Salazar gives a not-exactly-newsworthy speech at the Brown Palace on Tuesday. The press boys rush to cover it, with the hope that he might - just might - call James Dobson the A-word again. (No, not that A-word.)

And the thing is, he comes close.

He goes back to his catechism classes to accuse Focus of breaking one of your major commandments - the one about bearing false witness, which is biblical speak for the L-word.

Certainly, calling someone a liar amounts to fighting words. In fact, the only thing you can say more inflammatory in Colorado Springs these days is "Happy Holidays."

So why is the man in the cowboy hat smiling?

You know why. This is what we call in the business a free shot.

The 30 percent or so who support Dobson would never vote for Salazar anyway. The 30 percent - and maybe more - who can't stand Dobson suddenly forgive Salazar for any crimes against liberal orthodoxy.

And the rest, well, they just sit back and enjoy the fight and wonder whether Dobson - remember, he was for Harriet Miers before he was against her - is once again overreaching by calling Salazar a flip-flopper.

In any case, each time Salazar enters the ring with Dobson, the sound you hear is all those grateful Democrats cheering him on.

It's not just a free shot. It's also a free ride.

And, not incidentally, it puts Salazar at the center of attention, which is where he has spent much of his first year in the Senate.

He got there in the oddest way, too - by hewing as close to the center as possible. It isn't just that Salazar is a political moderate, although he is. It's that he's taken such a voluble stance for immoderate moderation - just the opposite of where Dobson stands.

In Salazar's speech Tuesday, he used the word "bipartisan" maybe two dozen times. The only words he used more often were "John" and "McCain."

McCain is, of course, the Republican that Democrats love to love. He comes across as independent, meaning, for Democrats, he's occasionally willing to rip George W. Bush. He's also, literally, Salazar's Senate mentor. And you know he's a role model.

If you're seen as independent, it sounds like you're straight-talking, which sounds like you're honest, which sounds like you're thoughtful, which pretty soon starts to sound like you're headed for a second term.

Certainly, Salazar has worked hard to be seen as independent, which isn't the same as unpredictable. If you watch Salazar's voting record, you can see a distinct pattern.

But you have to pay attention. And people do.

That would put him in direct contrast with Wayne Allard, who is, you'll remember, the other Coloradan in the U.S. Senate.

Allard is so reliably pro-administration that he was one of nine senators who voted against the anti- torture amendment. And, as far as we know, no one had to rip out a single fingernail.

In a speech Wednesday, Allard managed to even out-Bush the president, who just finished a series of speeches on Iraq - his I-can't-believe-my-ratings- are-this-low tour. During each speech, Bush took slightly more responsibility for the difficulties in Iraq.

Not Allard, who said: "Those who believe that the war in Iraq has become a quagmire certainly haven't been paying attention."

Forty Democrats, including Salazar, wrote Bush a letter saying he hasn't yet articulated a plan for getting out of the quagmire - I mean, Iraq. But, in most cases, Salazar likes to work with small, bipartisan groups.

There's the Gang of 14 - seven Democrats, seven Republicans - which forced a compromise on judges and filibusters.

There's the Safe Act 6 - three Democrats, three Republicans - who have been working to stop the renewal of the Patriot Act, unless at least a few civil liberties are allowed to stay in place.

He's also part of something called the Energy 8 and, for all I know, a leader in the running for commissioner of the Big 12.

If you listened to Focus, though, you'd sometimes think that Salazar is a party of one.

The issue for Focus is judges and especially the Supreme Court. It doesn't seem to matter that Salazar voted for very conservative John Roberts as chief justice. Or that Dobson was the one who, at first, boosted Harriet Miers - with trepidation - and then abandoned her, with none whatsoever.

Dobson has accused Salazar of opposing Alito because of a long-ago position on quotas. Salazar hasn't said how he's going to vote on Alito. He hasn't said if he might join a filibuster.

What he has said it that he worries that Alito might be a, uh, judicial activist.

"I don't want an ideologue on the court that isn't going to check their ideology at the door," Salazar said after the latest Dobson attack. "Right now . . . I have concerns (Alito) may be one of those people that does not check his ideology at the door before he puts on the black robe and starts ruling from the bench."

That must steam Dobson. All I can say is that I talked to the ad department, and operators are waiting on line.

littwinm@rockymountainnews.com.

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