Plus ça change...

Rocky Mountain News, September 19, 1994:

Coalition leaders denounced President Clinton and his administration at every opportunity for policies they said run counter to the beliefs of church- going Americans.

''We are here to send a message and that message is that we are fed up with Clinton-style liberalism,'' said Ralph Reed, executive director of the group in opening the convention.

Marshall Wittman, who runs the coalition's Washington office, said ''the national Democratic Party has definitely created a sour mood among religious conservatives and the mood here toward it is much more sour than last year.''

Across town, National Democratic Committee chairman David Wilhelm called a news conference to return fire, claiming religious conservatives are trying to hijack God and make him the Republican standard-bearer, when ''God is in all likelihood a political independent.''

Level of hostility rising


To which Reed proclaimed defiantly: ''David, you cannot intimidate us. We are Americans too and we have every right to be involved'' in politics.


...

''Somehow we (Democrats) lost the flag in the 1980s,'' said Wilhelm, meaning Democrats are seen as weak on national defense. ''I do not want to let this party lose God and the Bible in the 1990s.''