Talent for deception: a centrist, straight-arrow image masks a right-wing, ethically challenged record.(James Talent)

BACK IN 1984, A SINGLE RADIO BROADCAST FOREVER changed the life of James Talent, a young lawyer in Missouri making his first foray into state politics. It was the peak of the Reagan era. God and country were hot topics, and religious broadcasters were cranking at a fever pitch. James Dobson, who heads Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization, was hosting his daily radio show from Colorado Springs.

His guest that fateful day was Luis Palau, an evangelist and author of It's a God Thing. After a heated religious broadcast, Dobson wound up his program by entreating ...

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