The right-winger to watch - Gary Bauer - Interview - Cover Story

Washington Monthly, April, 1998 by Michelle Cottle

Gary Bauer is smart, savvy, not afraid to rock the Republican boat -- and a possible presidential candidate

Slap a floppy hat and a pair of oversized sunglasses on Gary Bauer and he would be the spitting image of the late Truman Capote: Standing just over five-feet tall, Bauer has a broad, round, vaguely cherubic face; a high forehead; heavy eyelids; a fair complexion; and something vaguely prim about the mouth. Squint a little, and you can almost picture him in 1970s New York partying with Andy Warhol and Paloma Picasso at Studio 54.

But a physical resemblance is as far as the parallels go. A former Reagan White House official and the current head of the ultra-conservative Family Research Council, Bauer is about as far from Capote on the political and social spectrum as Jesse Helms is from Gianni Versace. A vocal advocate of "pro-family" policies on issues ranging from child care to taxes, Bauer is the quintessential social conservative. He opposes abortion, gun control, gay rights, no-fault divorce, women in military combat, bilingual education, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He supports school choice, school prayer, abstinence-only sex ed, the death penalty, an increase in the per-child tax credit, tougher obscenity laws, and tax breaks for stay-at-home spouses. Though a long-time Republican, Bauer shares none of his party colleagues' current obsession with cultivating a "big-tent" image for the GOP. He is an unapologetic ideologue, as one might surmise from the Family Research Council's (FRC) stated mission: "to reaffirm and promote nationally, and particularly in Washington, D.C., the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built."

But Gary Bauer is no run-of-the-mill right-winger. Unlike many conservative Republicans, this pro-family crusader does not engage in knee-jerk government bashing. (In fact, he and close chum William Kristol, editor and publisher of The Weekly Standard, are derided as "big-government conservatives" by some of their colleagues on the right.) Although he shares many of the GOP's ideas about keeping government hands off the American family, Bauer recognizes that Uncle Sam can at times be useful in advancing a conservative social agenda. As a result, over the past year or so Bauer and FRC have been generating waves in Washington with their decidedly un-Republican opposition to policy proposals such as Social Security privatization, the flat tax, and free trade with China. Moreover, in gathering support for, his causes, Bauer has proved willing to cross party lines and enlist a number of unconventional allies -- from House minority leader Dick Gephardt to liberal matriarch Ethel Kennedy to the AFL-CIO. His willingness to form such coalitions has drawn the attention of the mainstream media -- "It's sort of a man bites dog sort of story," explains Bauer -- helping to make the FRC chief a regular on the pundit circuit. In recent months Bauer has squared off on-air against opponents as diverse as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the president of the Motion Picture Association, Jack Valenti.

Bauer's outspokenness has also upped his profile on the Hill. In addition to tweaking Reps. Armey and Gingrich over their economic priorities, Bauer has not been shy about dressing down the GOP for abandoning the social conservatives who helped sweep it into the majority in '94. All too often, laments Bauer, Republican candidates sound defensive and apologetic when addressing the nation's "virtue deficit." During the past two presidential campaigns, he notes, "the American public never heard the social conservatives' world view at all."

To Republicans' discomfort, Bauer's criticism reflects a growing discontent among the party's religious and social conservatives (nearly half a million of whom, incidentally, are members of FRC). "There is tremendous concern among the pro-moral community that all of the promises that were made in the inspirational speeches that Republicans gave in 1994 just sort of went away," says James Dobson, the conservative Christian radio host and president of the 2.2 million-member Focus on the Family. "Now, Christian voters feel betrayed and abandoned." Spurred by this dissatisfaction with electoral politics, Bauer has taken matters into his own hands. In late 1996, he put together a political action committee, called the Campaign for Working Families (CWF), aimed at supporting candidates who promote pro-life, pro-family values. The PAC's fund-raising success -- a whopping $2.6 million in 1997 -- has turned more than a few heads inside the Beltway. (Nothing gets Washington's attention quite like the ability to raise money.)

Of course, combine a flair for fund-raising with a significant media presence and what do you get? A potential presidential candidate. And sure enough, Bauer is making noises about a run for the White House in 2000 -- noises that have not been especially well received by other presidential wannabes courting the social-conservative vote. For people like former Vice President Dan Quayle and Sen. John Ashcroft, Bauer could pose a real threat in the primaries. In addition to his sizable FRC constituency, he has close ties to numerous other social-conservative groups, including the Republican National Coalition for Life and FRC's former parent organization, Dobson's Focus on the Family. What's more, although the money Bauer's PAC is pulling in can't be transferred to a presidential campaign, its list of generous contributors would certainly come in handy for candidate Bauer.