On the October 22 edition of the CBS Evening News, correspondent Lee Cowan reported on “a thousand 'Patriot Pastors' from conservative churches all across Ohio who want their congregations out of their pews and in the polling places." Cowan claimed that “churches are picking up the slack” for politicians who are not discussing the “issues of abortion, euthanasia, infanticide or gay marriage,” and that “if it's anything like two years ago, it may well be a get-out-the-vote effort that could once again be the answer to conservatives' prayers.” But Cowan's report did not mention disclosures in a newly released book that the Bush White House has pandered to Christian conservatives for votes while breaking promises on policy and referring to them as “the nuts,” “insane,” and “ridiculous” behind closed doors. Those disclosures are made in Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (Free Press, October 2006) by David Kuo, former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

As Media Matters for America has noted, in the book, Kuo described ways in which the Bush White House manipulated and lied to Christian conservatives; alleged that Bush and White House senior adviser Karl Rove lied to Christian conservatives about the amount of money the Bush administration had made available for faith-based charities; and detailed the White House's privately dismissive attitudes toward the Christian right.

The “Patriot Pastors” program is an initiative of the conservative Ohio Restoration Project, although, as People for the American Way documented, the concept has expanded to other states. Its goal is for each participating pastor to register 300 new "value voters" and recruit 200 "Minutemen" to volunteer to work in their community and on political campaigns. The Ohio Restoration Project is headed by Columbus, Ohio, pastor Russell Johnson, whom Cowan featured in his report.

From the October 22 edition of the CBS Evening News:

COWAN: The music is infectious at Pastor Russell Johnson's church, where parishioners are as loyal to his prayer as they are to his politics.

JOHNSON: When the Lord returns, he will not be on Air Force One.

COWAN: He's one of a group of about a thousand “Patriot Pastors” from conservative churches all across Ohio who want their congregations out of their pews and in the polling places.

JOHNSON: The life of the church should get out from behind the stained-glass windows, get out, get informed, vote. It's part of our stewardship.

COWAN: In 2004, the president benefited from that. Evangelical Christians turned out in droves, driven in part by a desire to support a flurry of constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. They got a nickname: the values voter.

They quickly became one of the most reliable voting blocs the Republicans could ask for. The question, though, is: Will value voters be valuable this year, too?

Do you think people are as excited to come out and vote this time around?

JOHNSON: I think we're going to have to work hard.

COWAN: The [former Rep. Mark] Foley [R-FL] mess hasn't helped. It's been a gut-wrenching turnoff to many of the faithful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think there has always been, like, a general disgust with Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's frustrating, really, yeah, very. You put trust in somebody, yeah.

COWAN: A CBS News/New York Times poll suggests that support from values voters for Republican candidates may be softening. In Ohio's tough Senate race, only about half of white evangelicals back Republican candidate Mike DeWine. More than a third say they're voting for Democrat Sherrod Brown. Fourteen percent are still undecided. Something is different this election cycle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's [Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted] Strickland's stand on abortion?

COWAN: While voters here are talking values, the politicians are talking Iraq and the economy instead.

CHRIS LONG [director of the Ohio Christian Alliance]: There's many on the left that are waiting for the value voter to die.

COWAN: Which worries conservative talk radio hosts like Chris Long.

LONG: We noticed that in a number of the debates that are held of the candidates, that issues of abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, or gay marriage are not addressed in those debates.

COWAN: So churches are picking up the slack. Politics in the pulpit may make some uncomfortable, but if it's anything like two years ago, it may well be a get-out-the-vote effort that could once again be the answer to conservatives' prayers. Lee Cowan, CBS News, Columbus.