Starting tomorrow, the Family Research Council, DC's most powerful religious right lobbying group, is hosting a major conference this Friday called the "2006 Values Voter Summit." For a mere $95, attendees can hear three days worth of far-right, theocratic rhetoric from nearly all of the movement's most prominent leaders and activists, including James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins, and Don Wildmon.
Perhaps most importantly, a featured guest will be none other than Ann Coulter. Will she be enough to keep high-profile politicians away from the summit? As Charles Pierce explained, not so much.

I count at least five people — George Allen, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and my own governor, Mitt Romney — who are rumored to be running for president and who come to wallow with a woman who recommends the assassination of Supreme Court justices…. Not that we here at Tapped engage in guilt by association, but, wow.

In addition to the names Pierce mentioned, I'd also add that confirmed speakers also include Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), and Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.). (John McCain has been invited but has not confirmed.)

Leading conservative lawmakers seem to think nothing of an appearance — six weeks before nationwide elections, no less — in front of a thousand fringe activists, hate-filled personalities, and theocons anxious to establish a Taliban-west like government in the United States.

Here's a thought: why shouldn't Dems raise a serious fuss about this?

--Guest Post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report