RNC abortion vote will be litmus test in religious right's GOP takeover drive.

Religious Right operatives plan to use a Republican National Committee vote on abortion as the rallying point for a takeover of the GOP party machinery.

RNC member Tim Lambert of Texas told World magazine that a Religious Right defeat at a Jan. 16 RNC meeting in Palm Springs, Calif., will be turned into a victory in the near future.

Lambert, a Religious Right hardliner and head of the Texas Home School Association, introduced a resolution at the GOP gathering that would have banned RNC funding for any candidate who supports so-called "partial birth" abortion, a late-term procedure that anti-abortion forces are trying to outlaw.

Although Republicans have made the abortion restriction a top priority in Congress, RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other party leaders pulled out all the stops to defeat the Lambert resolution, fearing it would hurt the party at the polls and jeopardize GOP control of Congress. (Prominent Republican officeholders, such as New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, would be affected by the funding ban.)

Lambert, however, had backing from influential figures such as Pat Buchanan, U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), Malcolm "Steve" Forbes, Phyllis Schlafly, the Family Research Council's Gary Bauer and Bauer's mentor, religious broadcaster James Dobson. In an angry letter to Nicholson, Dobson asked, "Is there any principle or belief that would result in restricted campaign funding? If not, you' stand for nothing."

Christian Coalition Executive Director Randy Tate also entered the fray on Lambert's behalf, although evidence suggests the move came reluctantly. CC President Don Hodel told The Washington Times he opposes such litmus tests, but he apparently relented a few days later due to rank-and-file pressure on the group's leaders to become more aggressive.

Nicholson and his allies triumphed, but only alter Lambert and other Religious Right activists lofted a procedural vote on the issue that can be used as a litmus test in the coming inter-party infighting. (The committee vote was 114-43.)

Lambert told World that information was what he was after all along.

"We won," Lambert exulted to his wife on the telephone, after the tally. "We got it to a floor vote. It failed, of course, but there was a standup vote. And we had plenty of people taking notes."

Lambert said the Religious Right will now try to unseat RNC members who refused to go along with his resolution. He said a similar scheme worked in Texas.

In 1993 Lambert engineered a vote in the Texas party convention on a motion to deny funding to candidates who didn't support the party platform. His side lost, but over the next year, Religious Right activists sought party positions replacing moderates. By 1994, they held a majority of seats. In the next round, they ejected Religious Right ally Tom Pauken as state chairman, rejecting establishment candidate Joe Barton.

"We won," said Lambert. "It wasn't about who would win the floor vote. It was about control of the party."

Religious Right activists in the Republican Party have become increasingly disgruntled, charging that the GOP leadership in Congress should be more aggressive on abortion and other religiously charged issues.

Some hardliners are even bolting the party altogether. After the RNC vote, W. Grover Coors, of the wealthy Colorado beer family, quit the GOP. According to The Washington Times, Coors wrote Nicholson that the RNC "sent a clear message that the Republican Party stands for nothing. What's next: Republicans for Socialism, Republicans for Ethnic Cleansing, Republicans for Pedophilia?" Coors said he will register with the American Constitution Party, which is aligned with the far-right U.S. Taxpayers Party.

But other Republicans are fretting about the GOP's obsession with abortion and other social issues. In an interview with The New York Times, former President Gerald Ford said the party's "ultraconservative faction" could hurt its chances at the polls.

Noting that he and his wife Betty are both pro-choice, Ford said abortion is "an issue that creates significant turmoil in the party and ought not to be a partisan political issue. But how do you extract it from the arena? I can't tell you. You've got zealots who are determined."