Web site a cheap shot at McDonnell, Robertson

Democrats rarely miss an opportunity to club Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell over the head for his association with the host of "The 700 Club."

Common Sense Virginia, a new political action committee funded by the Democratic Governors Association, launched a Web site this month featuring squinty-eyed pictures of Virginia Beach's resident religious broadcaster. The Web site's ominous biography of McDonnell says he has "spent his career serving Pat Robertson and his extreme agenda."

McDonnell supporters say the site exudes religious bigotry.

Last year, Barack Obama's supporters said similar prejudice kept a spat with his former minister in the headlines for months during the presidential campaign.

Few if any Republicans leaped to Obama's defense over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But that's not the only distinction between the two preacher-politician relationships. Robertson is not McDonnell's minister; he is, however, a McDonnell campaign donor.

McDonnell - who graduated from Regent University's law school - has received $81,000 from its founder over the past 12 years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. That makes the Republican the top individual recipient of Robertson's political largesse. Any politician who accepts that kind of money understands that the donation opens him or her up to questions about the giver. Just as McDonnell can't deflect questions about sums he's collected from utility giant Dominion or the tobacco firm Altria, he can't declare Robertson and his money entirely off limits.

But that doesn't give Democrats permission to conduct character assassination by association, particularly when their not-so-subtle motive is to stigmatize McDonnell because of his religious beliefs.

McDonnell's views opposing abortion were shaped by his Catholic faith and helped spark his interest in politics. Voters can weigh his position on that issue as they decide which candidate to support, but they should also give consideration to McDonnell's attitudes toward transportation, education and energy policies.

If Democrats attempt to corrupt this year's campaign by turning it into a referendum on Robertson, they are insulting voters in general and Christian voters in particular.

A 2008 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 31 percent of Virginia respondents described themselves as evangelical Protestants. Not all evangelicals identify with Robertson; plenty find his quirky predictions and incendiary political positions odd and unnerving. But they have no trouble breaking the code when Democrats make Robertson the bogeyman in their political attacks.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine recognized that reality four years ago when he was a candidate for governor. He told The American Prospect Magazine in March 2005, "When Democrats kind of cavalierly attack the religious right or go after Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, our candidates have sent the signal to a lot of religious people, 'Well, I guess they are not interested in me.' And I think this includes a lot of people who would fit very naturally within the Democratic Party."

Rather than a club, religion can more aptly be described as a sword without a hilt. Those who seek to make it a political weapon will not be spared injury when they grasp its raw blade.