LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY amethyst_hunter)

And why you shouldn't, either




Domino's founder eyes next president
Founder of Ave Maria tosses big money and religious influence to Sen. Brownback

By McClatchy News Service
Originally posted on December 18, 2006


WASHINGTON — The passion of Tom Monaghan: Pizza. God. Sam Brownback.

The Domino's pizza founder, one of the nation's richest and most controversial Roman Catholic philanthropists, is putting his money and influence into making Brownback, the Republican Kansas senator, the next president of the United States.

The former pizza magnate is advising the 2008 presidential exploratory committee for Brownback, a longtime social conservative who converted to Catholicism a few years ago. Monaghan, who declined an interview request, is expected to play a lead role in "Catholics for Brownback."

More important, his support is likely to be a big help to Brownback's fundraising, which is currently regarded as the weakest part of Brownback's candidacy.

"He brings to the table recognition in the Catholic community," said Marlene Elwell, a Michigan political activist who used to work for Monaghan. "It's always positive to have a leader in a community endorse you."

But the extent of Monaghan's religious fervor could raise eyebrows among more secular voters.

"In the Catholic community, he's looked upon as kind of on the fringes," said the Rev. Robert Drinan, a liberal Roman Catholic priest and former Democratic congressman who teaches at Georgetown University. "The worldview is, 'We have to get back to a Catholic civilization.' They want to go back to a Christian society imposed from above. ... It's just another world they want to build."

Literally: Monaghan, who sold Domino's for nearly $1 billion in 1998, has spent a chunk of his fortune developing his own utopia on 5,000 acres in Southwest Florida: Ave Maria, a planned community of 11,000 homes, built around a massive church and a doctrinaire Catholic university also called Ave Maria.

Last year, Monaghan said in a speech in Boston: "We're going to control all the commercial real estate, so there's not going to be any pornography sold in this town. We're controlling the cable system. The pharmacies are not going to be able to sell condoms or dispense contraceptives."

Monaghan later backed off that statement. But development officials have made clear that they would prefer retailers who follow Monaghan's wishes.

Then there's Ave Maria University, which Monaghan founded and funded with $250 million of his own money.

It bothers some involved in Catholic education that Monaghan and school leaders declared Ave Maria University necessary because many of the nation's 200-plus other Catholic colleges and universities strayed from church teachings.

"There is certainly a degree of presumption, even hubris, in marketing institutions of this type on the premise that all the other schools are failing to educate Catholics effectively," said Richard Yanikoski, the president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Even before his work in Florida, Monaghan was a lightning rod. Domino's was intermittently boycotted in the 1980s because of Monaghan's anti-abortion activism.

Monaghan has never before been a major player on a presidential campaign. Several people familiar with Monaghan and his work said they were surprised to see him involved.

In a rare interview, Monaghan told Newsweek earlier this year that "I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don't want to be on the sidelines."

Deal Hudson, a prominent conservative Catholic who knows Monaghan, said Monaghan might see in Brownback — who cites "changing the culture" as a motivation for running — a kindred spirit.

"Tom doesn't want to be associated with anyone who's going to compromise," said Hudson, executive director of the Morley Institute for Church and Culture and a former adviser to President Bush on Catholic issues. "That's why he's getting behind Sen. Brownback. ... The message will be that Brownback meets the standard not just for what a presidential candidate should be, but also what a Catholic should be."

Monaghan's most important role would be delivering that message to wealthy, like-minded potential campaign donors. Most analysts say the lack of a fundraising network confines Brownback to second-tier status in a crowded GOP field. Brownback is counting on Monaghan to change that.

"I hope he'll help us in a number of ways, with people he knows around the country," Brownback said.

A key will be Legatus, a lay group for conservative Catholic CEOs that Monaghan founded. The organization has more than 5,000 members.

Brownback has spoken to Legatus groups around the country in the last few years. He first met Monaghan in 2002, when Brownback spoke to the group's "Pro-Life Pilgrimage" to Washington, said Joseph Cella, a former Monaghan employee.

"That's the blue-chip group," said William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a conservative group on whose board of advisers Monaghan sits. "In Legatus, he's got thousands of members who are all Catholics, all well-to-do. This is the cream of the Catholic community. And they all have friends. You talk about where to go for fundraising, there's a list there that's been around for a number of years."

Brownback has said he hopes his interest in international human rights will attract voters who do not share his socially conservative views.

But that effort could be hindered by a heavy financial reliance on a conservative Catholic network — besides Monaghan, Brownback's campaign advisers include former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, another influential conservative Catholic, and the Rev. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life.

"The dangerous potential this brings to the table is that the candidate becomes beholden to a religious ideology instead of just a political philosophy," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "We have a secular government."



To sum up, it's dominionist bastardization of religion at work. Sam Brownback is a certified nutter whose *stated* goals include a mandatory death penalty for homosexuals (yes, just for being gay; no actual crime need be committed here) and doctors who provide abortions (if not the woman getting the abortion herself). Um, HELL no, I don't want a scumbag like this getting any more power than he already has. He shouldn't even be in ANY power at all, he should be scrubbing toilets with his toothbrush along with Monaghan in one of the latter's crappy pizza joints. Domino's doesn't even deserve to be called 'pizza'. It's crap, pure and simple. Which is another reason why I won't ever buy it.

(As to the oft-noted mention that Monaghan sold the company, yes, he did. However, there's no reason not to believe that he maintains a hand in it somewhere along the line, or that those now running it funnel plenty of that money towards dominionist goals. And the fact that he is *actively* working for a noted dominionist - Brownback - is cause for plenty of concern, methinks.)