YOU AND WHAT ARMY, DR. DOBSON?

Yesterday I told you that two evangelical leaders, Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins, are distancing themselves from James Dobson's threat to go the third-party route if Rudy Giuliani is the Republican presidential nominee.

Now there's word of further evangelical dissatisfaction with Dobson -- more evidence, I'd say, that Dobson isn't going to manage to destroy the GOP's chances as the leader of an army of disaffected purists. Perkins has told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he wants nothing to do with Dobson's other crusade:

Prominent conservative says Thompson acceptable

...Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said that, in his view, former U.S. Sen. Thompson "has a record that shows he is conservative socially. I think he has a record that shows he is a fiscal conservative as well as being strong in the area of foreign policy and national defense."...

He sought to downplay a dispute between Dr. James Dobson, a prominent social conservative who heads Focus on the Family, and Mr. Thompson....

Mr. Thompson's differences with Dr. Dobson surfaced in March when U.S. News & World Report quoted Dr. Dobson saying he did not believe that Mr. Thompson is a Christian.

Dr. Dobson's representatives later said he had been misquoted. But The Associated Press, meanwhile, recently quoted from a memo sent by Dr. Dobson criticizing Mr. Thompson.

"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., ... won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dr. Dobson wrote....

On Monday, Dr. Dobson was interviewed by Sean Hannity.

"I'm just telling you I will not vote for a man who will not support the institution of marriage, who thinks every state should establish its own definition of marriage, which will destroy it," he said in a transcript....

These guys definitely don't want Rudy -- but Bauer and Perkins won't support a minor-party candidate if he's the nominee. And Perkins says he wishes Thompson would be stronger on the religious right's big issues -- but he's comfortable with Thompson anyway.

So I'd say you can forget all that talk about mass preacher-led defections from the GOP nominee -- 27% of Republican respondents to one poll may have said they'd bolt the GOP, but no evangelical leader other than Dobson really seems to want to defy the party in any significant way. Fear of Hillary Satan Clinton is too great.