  James C. Dobson – founder and president, Focus on the Family; psychologist; former Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, USC School of Medicine; author; host, "Focus on the Family" radio program.
I want to begin with two caveats, or two disclaimers, before we get too far into it today. The first is that I do not stand here before you as the president of Focus on the Family, or any other organization. I come here as an individual. I paid my own way here. Focus on the Family did not do that, and the reason for that is because I want to be able to speak freely with you about my political views in a way that would not be appropriate for a nonprofit organization. So I’m here on my own behalf today…
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Caveat? It kind of looks to me like he’s billed as the "founder and president, Focus on the Family" in the header. This is from a speech he gave to the Council for National Policy, a secretive Right Wing Group meeting in Salt Lake City right now. One of this years speakers? Dick Cheney. Then we read:
Focus on the Family announced Monday that it is laying off 30 employees and reassigning 15 others. It also announced that founder James Dobson had been cleared of accusations that he jeopardized the group’s nonprofit status by endorsing Republican candidates.
Most of the layoffs are in the organization’s Constituent Response Services department that answers mail and telephone requests.
A drop in projected revenue played a part in the layoffs, and the growth of e-mail and Internet-based communications is behind the reassignments, said Gary Schneeberger, vice president of communications.…"We were confident all along that we were within the letter of the law. We were hyper-compliant. There was not one slap on the wrist from the IRS. As a private citizen, he can speak out about what he wants to, and he always made clear he was speaking as a private citizen," Schneeberger said Monday.
It kind of hard not to unleash a string of critical invectives reading this. James Dobson is a number one stumper for the Republicans, period. Those disclaimers are pro forma – full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He must have a friend at the I.R.S. And it’s hard not to feel good about his collections being down. Truth is, maybe it means a few kids won’t be subjected to Dobson’s pseudo-psychology – like fathers should take showers with their teenaged sons to keep them from being Gay. On a trip to Colorado this summer, we drove through the Focus on the Family Campus and the nearby New Life Church founded by Dobson’s former pal, Ted Haggard. Looked to me like the Colorado Springs Charismatic Disneyland may finally be on the wane. Good riddance!
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