The "Values Action Team" and Bush's Veto Threat
Chris Rodda printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sun May 20, 2007 at 04:02:13 PM EST
As has often been the case over the last few months, I set out to write about one thing, and, in the process of gathering what I need for that, come across something more important. This happened again on Friday, when I saw that the guest on David Barton's WallBuilders LIVE! radio show was Congressman Joe Pitts (R-PA). One of the projects I'm currently working on is a study of the use of Christian nationalist history revisionism in debates in Congress over the past decade, and the appearance of Pitts on Barton's radio show initially made me think I would write something about the preliminary results of my study, in which Pitts's name frequently comes up. After listening to Friday's program, however, I changed my mind. There are reasons far bigger than the promotion of revisionist history that led Barton's co-host Rick Green to introduce Pitts as "probably our favorite congressman," including his role in getting George Bush to send a little noticed "veto-threat" letter to the Democrats.

Congressman Pitts heads the Values Action Team (VAT), which was described as follows in a 2001 document written by Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ):

The Values Action Team was an offshoot of the Values Summit held in 1998. As a result of this summit, Majority Whip Tom DeLay identified the lack of coord