The second complaint I’ve heard is from some Christian conservatives who say that even if conservatives make it clear that they disagree with you on issues like gay marriage and gays in the military, that supporting your group in any way will end up promoting those policies and a gay lifestyle by default. What would you say to those people?

We have made it clear from the get-go that we think that social conservatives are an important part of the conservative movement. And, I don’t think by having social conservatives in the movement who may disagree with me on things like marriage or gays in the military, it’s somehow corrupting the movement from my perspective. So, I guess I don’t understand how it would be corrupting the movement from their perspective.

There’s a core of issues that I think all of us in the conservative movement can and should agree on and those are the issues that are at the forefront of our political discussion today. Debates about the size and scope of government, about tax policy, about whether or not we’re going to have socialized health care in this country. These are things that all of us can agree on. I mean, we’re not all going to agree all the time. And accepting our 80 percent friend rather than forcing him to be 20 percent enemy, I think makes smart politics for conservatives.