Contact: Bob Sturm, 703-396-6974; after 6 PM Eastern, Bob Strum, 703-307-8176; Cynthia Chambliss, 703-930-5148

MANASSAS, Virginia, Oct. 1 /Christian Newswire/ -- "By agreeing to the selection of Gwen Ifill to moderate the vice presidential debate, despite her obvious conflict of interest regarding the presidential election, Republicans have shown why they are called 'the stupid party,'" Richard A. Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said.

"How could the negotiators have signed off on a liberal moderator who has a book coming out on Inauguration Day heralding the 'Age of Obama'?" Viguerie asked.

Ifill's book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, is due to be published January 20, 2009, according to the book's page at Amazon.com. "Needless to say, the success of the book depends to a great extent on the outcome of the presidential election," Viguerie noted. "As Greta van Susteren, a lawyer, pointed out: 'In law, this would create a mistrial'."

"Imagine if one of the officials at Super Bowl earlier this year had had a book coming out on Super Bowl Sunday entitled Dynasty: The Age of the New England Patriots. Can you imagine the New York Giants agreeing to that? But then, the New York Giants are a lot smarter than Republicans."

Ifill's book was mentioned by name in a July 21 Associated Press article by Kinney Littlefield. The roster of debate moderators was revealed August 5.

"Democrats don't agree to debates on the Fox News Channel, where they might get tough questions," Viguerie pointed out. "They agree to debates only when they get the home field advantage - only when the questioners are people who see liberalism as objective reality and who consider the opinions of conservative, mainstream Americans to be backward and ill-informed. And they get away with it because the Republicans don't have the fortitude to do something about it."

NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine), one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times), and one of 2008's "top 25 influencers" among Republicans (NewsMax magazine). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books).