As January’s Iowa caucuses inch ever closer, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is in takedown mode. Just over a week ago, God-o-Meter watched him throw a wet blanket on Fred Thompson. This weekend, he reportedly drove 600 miles from Focus’s Colorado Springs headquarters to Salt Lake City to promote the idea that the Christian Right should consider pushing a third-party candidate at a top-secret gathering of conservative Christian activists. Dobson and others promoted the plan as a contingency should the pro-choice, pro-gay rights Rudy Giuliani clinch the GOP presidential nomination. Sure, polls show rank-and-file evangelicals backing Giuliani for the moment. But Dobson may be looking to teach the GOP a lesson on Election Day 2008 by dampening evangelical turnout enough to deprive Giuliani of the White House. And God-o-Meter has learned that Dobson wasn’t the only VIP at this weekend’s conservative confab in Salt Lake. Mitt Romney showed up, too, trying to capitalize on continuing evangelical disillusionment over the GOP field by making another pitch for their support.

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