What a difference an election makes.

Less than 24 hours after Religious Right activists lost badly in House, Senate and gubernatorial elections, Christian Coalition Executive Director Randy Tate offered up a brazen attempt to distance himself from the Christian Coalition’s pre-election strategy. At a nationally televised press conference, Tate told reporters that conservatives lost because they did not campaign on issues of importance to the American people.

Tate was strongly critical of the GOP for emphasizing impeachment and abandoning issues such as abortion. “The message coming out of this election is that issues do matter and issues do make a difference,” Tate said.

But in its most recent fundraising appeal, delivered to supporters’ mailboxes just before the mid-term elections, the main message being hammered by the Christian Coalition was not issues, but impeachment. In a direct mail letter signed by Christian Coalition founder and Chairman Pat Robertson, Robertson makes it clear that the Christian Coalition’s primary goal this election season was securing the impeachment of President Clinton.

“[The] Christian Coalition will use every grassroots tool we have at hand to rally Christians to this cause and awaken Congress to this demand,” Robertson wrote, adding that the president has broken “God’s commandments.”

“Randy Tate is clearly awake this morning, but he hasn’t smelled the coffee yet,” said PFAW President Carole Shields. “The Religious Right’s message has limited appeal, not only with the electorate overall but even within the Republican Party. That’s the story of Tuesday’s election.”