Sarah Posner has one possibility:

What's the glue that's holding the Pentecostal-Baptist political] alliance together? Why, it's Mike Huckabee and Kenneth Copeland, [ well-known buddies -- but don't worry, no pastor-parishioner relationship there! Their relationship was cemented when Copeland used a gathering of pastors to help the struggling campaign scare up some needed cash in January. "I've seen you sitting with presidents and talking with them, and I believe that right now, you and your relationship with Gov. Mike Huckabee, for example, you representing the Pentecostals and he representing the Southern Baptists, are kind of holding this thing together single-handedly," said Wead. (Apparently Huckabee has an issue with financial secrecy as well, as he settled yet another inquiry by an ethics panel in Arkansas over secrecy of donors to his official portrait.)

Mike Huckabee: not a candidate, just a pastor and defender of the conservative belief system who's so busy using his influence to grease his palms that he couldn't be bothered to stand up for the guys getting waterboarded.

Your Christian values at work.

At least, that's what he told CBN News:

"We told the IRS in a letter that we welcome them to come and make inquiry of us and we will provide answers to the IRS regarding questions that Sen. Grassley has," Copeland explained. "The Church desires to protect its and all other churches' First Amendment rights, and by this action, we believe we are doing just that."

...

The ministry, however, believes the IRS is the agency that should receive private information from the church, not the Senate.

Grassley will still be able to obtain the information he is demanding by requesting it from the IRS after its investigation, the letter said.

I have no idea what this means, actually. Do Copeland's lawyers think he has a strong hand and can withstand Grassley's questioning? Or do they think he has a weak one and would be best served by giving a little information and hoping that the whole thing just blows over?

And what on earth are they trying to accomplish by responding to the IRS instead of Grassley himself? Very odd.

This letter was written in response to Michael Gerson's column in today's Washington Post, "Better than the Bitter." It is cross-posted from my blog, Cwhig.

Dear Mr. Gerson,

I think you have correctly identified Barack Obama’s chief flaw, "Obamaism."  I'm not sure, however, that you are correct or fair in your conclusion that Obama's remark about "clinging to religion" indicates that his own religious outlook is inauthentic.  Let's stipulate that it was a boneheaded remark--"elitist" if you will.  But I think that Obama identified a kind of resort to religion that has existed throughout time: the impulse, when afraid, to construct a golden calf to pray to, or a sword to wield against enemies real and imagined.

Last week, Sarah Posner, writing at TAPPED, reported that televangelist Kenneth Copeland raised some serious dough for Mike Huckabee, who needs it bad. Needless to say, this raises all kinds of church-state questions.

Today, Posner has a possible motivation for the Copeland-Huckabee lovefest. Turns out neither one of them has much use for Charles Grassley's investigations of the prosperity gospel racket. Copeland explains on a video clip:

"Are you kidding me? Why should I stand with them and not stand with you? They've only got 11 percent approval rating." And then he said, "Kenneth Copeland, I will stand with you." He said, "You're trying to get prosperity to the people and they're trying to take it away from 'em." He said, "I will stand with you any time, anywhere, on any issue." That settled that right there. I said, "Yeah, that's my man! That's my man, right there."

Nice to know that the Baptist pastor's principles rest on Republican Congressional approval ratings. Which book of the Bible was that in, again?

Anyway, this intrigues me. Hopefully Posner will bring us more details. I'm beginning to get the drift that Grassley's peek into the financing of ministries like Copeland's is meant to provide a check on their power within the GOP. After all, we wouldn't want them getting the idea that they could play kingmaker or anything.