The Values Voter Summit is the premier gathering of the religious right each year, and it’s an event Tim Pawlenty will need to attend to shore up the support of social conservatives before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary should he seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. But judging by the invitation page for the summit, Pawlenty may have his work cut out for him getting recognized: Instead of Pawlenty’s picture, the organizers posted that of Janet Parshall.

The mistake, spotted by blogger Jeremy Hooper, put Christian radio host Parshall in Pawlenty’s place. Parshall, on whose program Pawlenty appeared last month, is a believer in biblical literalism — that every word of the Christian Bible is true.

Pawlenty attended the Values Voter Summit in 2009 along with fellow Minnesotan Rep. Michele Bachmann. The summit this year won’t be without controversy: The American Family Association and the Family Research Council are both listed as ‘hate groups’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center and are hosts for the summit. The former has Bryan Fischer on staff who said this week that Native Americans have issues with alcohol and should give up their land because they aren’t Christians.

The controversial commentary — one of many made by Fischer — was too hot for the AFA and they yanked it from their websites on Wednesday.

Rep. Michele Bachmann Photo: Colorado Independent

Rep. Michele Bachmann asked organizers of the Values Voter Summit presidential straw poll to remove her name from consideration on Friday. Bachmann’s opponent, DFLer Tarryl Clark, accused Bachmann of running for president in an email to supporters this morning. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has been building a presidential bid team, also pulled out of the poll this week.

Clark’s campaign asked, “What’s she running for?” in a fundraising pitch Friday:

Today, Michele Bachmann will appear on the presidential preference ballot at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC before jetting off to Miami to speak to the ultra right-wing fringe Taking America Back Conference.

Bachmann is campaigning for candidates throughout the nation. She’s got a national PAC. She’s visited Iowa multiple times. She’s even got a fancy tour bus. It’s like my grandma used to tell me: If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, Michele Bachmann is considering running for President.

The presidential poll included 17 names, some who are rumoured to be considering presidential runs and others who are leaders in the conservative movement.

Bachmann gave a rousing speech at the summit this morning. The summit itself has generated controversy because of some of the statements by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, a sponsor of the weekend-long event.

Tim Pawlenty. Photo: Facebook

Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked the Values Voter Summit to remove his name from the presidential straw poll the religious right event will conduct this weekend, the Star Tribune reports. He will be speaking at the summit via video while he is on a trade mission to Asia. Pawlenty hasn’t gained much traction in recent straw polls among Republicans.

“Gov. Pawlenty is leading an official trade mission in China, is not able to speak at the conference, and therefore isn’t listed,” Pawlenty’s spokesman Alex Conant told the Minneapolis paper. “He had a great visit at the Values Voters Summit last year, appreciates their ongoing work, and is focused on helping conservatives win this fall.”

Pawlenty hasn’t fared well in recent straw polls. At CPAC in February, he finished fourth behind Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. He tied for sixth place at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in April, with 3 percent. Also in April, he tied for sixth in the Iowa Straw Poll sponsored by the Republican Party of Iowa, garnering one percent of the vote.

Rep. Michele Bachmann. Photo: Douglas Burns

People for the American Way called on speakers at this coming weekend’s Values Voter Summit to denounce inflammatory statements made by the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer about U.S. servicemembers, gays, Muslims and Hispanics. The AFA is a sponsor of this weekend’s summit, which features Fischer as well as prominent conservatives including Rep. Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

“By sharing a stage with Fischer, public figures like Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence, Bob McDonnell, and Michele Bachmann don’t necessarily endorse Fischer’s shameless anti-Muslim and anti-gay propaganda—but they do acknowledge its credibility,” said Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way.

Fischer’s statements include assertions that Muslims are less intelligent and more violent because of “inbreeding,” that Muslims should be banned from serving in the military, and that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office.”

Keegan continued, “Any candidate thinking seriously of running for president in 2012 should think twice about standing alongside a man who has called for the deportation of all Muslims in America; insulted Muslim servicemembers; claimed that brave Americans died in vain because Iraq was not converted to Christianity; and called gay people deviants, felons, pedophiles, and terrorists. Bryan Fischer is no mainstream conservative.”

He said speakers at the Values Voter Summit should “denounce” Fischer. “Neither is any person who shares a platform with him while refusing to denounce his hate-filled propaganda,” he said.

Rep. Michele Bachmann. Photo: Patrick Caldwell

Rep. Michele Bachmann is listed on the Values Voter Summit’s 2012 presidential straw poll along with 16 other potential candidates, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty. When asked, Bachmann hasn’t said she’s running for president; she simply says she’s focused on getting reelected, but if God asks her to run, she will.

In a press release on Tuesday, the Family Research Council — a group founded by James Dobson — announced a list of presidential contenders that religious right leaders and summit attendees will see on the ballot next week:

The ballot will feature 17 possible presidential candidates, several of whom will be speaking at the Summit – Michele Bachmann, Jan Brewer, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Jim DeMint, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Bob McDonnell, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Rick Santorum.

The Values Voter Summit is put together by Dobson’s FRC, the American Family Association, the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and the Heritage Foundation.

“The first 2012 presidential primaries may be more than a year away but values voters are already surveying the very wide field of possible candidates,” said Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins in a statement Tuesday. “This early test of the presidential field will provide an early indication of who might be the candidate of real change in 2012.”

Bachmann is listed as a confirmed speaker, but Pawlenty, who spoke at the event in 2009, is not listed as invited or as a speaker.

Here’s a clip of Bachmann at the 2009 summit:

Here’s Bachmann at the 2008 event:

And here’s Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the 2009 event:

Photo: bachmann.house.gov

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has been urging people since at least July to “melt the phone lines” of the politically powerful on health care reform. Now the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Gov. Tim Pawlenty are taking her advice to heart.

The DNC debuted its “Call ‘Em Out” program with a call to arms against what it calls Pawlenty’s lies on health care, urging people to call the governor’s office — which apparently doubled his phone traffic. (Politico called out “Call ‘Em Out” as as “part of a larger, more aggressive approach taken by the White House through the DNC to push back against smears, distortions and misinformation.”

Then Pawlenty returned the gesture, urging his tweeps to call the DNC. But by clicking through at the “Call ‘Em Out” website, the DNC’s own tweeps had already brought the battle to the Twitterverse, sending messages favoring Democrats’ health care reform measures pouring into @timpawlenty.

Bachmann, Pawlenty and the DNC don’t need to call each other: They’re all in Washington, D.C., where this weekend’s Values Voter Summit is taking place.

Photo: Paul Demko, MnIndy

Salon’s Mike Madden notes that the Values Voters Summit, which features Minnesota’s conservative heavyweights Rep. Michele Bachmann and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, is being held on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and a religiously prescribed day of rest.

“Does the [Family Research Council] think Jews don’t have values? Or was this just the only fall weekend they could get into the Omni Shoreham hotel?” asks Madden.

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown Friday, which gives folks just enough time to watch Pawlenty and Bachmann. Bachmann will be speaking sometime between 8:45 am and noon on Friday, and Pawlenty’s speech could get squeezed in right before sundown between 7 and 9:30 pm.

The entire summit will be webcast at action.afa.net.

The summit announced Pawlenty as a speaker in June. Bachmann’s name was missing from the roster until this week, and on Thursday Focus on the Family urged supporters to attend, using the 6th District Republican as a top selling point.

“Each year, the Values Voter Summit rallies together those citizens who are deeply concerned with the policies that impact our families and our religious liberties,” Sonja Swiatkiewicz of Focus on the Family Action wrote in an email to supporters. “But this event is more than just a discussion of what’s wrong in our country – it’s a chance to be equipped to make a difference in our communities, to make our voices heard and to realize that we’re not alone in our desire to preserve the values upon which our nation was founded.”

“Attendees will have the chance to hear from some of the nation’s top social conservatives, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., on issues such as health-care reform,” the email read.

Last year, Bachmann stumped for the GOP’s presidential candidate at the summit, coining a phrase that failed to take off: “McCain is McBrilliant!”

Here are her full remarks from last year.

Other confirmed speakers this year include American Family Association president Don Wildmon, Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, religious right leader Gary Bauer, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Reps. John Boehner, R-Ohio, Mike Pence, R-Ind., Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Last year featured Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who characterized John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate as “McBrilliant.”

Here’s a reminder of her 2008 speech: