Carpe Datum

Invert the situation and examine your response. Instead of a "leadership course", make it a Dachau-style "labor camp". Instead of a "resume padder" he's clearly a terrorist, and you have direct knowledge of multiple murders he's done. And the request for the letter comes not from the person in question, but an oily "Committee for Public Safety" functionary. Now what do you do?

IMO, your best option is to explain your reservations to him: it's not personal, but you have deep-seated objections to the entire phenomenon, and training "leaders" who just take over directing government/corporate slave gangs without ever actually having any core skills is a fundamentmentally wrong idea.

You could adopt a page from Dr. Satan and say to the poor sap, "It has been my mission from the first day of class to teach you to think in this class. Before I can, in good conscience, write such a recommendation, I want you to sit down and explain to me the logical process that has led you to believeing that this (joining College Republicans and/or this Leadership Program) is a good idea. If you can do that to my satisfaction I will write the recommendation, otherwise I will have to suggest that you ask another faculty member."

While this may seem harsh, it is at least a fair indication to the student where you stand on things and what kind of recommendation he might get from you. This is coming from a guy who asked one of his professors in college for a grad school rec without knowing that he'd offended said professor. Rule of thumb is tha the question is not, "Can you write me a letter," but, "Can you write me a *good* letter?"

A happy ending. The guy asked me yesterday for the recommendation, then he tells me today that the two-page essay-style form has to be completed by Friday. Uh. No. Definitely no during the first week of class. Sheesh.

I would have just said no anyway, but that's why I'm not a teacher.