Falwell hasn't been within a parsec of the RNC power structure.
Your analogy doesn't stand up for a minute. The radical right has been on the outside looking in at the Republican Party for some time now.
An article on where Falwell and others were during the Republican Convention can be found here. A few hysterical liberals spread a rumor beforehand that he was going to give the invocation.
If your analogy was correct, it would have been Falwell occupying the presidential box like Michael Moore did for the Democrats.
In the Republican presidential box, they had Condoleezza Rice, George Pataki, Gen. Tommy Franks, and Michael Smith.