In April 2006, when John McCain announced that he had reconciled with Jerry Falwell — despite the televangelist having said America “deserved” 9/11 — and would appear at Falwell’s Liberty University, the senator appeared briefly on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart, who has never shied away from praising McCain, asked him, “Are you freaking out on us? Because if you’re freaking out and you’re going into the crazy base world — are you going into crazy base world?”
McCain responded, “I’m afraid so.”
In case we needed additional proof, McCain will officially take up residence in “crazy base world” in a couple of weeks.
Today is Darwin Day, commemorating the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and of the publishing of On the Origin of Species. The National Academy of Sciences, “the nation’s most prestigious scientific organization,” declares evolution “one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have.” President Bush’s science adviser John Marburger calls it “the cornerstone of modern biology.”
Yet, on February 23, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will be the keynote speaker for the most prominent creationism advocacy group in the country. The Discovery Institute, a religious right think-tank, is well-known for its strong opposition to evolutionary biology and its advocacy for “intelligent design.” The institute’s main financial backer, savings and loan heir Howard Ahmanson, spent 20 years on the board of the Chalcedon Foundation, “a theocratic outfit that advocates the replacement of American civil law with biblical law.”
Just when it seemed McCain’s shameless pandering couldn’t get any more pathetic, he manages to push the floor a little lower.
Keep in mind, last summer, McCain appeared at an Aspen Institute discussion, where he tripped over himself trying to explain his position on science in science classes, saying intelligent design creationism does and does not belong in public schools. A former McCain aide acknowledged, “[H]is heart isn’t in this stuff…. But he has to pretend [that it is], and he’s not a good enough actor to pull it off. He just can’t fake it well enough.”
And yet, he keeps trying.
Indeed, as TP noted, in 2005, McCain endorsed intelligent design creationism, a year later he said the opposite, and a few months later, he said both.
So much for straight talk.
Wait, it gets worse.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell will co-host a “meet and greet” for Sen. John McCain a week from today at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando. The Arizonan is attending, but not speaking at, the convention, billed as “the premier event in Christian communication.” Falwell’s name is listed along with five other clergy members and broadcasters as co-host’s of the reception.
Dems should make sure McCain wears Falwell as a millstone around his neck throughout the next two years. The right wants to whine about a Dem candidate’s bloggers? Wait until we go through Jerry Falwell’s greatest hits.