Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) extra-curricular activities recently got him into a little trouble — he’s conceded making use of a prostitution service — but he apparently has a plan to keep himself in the religious right’s good graces. Vitter has decided to throw some pork-barrel spending at a bizarre Louisiana creationist group.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., earmarked $100,000 in a spending bill for a Louisiana Christian group that has challenged the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the public school system and to which he has political ties.
The money is included in the labor, health and education financing bill for fiscal 2008 and specifies payment to the Louisiana Family Forum “to develop a plan to promote better science education.”
The group in question is the Louisiana Family Forum, which has a stated mission of trying to “persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research, communication and networking.” The group’s materials have also said it has a “battle plan to combat evolution,” which called modern biology a “dangerous” concept that “has no place in the classroom.”
It sounds kind of ridiculous — in large part because it is ridiculous — but Vitter has basically earmarked a very generous donation to a right-wing group to promote creationism with our money.
[Vitter] said the education earmark was meant to offer a broad array of views in the public schools.
“This program helps supplement and support educators and school systems that would like to offer all of the explanations in the study of controversial science topics such as global warming and the life sciences,” Vitter said in a written statement.
The money in the earmark will pay for a report suggesting “improvements” in science education in Louisiana, the development and distribution of educational materials and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Ouachita Parish School Board’s 2006 policy that opened the door to biblically inspired teachings in science classes.
Allow me to translate. Vitter wants to give a creationist group $100,000 in federal money to encourage Louisiana officials to embrace creationism in public schools, the law notwithstanding.
Even by the standards of congressional Republicans, this is pretty breathtaking. It’s one thing for Vitter to endorse pseudo-science; it’s something else when he decides to subsidize it with federal tax dollars.
If the Louisiana Family Forum wants to encourage schools to teach nonsense, it can. If it wants to tell supporters that modern biology underpinned the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot, there’s nothing stopping it.
But Vitter’s earmark for these clowns is crazy. The group didn’t even ask for the money — a Louisiana Family Forum official described the taxpayer-financed gift as “a bit of a surprise.”
The earmark hasn’t passed yet; it’s included in a spending bill that’s awaiting approval.
I’ll keep you posted.