McCain Makes Falwell Flippy-Floppy (Or Not)

Nick Gillespie | April 3, 2006

Straight Talk Express Conductor and Keating Five Cabalist Sen. John McCain, circa 2000:

"Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."

John McCain, recently announced as the spring commencement speaker for Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist University, circa yesterday: "We agreed to disagree on certain issues, and we agreed to move forward....I don't have to agree with everything they [Christian conservatives, who have a major role to play in the GOP] stand for."

More here. Semi-predictable outrage from Dems here. In-poor-taste discussion of McCain's best day ever here.

McCain has said he won't decide about running for the White House until 2007. I don't think he's flip-flopping by addressing this audience, but I'll be interested in hearing what he's got to say to this crowd. Especially if he'll lay out some vision of governance that isn't as incredibly awful as the one that is shot through his signature accomplishment, the passage of a really shitty campaign-finance law that accomplishes precisely nothing but the shredding of the First Amendment.

Speaking of that, check out an undeniable McCain flip-flop--on the topic of those dreaded "527 groups" that did so much to enliven the last presidential election cycle--here.

Comments

|4.3.06 @ 11:08AM|#

What a suck up.

Is there anyway we can bring Berry Goldwater back from the dead?

"I don't have any respect for the Religious Right. There is no place in this country for practicing religion in politics. That goes for Falwell, Robertson and all the rest of these political preachers. They are a detriment to the country."

Let's not forget my personal fav:

"Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass."

I'm not a Christian, but can I get in a few quick, swift ones?

Viking Moose|4.3.06 @ 11:18AM|#

Akira:

i've got some Iron Shiek boots for you to use!

kick away!

cheers,
VM

|4.3.06 @ 11:40AM|#

Akira,

You've got to remember that Goldwater said all those things when he was old, ornery, and no longer in contention for the presidency in any shape or form. I doubt he would have said the same things in 1962.

McCain knows that the more extreme his rhetoric, the fewer votes he's likely to get. Like it or not, in order to get elected any office worth shit one has to compromise a little.

|4.3.06 @ 11:49AM|#

andy,
Goldwater got my first vote in 1964, therefore I think he was saying some appealing things--to me, anyway--around then, or earlier.

|4.3.06 @ 11:56AM|#

I, for one, support my fellow senator's strong stand on both sides of this issue.

|4.3.06 @ 12:19PM|#

andy,

Believe it or not, there was a time when, even though some kind of religious faith was necessary, candidates did not feel this current need to display their deep and complete faith and piety.

While it was known that Johnson was a member of the Disciples of Christ (?, I recall, I know it was a church normally associated with southern hicks, but not Baptist) and Goldwater was an Epicopalian (his mother's religion, his father was Jewish) neither one made a big deal of it.

Times have changed since Jimmy Carter was thought faintly ridiculous by a substantial swath of the American population when he announced that he was a "born-again Christian". For many it was the first time they'd ever heard the term.

And recall that in 1960 there was that question of whether JFK's religion might get in the way of his ability to be President (although some of that was most certainly due to the anti-Catholic sentiment prevalent among some Protestants especially Evangelicals and Fundamentalists).

|4.3.06 @ 2:31PM|#

Is it too much to hope for that things like this will prompt people to stop treating McCain like he's some avatar of political decency and honesty?

|4.3.06 @ 2:49PM|#

McCain just got tired of witing for the Washington Senators to call and ask him to throw out their "first pitch."

|4.3.06 @ 3:41PM|#

Andy:

I have to disagree. While this is largely ancedotal, most of the Republicans I know loathe McCain as a "RINO." His war record may impress the militarists, but his anti-gun voting record and capitulation with Russ Feingold on Campaign Finance have him pegged as a "liberal." If McCain wants to run in 2008, he's going to have really kiss the asses of the Right to have a chance of getting nominated. The best way to do that, is lay a big smacker on the ample behind of Jerry Falwell and his hoardes of Bible-beating rednecks.

R C Dean|4.3.06 @ 3:53PM|#

"bible-beating" - is that a euphemism for, you know . . .

|4.9.06 @ 6:37PM|#

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