McCain Kisses Falwall and Robertson....for WHAT?

Changes in Attitudes: McCain Drops Waste in Falwellville
by Armando
Sat May 13, 2006 at 05:06:13 PM PDT

"Straight Talking" John McCain in 2000:

. . . I am a pro-life, pro-family fiscal conservative, an advocate of a strong defense, and yet Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable presidential candidate. They distort my pro- life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters. Why? Because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message.

. . . Just as we embrace working people, we embrace the fine members of the religious conservative community, but that does not mean that we will pander to their self-appointed leaders. Some -- some prefer to build walls and exclude newcomers from our support. Apparently, appeals to patriotism can only be held by card- carrying Republican, and only certain Republicans at that, not the kind of Republicans who might dissent from the soft-money ethics of a tired party establishment. . . . Governor Bush is a Pat Robertson Republican who will lose to Al Gore.

The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.

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.

. . . We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, not Bob Jones.

(Emphasis supplied.) Scheduled to speak tomorrow at Liberty University, the heart of Falwellville, the no longer Straight Talking John McCain. Can you say pander?

U.S. Sen. John McCain - a likely 2008 presidential candidate who once labeled the Rev. Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance" - will be Liberty University's graduation speaker on May 13.

"I was in Washington with him about three months ago," Falwell said. "We dealt with every difference we have. There are no deal breakers now. But I told him, `You have a lot of fence mending to do.'" . . . McCain's visit to the LU campus is, at the very least, an attempt to make peace with conservative Christians prior to the presidential campaign.

While running against then- Gov. George W. Bush in the South Carolina and Virginia primaries in 2000, McCain denounced Falwell and Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson in what was seen as a move to lure more moderate voters to his campaign. . . . Falwell said McCain's appearance at LU's graduation is another sign that McCain is wooing evangelical Christians. "He is in the process of healing the breech with evangelical groups," Falwell said.

Falwell said McCain has expressed a willingness to support a Federal Marriage Amendment, an issue dear to conservative Christians. The amendment would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Straight Talk wasting away in Falwellville.

More on the flip.

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