President of the United Churches of America

The all seeing Josh Marshall tipped me off to this but it's worth repeating. As he put it, "The transformation is almost complete." To wit:

Sen. John McCain, who has been running for President since being "swift boated" in South Carolina in 2000 by W and Rove's henchmen, once called Rev. Jerry Falwell an “agent of intolerance,” but now it seems all is well and McCain will be Liberty University’s graduation speaker this May. “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.’” Good doggie. Here boy. Beg. Beg.

In the 2000 primaries in the South Carolina and Virginia, McCain denounced Falwell and televangelist Pat Robertson saying, "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.”

McCain, was a Navy pilot whose plane was shot down in 1967 over Vietnam and spent 5½-years in prison, mostly in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. When the North Vietnamese learned his father was the admiral in charge of the Pacific Command, they offered him a chance to go home. McCain, a decorated veteran, instead followed the orders of senior POWs, who said no one would go home unless all went home. He was released in 1973. In all that time McCain never "cracked" or betrayed his principles. Just about the same time to do so here after the 2000 primaries. Nice symmetry.

If you don't think voting Republican empowers the religious right, the Evangelical Christians like Falwell and Robertson, you're as lost as the lost on "Lost."