Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Adulterer in chief

It'll be interesting to see how the religious right votes in the 2008 presidential election if the Republican candidate is an known adulterer. All of the three current front-runners are.

three Republicans [have] topped several national, independent polls for the GOP's favorite 2008 nominee: Sen. John McCain (affair, divorce), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (affair, divorce, affair, divorce), and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (divorce, affair, nasty divorce). Together, they form the most maritally challenged crop of presidential hopefuls in American political history. (Washington Monthly)

It wasn't too long ago that Democrats were the ones arguing that a politician's private life shouldn't be a matter of public discussion. Either the religious right will change its tune (it does seem to be the picture of pragmatism these days when it comes to amassing political power) or it will not vote Republican.

Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokesperson for Dobson's Focus on the Family, recently made it clear that the adultery issue hasn't lost any of its toxicity among evangelicals. "If you have a politician, an elected official, and they can't be trusted in their own marriage, how can I trust them with the budget? How can I trust them with national security?"

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