As we noted a few months ago, Gary Bauer has somehow managed to magically distance himself from his ties to John McCain’s campaign to such an extent that he is now routinely quoted discussing McCain’s current difficulties making in-roads with the Right.
For instance, Bauer made an appearance in a recent McClatchy article on McCain’s faith:
McCain “seems to have a difficulty in discussing it in terms that people relate to,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading conservative evangelical organization. “I think people want a sense of where someone stands in their relationship with the Lord. I think George Bush was able to do that in the way he communicated, using terms that evangelicals are familiar with.”
…
Perkins and Gary Bauer, key players in advancing the Christian conservative agenda in Washington, said they knew virtually nothing about McCain’s religious life.
So Bauer now claims to know “virtually nothing” about McCain’s faith? That certainly didn’t seem to be much of an obstacle when he endorsed him back in 2000 or went on “Hannity and Colmes” to flack for him:
But that whole speech was an attempt to appeal to members of the Christian Coalition by saying over and over again, “I am pro-life. I’m pro-family. I want to stop abortion. I want to stop the gay rights movement. Here’s my own personal faith,” et cetera, et cetera.
The speech in question was McCain’s infamous “agents of intolerance” speech – which Bauer played a role in drafting, by the way – where McCain also declared:
This is my faith, the faith that unites and never divides, the faith that bridges unbridgeable gaps in humanity. That is my religious faith and it is the faith I want my party to serve, and the faith I hold in my country. It is the faith that we are all equal and endowed by our creator with unalienable rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the faith I would die to defend.
Maybe the two never discussed their faith in-depth back in 2000, but that didn’t stop Bauer from proudly endorsing and defending McCain in his campaign against George W. Bush. Yet seven years later, Bauer seems to have completely forgotten all about it.
