John and Jerry:
The News and Advance of Lynchburg, VA cryptically reported yesterday that the Rev. Jerry Falwell "said McCain," who is speaking at Liberty University's May 14 graduation, "has expressed a willingness to support a Federal Marriage Amendment, an issue dear to conservative Christians." LINK
This report caught our attention since McCain had sharply denounced a federal marriage amendment in 2004, calling it "antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans" because of the way it "usurps from the states a fundamental authority they have always possessed and imposes a federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts them."
ABC News' Teddy Davis caught up with the Rev. Falwell on Tuesday and was told that McCain is not pushing for a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage at this time. Instead, McCain "reconfirmed" to Falwell during a recent telephone conversation that he would support a federal marriage amendment if the federal courts were to strike down state constitutional bans on gay marriage (like the one McCain is currently backing in his home state of Arizona).
"I think he is genuinely a state's righter - and so am I," Falwell told ABC News. LINK
Despite McCain's 2000 push to change the GOP platform to explicitly recognize exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, Falwell said he and "most of the pro-life community" are "happy" with McCain's "pro-life views." The Arizona Daily Star is quick to run an AP write-up of Sen. McCain's upcoming speech at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. LINK
Time blogger Andrew Sullivan is dismayed by McCain's embrace of Falwell and yearns for the McCain who once denounced Falwell as one of America's "agents of intolerance." LINK