This is obviously a big story, this Haggard guy is the president of the National Association of Evangelicals which has about 30 million members, that is 10% of the nation’s population. And you are right lostkitty he met on a regular basis with Karl Rove and George Bush. This is a key and critical voting bloc of the GOP. Right now that voting bloc has just been hit in the stomach. If Evangelicals do not come out and vote the GOP is toast, more than it already is on Tuesday.

The history of Evangelicals is that they shied away from politics after the Scopes trial in the 1920’s. They decided Government was something to be left to politicians. It wasn’t until the late 70’s that they became active again in reaction to the social chaos and changes of the 60’s. That fueled the rise of Reagan in 1980 and was a major factor in shifting the country’s politics to the right. Karl Rove identified that although evangelicals were voting in greater numbers there were still a large number of evangelicals not voting. So the GOP carved out wedge issues to attract these new potential voters such as abortion and especially gay marriage. And they took the bait. IMO the end result is not that desirable given the we are so polarized as a country right now. I’m sick of this red state, blue state crap. The revelation of Mark Foley, this very prominent leader of the evangelical movement along with the other scandals and corruption of the GOP could mark a shift in how evangelicals view the world of power politics. So there is alot more going on here than meets the eye.