A few weeks ago I made fun of the New York Times when they ran a story about Mark Foley’s effect on the Evangelical vote. Their interviews showed that Evangelicals would still vote Republican, and my argument was, well, duh! A scandal involving one congressman will not flip the very core of the Republican base.

A little later I noted that support from religious whites as a whole was dropping. This story changes things even more.

I still don’t think it was just Foley that did it — and Americans in general are turning against the GOP — but a new poll shows that Evangelical support is indeed waning. Mother Jones has some comments here.

A source interviewed in the Post article said it was the Iraq war, coupled with the Foley scandal, that made her consider voting Democrat. This sounds plausible, but I wonder if this sentiment will carry through to election day. It’s easy to say you’re fed up with the Republicans (done it plenty myself) but quite another to break with habit and vote for a party that is certainly no better by any conservative criteria.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.

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