It appears that not all evangelicals have yet fallen under the pagan spell of False Messiah.  But that is far, far from an unmixed blessing:

Conservative evangelical leaders, who have been slow to warm to John McCain, met privately this week to discuss coalescing around the Republican’s presidential bid.

Mathew Staver, a conservative Christian activist, convened a meeting of about ninety conservative evangelical leaders Tuesday night in Denver. Many evangelicals have been wary of McCain’s commitment to their causes and his previous criticisms of movement leaders, among other things.

“Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values,” said Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel and originally backed the candidacy of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. “That obvious choice is Senator John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries.”

Staver said the result will be more leaders “energizing their base” and targeted efforts in battleground states and states with anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives this fall such as Florida and California.

This would be the same John McCain who is no less hostile to evangelicals despite whatever phony “outreach” he’s more recently conducted, the same John McCain who is bent on laying waste to the economy through his Goresque anti-”global warming” crusade, the same John McCain who is determined to erase our southern border and make a mockery of America’s civic and cultural identity as well as its homeland security capabilities, the same John McCain who preserved the Democrats’ judicial filibuster power three years ago and whose stubborn disinclination to clash with any but his “fellow” Republicans guarantees an uninterrupted appointment conga line of David Souters and John Paul Stevens to the federal bench….need I go on?

The neoBolshevik extremism of Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama was always Darth Queeg’s ace in the hole, his anticipated means of reeling in the conservative base he’s been screwing for the past decade so that he can take it for granted as he heaps fresh betrayals upon it in the general campaign and yet collects their November votes because “they have no place else to go.”  It has been first my belief, then my hope, that conservatives, and evangelicals most of all, would not fall prey to that futile notion, would recognize that we’re screwed either way, and perhaps worse by a McCain victory that further divides the GOP than a Rodham or Obama victory that would reunify it as the first Clinton biennium led to the 1994 Republican counter-landslide.  If this development is any indication, even that hope is a forlorn one.

Still, this is more an “anybody but Obama” impulse more than it is a belated love affair with the Sith Master:

Asked whether it was opposition to Obama or enthusiasm for McCain that motivated the group, Staver said: “Obama is a considerable threat to our values. At the same time, Senator McCain recently has been reaching out to evangelicals and conservative voters that we represent.”

I’d say it’s Mr. Staver’s implicit answer that is “obvious,” wouldn’t you?

[cross-posted at ]