Via Nevada Thunder, a link to the full text of Paul Krugman’s piece on John McCain and Jerry Falwell, who are making up their old spat so John can get Jerry’s endorsement for all the sheeple in the Christian Right.

Nevada Thunder � Blog Archive � John and Jerry.

He concludes:

But if you choose to make common cause with religious extremists, you are accepting some responsibility for their extremism. By welcoming Mr. Falwell and people like him as members of their party, Republicans are saying that it’s O.K. — not necessarily correct, but O.K. — to declare that 9/11 was America’s punishment for its tolerance of abortion and homosexuality, that Islam is a terrorist religion, and that Jews can’t go to heaven. And voters should judge the Republican Party accordingly.

As for Mr. McCain: his denunciation of Mr. Falwell and Mr. Robertson six years ago helped give him a reputation as a moderate on social issues. Now that he has made up with Mr. Falwell and endorsed South Dakota’s ban on abortion even in the case of rape or incest, only two conclusions are possible: either he isn’t a social moderate after all, or he’s a cynical political opportunist.

Or both. You can be a social conservative AND a cynical political opportunist. In fact, they go together like a horse and carriage.