In the September-October 2008 issue of Sojourners, a progressive Christian periodical on the religious Left, Reverend Jim Wallis quotes John McCain (on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination) as having said:

"Some people lament privately, others are brave enough to take their call for change into the public arena. Martin Luther King III has done his father's legacy proud this week by courageously insisting that our nation's next leader do something about the poverty that ensnares over 36 million of our citizens. I will answer his call, and tell him and the American people today that I will make the eradication of poverty a top priority of the McCain administration."

That same issue of Sojourners interviews both John Edwards and Mike Huckabee on the eradication of poverty, and quotes Mike Huckabee as saying, "I'm a conservative but I'm not a nut. If my choice is a government program or a hungry kid, then give me the government program."

Mike Huckabee says:

"One of the things I'm frustrated about is that Republicans have been infiltrated by hardcore libertarians. Traditional Republicans don''t hate all forms of government. They just want it to be efficient and effective. They recognize that it has a place and a role. Growing numbers of people in the Republican party are just short of anarchists in the sense that they basically say: 'Just cut government and cut taxes.' They don't understand that if you do that, there are certain consequences that do not help problems. It exacerbates them."

Jim Wallis reports that Huckabee told a "values voter" gathering in 2007, "I do not spell G-O-D...G-O-P. Our party may be important, but our principles are even more important than anybody's political party."

For the most part, however, it appears to be business as usual in the Republican party. Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, says:

“Senator McCain’s choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies.

“Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.

“This is Senator McCain’s first significant choice in building his executive team and it’s a bad one. It has to raise serious doubts in the minds of voters about John McCain’s commitment to conservation, to addressing the impacts of global warming and to ensuring our country ends its dependency on oil.”

Back in the early '90s, George Bush Sr. referred to environmentalists as "the spotted owl crowd," thus indirectly making it clear that Republicans don't understand environmentalism. "And (yet) they call themselves 'pro-life'," mused Fox News' token liberal commentator Alan Colmes a few years ago.

I am disheartened by Sarah Palin's record on the environment, endangered species, and ties to Big Oil, but not surprised. She is, after all, a conservative Republican, running for VP on a Republican ticket.

To her credit, Sarah Palin is a member of Feminists For Life, an organization that is both pro-woman AND pro-life. Feminists For Life was founded in 1972, when the National Organization for Women (NOW) expelled all its pro-life members, in order to stifle dissent on the abortion issue.

I wish pro-life Dems had the kind of visibility within their own Party that pro-choice Republicans have in theirs.