The Latest Anti-Science Republican: Mike Pence

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/05/06/the-latest-anti-science-republican-mike-pence/

The congressional global warming debate continues to expose the true colors of today’s Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives. John Boehner, Michelle Bachmann, John Shimkus–all have stood up and said just inconceivable things about a body of science that they don’t even seem to understand.

And now, Mike Pence of Indiana is the latest to follow in this embarrassing tradition. Think Progress caught it first: MSNBC’s Chris Matthews got Pence on the record about global warming, stem cells, and evolution, and it was just outrageous:

PENCE: Well let me tell you. I think the science is very mixed on the subject of global warming, Chris.

Q: Then why should your party believe you’re going to get serious about it, if you say the science is mixed?

PENCE: Yeah, it’s a fair question. But look. I’m all for clean air. I’m all for clean coal technology. I’m sure reducing CO2 emissions would be a positive thing.

And again:

PENCE: Uh, do I believe in evolution? I embrace the view that God created the Heavens and the Earth, the Seas and all that’s in them. The means that he used to do that, I can’t say, but I do believe in that fundamental truth.

This stuff is appalling not only on a factual level, but because of what the country now faces–and just how ill-equipped people like Pence are to deal with it. Will we look back in ten years and see the 2000s as the decade that the Republican Party committed the equivalent of political suicide through its continual denial of reality?