Religious Right, R.I.P.?

"The obituary of the Religious Right has been written many times before. The defeat of Pat Robertson's GOP primary bid in 1988, the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, his re-election in 1996, his acquittal by the Senate in the Lewinsky sex-and-lies scandal -- all of these were causes for self-congratulatory gloating by opponents of the Religious Right.
"And I should add that this gloating has been, and is now, bipartisan: Many Republicans have been deeply resentful of the influence exercised by Christian conservatives. The fact that John McCain was able to get the 2008 GOP nomination, after infamously insulting the leaders of the Religious Right as 'agents of intolerance' during his 2000 primary campaign, is perhaps the best evidence for any argument about the declining influence of Christian conservatism."