UPDATE: Now we find out that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is coming to the Texas GOP convention in June. See more at the end of this post.
Don McLeroy lost his chairmanship of the State Board of Education last year because he was more interested in promoting his own narrow ideological views than facts and sound scholarship in Texas classrooms. The College Station dentist insisted that “somebody’s gotta stand up to experts” when he promoted creationist arguments in new science standards last year. He argued that science should be redefined to include the supernatural and endorsed a book that calls parents “monsters” if they teach their children about evolution. Then during the debate over social studies curriculum standards, McLeroy suggested women and minorities owe thanks to men and the “majority” for granting them their rights, argued that Joseph McCarthy has been “vindicated” and defended the appointment of absurdly unqualified political activists as social studies “experts” to help guide the revision of curriculum standards.
One might think that Republicans would be wary of embracing someone with such extreme views. But apparently not Texas Republicans.
McLeroy will be the recipient of the Texas Eagle Forum’s Patriot Award at that group’s June 10 banquet during the Texas Republican Party convention in Dallas. Cathie Adams left her post as head of Texas Eagle Forum last fall to become chair the Texas GOP. From the Texas Eagle Forum’s announcement:
Don’t miss this opportunity to honor Dr. Don McLeroy, former chair of the State Board of Education and one of our nation’s most courageous champions for truth!
YOU HAVE SEEN HIM FEATURED IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA – COME GREET HIM IN PERSON!
We’re really not all that surprised. McLeroy is actually a very nice man in person, but since the religious right’s takeover of the Texas Republican Party in the early-1990s, his extremist political views have become “mainstream” in the state GOP. But maybe not much longer. McLeroy lost his Republican primary contest this year and won’t be returning to the State Board of Education in January. Perhaps truly mainstream Republicans in Texas have had enough of the extremists who hijacked their party nearly two decades ago.
UPDATE: As we noted above, the Texas GOP will also hear from Michele Bachmann, the unhinged congresswoman from Minnesota. Bachmann will be one of the keynote speakers for the Bar-B-Que & Boots Salute at the party’s Dallas convention next month. “Dallas may never be the same,” the party’s announcement proclaims:
Rep. Michele Bachmann has quickly earned her spurs as a stalwart conservative, a Tea Party favorite, a fierce advocate for freedom, and Nancy Pelosi’s Public Enemy #1. Rep. Bachmann is never one to back down from a fight, and she has taken on President Obama and the liberal Democrats every step of the way.
Seriously? Michele Bachmann? Bachmann is such an extremist that she has linked the census to internment camps. She warned that the Obama administration wants to send young people to “re-education camps” for political indoctrination. She insisted that health care reform includes “death panels.” And she has on more than one occasion used incendiary language suggesting that Americans should take up arms or otherwise revolt against the government. But the Texas Republican Party wants her to give the keynote address at a prominent convention event.
