"Ask a Wingnut" Gets Eviscerated

Last night, I stumbled across a horror-show on Salon. I'll let Steve Benen tell you about it:

The fine folks at Salon have a fun new feature called "Ask a Wingnut," in which reasonable people, curious what a real-live conservative thinks about a given issue, get to pose a substantive question to a former Bush administration official. We don't know who the official is -- he/she writes pseudonymously -- but the "wingnut" goes by the name of "Glenallen Walken."

In this week's edition, readers asked why the Republican Party, and conservatives in general, are hostile to science. Glenallen Walken responded:

To me, the question is almost laughable on its face. Conservatives are pro-science and, as a general rule, pro-cost-benefit analysis and pro-thinking.

I read that feature last night, and nearly did myself damage laughing. "Glenallen Walken" is either a bona fide wingnut or a very skilled Poe-artist. That column was chock-full of the usual Con tripe, with a few semi-plausible tidbits thrown in. I didn't have time to sharpen my knives and engage in slaughter. Steve, luckily, had time:

As evidence to support the argument that the right loves science, Salon's resident wingnut pointed to some specific examples: Reagan supported the creation of a missile-defense system (SDI) a few decades ago; George W. Bush once said something about going to Mars; Gingrich supported expanding NIH funding 15 years ago; and Bush "was the first president to propose federal funding for stem cell research."

While I'm delighted that "Glenallen Walken" is willing to respond to questions like these, his/her response isn't exactly persuasive.

Right off the bat, the provided examples are pretty weak. Most notably, Bush may have been the first to make federal funds available for stem-cell research, but that's a silly argument. For one thing, it's a new scientific field. I'm sure FDR and Abe Lincoln would have been happy to invest in such research if it were available before the 21st century. For another, Bush's approach to stem-cell science was utterly ridiculous, and the restrictions he imposed were incoherent. This isn't evidence of Republicans embracing science; it's evidence of the opposite.

The evisceration continues at Political Animal. Enjoy.