How disappointing

John McCain cozies up to Jerry Falwell.

And that’s why it’s important to hold someone like Mr. McCain — who is still widely regarded as a moderate, in spite of his extremely conservative voting record — accountable when he cozies up to Mr. Falwell. Nobody thinks that Mr. McCain shares all of Mr. Falwell’s views. But when Mr. McCain said that the Christian right had a right to be part of the Republican Party, he was in effect saying that Mr. Falwell’s statements were within the realm of acceptable political discourse.

Just to be clear: this is a free country, and Mr. Falwell has a right to say what he thinks, even if his views include the belief that other people, by saying what they think, brought down God’s wrath on America. By the same token, any political party has a right to include Mr. Falwell and his supporters, just as any politician has a right to make a political alliance with Mr. Falwell.

But if you choose to make common cause with religious extremists, you are accepting some responsibility for their extremism. By welcoming Mr. Falwell and people like him as members of their party, Republicans are saying that it’s O.K. — not necessarily correct, but O.K. — to declare that 9/11 was America’s punishment for its tolerance of abortion and homosexuality, that Islam is a terrorist religion, and that Jews can’t go to heaven. And voters should judge the Republican Party accordingly.

Not that I thought he had much chance of getting the nomination anyway, but it seems to me McCain — assuming he’s angling to run again in ’08 — has managed to alienate a good chunk of his base without really standing to gain much ground with the religious right. A pity, that he felt that was the thing to do, whether it was done pragmatically or on principle.