Everyone is buzzing with the news that John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, has been elected the new majority leader in the House. So far, though, I have not seen any journalist ferret out this 2002 letter to the Ohio Board of Education (reported on here in the Post), in which Boehner teamed up with another Ohio Republican (Steve Chabot) to push an attack on evolution. The Boehner-Chabot letter interprets the controversial Santorum Amendment as indicating the following: "Public school students are entitled to learn that there are differing scientific views on issues such as biological evolution." Whether the Santorum amendment actually means this is questionable, but Boehner certainly thinks it does. His letter therefore implies that "intelligent design" counts as as a scientific alternative to evolution, a position rejected firmly by Judge Jones in the Dover trial.
So now, some journalist really needs to ask Boehner what his stance is on ID. That should be very interesting. More generally, that Boehner was elected the new House Majority Leader for the GOP is stunning evidence, to me, that the Republican war on science is alive and well.
P.S.: Dear Opinator and Think Progress readers, thanks for coming, I hope you'll take a moment to check out The Republican War on Science before you depart....
