CBS 3 - Santorum Does The Dover Two Step - More Flip Flops

CBS 3 - Philadelphia's Source For Breaking News, Weather, Traffic and Sports: Santorum To Cut Ties With Evolution-Defending Firm: "Santorum To Cut Ties With Evolution-Defending Firm
Senator Said Board Members' Religious Motivation In Intelligent Design School Battle Was Troubling
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(AP) PHILADELPHIA Sen. Rick Santorum intends to withdraw his affiliation with the Thomas More Law Center, which defended the Dover Area School District's policy mandating the teaching of intelligent design in science classes dealing with evolution.
Santorum earlier praised the district for "attempting to teach the controversy of evolution."

But on Wednesday, the day after a federal judge ruled the district's policy on intelligent design unconstitutional, the Republican senator told The Philadelphia Inquirer he was troubled by testimony indicating religion motivated some board members to adopt the policy.

The question quickly became a political issue as the leading Democratic challenger in Santorum's 2006 re-election battle, state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., accused him of backtracking on intelligent design.

Casey's spokesman, Larry Smar, said Wednesday that Santorum's statements were "yet another example of 'Election
Year Rick' changing his positions for political expediency."

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones ruled Tuesday that the district's policy of requiring students to hear a statement about intelligent design before ninth-grade evolution lessons was "a pretext ... to promote religion in the public school classroom."

Intelligent design's proponents hold that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher force rather than evolving from more primitive forms.

Santorum said in a 2002 Washington Times op-ed article that intelligent design "is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes."

But he said he meant that teachers should have freedom to mention intelligent design as part of the evolution debate _ not be required to do so -- and said his position hasn't changed.

Santorum said he disagreed with the Dover board's policy of mandating the teaching of intelligent design, rather than teaching the controversy surrounding evolution. Because of that, he said the case provided "a bad set of facts" to test whether theories other than evolution should be taught in science class.

"I thought the Thomas More Law Center made a huge mistake in taking this case and in pushing this case to the extent they did," said Santorum, a member of the center's advisory board. He said he would end his affiliation with the Michigan-based public-interest law firm that promotes Christian values.


(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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