The New OrleansTimes Picayune reports something that gives me hope:

Bowing to pressure,
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has backed off an attempt to steer $100,000
in taxpayer money to a Louisiana Christian group that supports teaching
religious and alternative theories of creation alongside evolution in
science classrooms.

Vitter has taken heat from educational,
religious and civil rights groups for earmarking money in the fiscal
2008 spending bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health, Human
Services and Education for the Louisiana Family Forum, “to develop a
plan to promote better science education.”

The group has long
challenged Darwinian theories explaining the origins of life, and the
earmark was seen by some as an attempt to inject Christian religious
doctrine into the classroom.

This is a winning
issue for Democrats, even in the Deep South. Yet, too often they’re shy
about using it. Don’t Dems notice how queasy independents and libertarians get when a fundagelical shoehorns creationist talking points into a discussion about public education or science? And it’s
not difficult to spot the creationist camel’s nose when it creeps under the public school
tent. Just relentlessly point it out and make a big fuss, and you’ll get results.

Senator Vitter would
never, ever back down on something related to gay marriage or
immigration, yet here he “bows to pressure”. That’s right.There he was, with his faith and his Peter Pan advice. He had no scars on his face, and he couldn’t handle pressure! 1, 2, 3, 4… PRESSURE!

(I’m very sorry about that last bit.)