Is that really holding true in Turkey?

Seems to hold true for Bush administration.

Mike beat me to the punch on this. But let's not also forget the broader Republican Party is fundie-dominated and has more than aided and abetted this administration. It's difficult to imagine Republicans of the past like the definitely non-fundie Howard Baker and Bob Michel signing off on this BS.

The AKP in Turkey is not a fundie party. OK, they have fundie members. But the leadership is so desperate to prove they're simply an Islamic version of a Euro Christian Democrat Party that they've actually started acting like it and making policy like it. We'll see how long it lasts, but that's where it is for now. The Republicans, on the other hand, pander to the religious fundies rather than trying to hide them in the attic.

DB, if you talk to anyone who calls himself or herself a secular liberal in Turkey, they'll definitely accuse the AKP of having a hidden Islamist agenda and of pandering to the religious fundamentalists. Surely you've heard of the various huge marches in favor of secularism, the hint by the Army that Abdullah Gul was unacceptable as president and that a coup might be necessary, etc.? A year old article here.

Plenty of secularists decry the recent constitutional amendments to lift the headscarf ban at universities as "pandering" to the fundamentalists. They also have plans to ban showing alcohol (not just advertising) on television.

Of course, it's unsurprising that you're willing to give the AKP all the benefit of the doubt while giving none to the Bush Administration. However, I certainly think that you ought to point to actual pandering to fundamentalists by the current Administration to make your case. The AKP, after all, has links to Islamist parties and massive support among fundamentalists, which you argue is not enough to make any sort of case. (Preferably pandering that is somehow Republican-specific and doesn't include the Clinton Administration as well, I would say. Embryonic research is not that great an example, BTW; in typical Clinton fashion, there was no government funding during the Clinton Administration, and a committee was formed to study the issue, reporting only after Clinton left office. Gay marriage is another that's not so good-- Clinton bragged about signing the Defense of Marriage Act on Christian radio and TV.)

One of the best examples of pandering I can come up with is that the FCC has been certainly far more active at responding to obscenity complaints for broadcast TV than under the Clinton Administration. So there's one for you.

The Kansas school board is a bad example for the Republican Party as a whole, considering that the board members who opposed teaching evolution lost in the Republican primary the first time they came up for re-election.