SO WHEN WILL TIM RUSSERT DEMAND THAT HIS OLD PAL McCAIN DISAVOW THE ENDORSEMENT HE GOT YESTERDAY FROM BIGOTED PSYCHOPATH JOHN HAGEE?

Catholic League president Bill Donahue is pretty broadly thought of as a right-wing Republican propaganda agent who shills for the GOP the way normal people breathe. But he wasn't shilling for John McCain today. Pointing out that John Hagee is far worse than Louis Farrakhan in terms of bigotry, and that his hateful brand of evangelical psychosis which has gripped some of the backward parts of the South, makes it imperative for McCain to repudiate Hagee's endorsement or face a boycott from Catholic voters in November. Keep in mind that the Hagee-McCain alliance doesn't just come out of thin air. "In an interview with BeliefNet, last year, John McCain came out as a Christian nationalist. This is a disturbing development from a man who has been profoundly critical of the religious right in the past, but has courted movement leaders, and received the endorsement of some while seeking the GOP nomination for president over the past year."

And People for the American Way has pointed out that it isn't only a lunatic like Hagee who McCain is sucking up too. There are loads of lunatics whose butts he has been kissing.

This week McCain campaigned with Rod Parsley, founder and president of “The Center for Moral Clarity” and leader of the right-wing "Patriot Pastors" (a church based campaign that was infamous for referring to political opponents as “secular jihadists,” the “forces of darkness,” and the “hordes of hell.”)

Rod Parsley, whom McCain has called a “spiritual guide,” has in the past:
 
*        called hate crimes legislation a “deceptive ploy of [the] liberal, homosexual agenda.”

*        advocated criminal prosecution of adulterers.

*        compared Planned Parenthood to the Nazis.

*        declared “I came to incite a riot! Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! Lock and load!” at a “War on Christians” conference.

*        urged voters to “let the Reformation begin! Shout it like you’re going to carry the blood-stained banner of the cross of Christ the length and breadth of the Buckeye State!” at a political rally.
 
Not one to make a right-wing supporter feel left out, McCain said, “I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support.” Hagee has:
 
*        predicted God will allow terrorists to strike the United States if the government is insufficiently supportive of Israel.

*        preached that US invasion of Iran is foretold in the book of Esther.

*        claimed that George Washington designed the Great Seal of the United States to include a hidden menorah in the eagle’s tail feathers.

*        accused the Catholic of joining with Hitler in “a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.”

*        argued that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”
 
“For a man the media loves to call a maverick, McCain sure spends a lot of time courting the Religious Right,” said People For the American Way Political Director Mary Jean Collins.
 
“McCain’s embracing Parsley and Hagee is a sign that either he’s changed his mind about what constitutes an ‘agent of intolerance’ or he’s decided that a little extremism in pursuit of power is no vice.”

In case you missed it, yesterday McCain and Hagee were all lovely-dovey on the stage of a hotel in San Antonio where McCain beamed while Hagee called him "a man of principle." The Catholic League's Donahue is pointing out that "Hagee has written extensively in negative ways about the Catholic Church, 'calling it The Great Whore, an apostate church, the anti-Christ, and a false cult system.

Donahue went further: "Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee." Wait a few hours and McCain will try claiming he never met the man and doesn't support his views, just like he did to erstwhile surrogate Bill Cunningham earlier this week. Although that might be difficult in light of this video. Watch it closely; is this what you're looking for in the White House?

Remember, McCain and Hagee are not a one night stand. He's been almost as close to Hagee as he has been with Inside the Beltway lobbyists. Take a look:




UPDATE: HAGEE-McCAIN LOVE AFFAIR CAUSING CONCERN, ESPECIALLY FROM CATHOLIC REPUBLICANS

Donahue is fuming over McCain's refusal to disavow luntic fringe bigot John Hagee. The most McCain's campaign would say about it was a tepid and tentative distancing: "Hagee endorsed John McCain. While we welcome his support, it shouldn't be seen as a wholesale endorsement of all of Mr. Hagee's views."

Meanwhile Donahue seems to be rethinking his years and years of lockstep support of these Republican bigots. "If Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama were fighting over the support of Louis Farrakhan, we'd say they're nuts," Donohue said. "So what are we to conclude about McCain's embrace of Hagee, and Huckabee's lament for not getting the bigot's endorsement?" Come on Bill; say it!

[UPDATE] McCain slithers closer to the inevitable denunciation of Hagee. Here's what the lobbyists who are driving the Double Talk Express had their candidate say today: "Well I think it's important to note that pastor john Hagee... who has supported and endorsed my candidacy supports what I stand for and believe in. When he endorses me, it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for and believes. And I am very proud of the Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership to thousands of people and I am proud of his commitment to the independence and the freedom of the state of Israel. That does not mean that I support or endorse or agree with some of the things that Pastor John Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues. I don't have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions."