PARSLEY ESCALATES HIS WAR WITH McCAIN... BUT HASN'T EXACTLY ISSUED A FATWA AGAINST HIM YET

This was a very bad week for McCain; everything went wrong, especially all that lobbyist stuff that finally broke into the mainstream media. And between that and the scary cocktail of mind-altering drugs he takes daily, he flipped out when the majority of Republican senators abandoned him and voted for the GI Bill, helping Obama and Hillary pass it with a veto-proof majority. He struck out blindly, first at Senator Obama and then at the Christian conservatives who he had wooed so assiduously for the last year. He threw first John Hagee and then Rod Parsley under the bus... and rather unceremoniously. He rejected both of their endorsements and made some pretty rude comments about them and their (admittedly loopy) beliefs.

Hagee, who he called "crazy," withdrew his endorsement but on Friday Parsley said he would let his endorsement of McCain stand. He changed his mind today

The pastor of World Harvest Church, in the Canal Winchester area, issued a statement almost identical to one he had sent late Friday night, but with one key change: the addition of the sentence “Therefore I withdraw my endorsement.”

Spokesman Gene Pierce wouldn’t shed light on Parsley’s decision, saying only “this statement is a clarification on (Friday’s) statement.”

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, rejected the Columbus pastor’s endorsement after holding on to it for nearly three months. Parsley has criticized Islam, calling it inherently violent and saying it is “the anti-Christ religion.”

McCAIN CAN'T WASH OFF THE TAINT OF HIS LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE SNAKEHANDLERS AS EASILY AS HE HOPED

This morning's NY Times applauds McCain for belatedly severing ties with two of the crazed bigots whose endorsements he had so assiduously pursed for so long in the battle for the Republican nomination. Of course, now that he has the nomination, he needs to persuade normal Americans that he's one of them and not a follower and devotee of fanatics, extremists and snakehandlers.

It took a long time for him to do it, but Senator John McCain has finally rejected the endorsements of two evangelical ministers-- one whose bizarre and hate-filled sermons deeply offended both Catholics and Jews and the other who has used his pulpit to attack Muslims.

Mr. McCain had it right in his unsuccessful primary campaign eight years ago when he denounced the Christian right’s Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance” who exercised an “evil influence” over the Republican Party. It was particularly disturbing to see him cynically pander this year for the support of that same Christian right.

His belated decision to distance himself from two of the most extreme ministers was long overdue-- and we suspect driven more by political ambition than by the principles he espoused in the past.

Mr. McCain had sought the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, a televangelist, for more than a year and finally won it in February, only to have the Catholic League denounce Mr. Hagee for waging “an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church.” Mr. Hagee called it “the Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” and a “false cult system.” The pastor apologized and said his remarks had been misconstrued, a truce was declared and Mr. McCain still welcomed the endorsement.

Then a recorded sermon emerged in which Mr. Hagee suggested that Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God’s plan to drive the Jews from Europe into Palestine-- a final straw that led Mr. McCain to reject the Hagee endorsement. He also rejected the backing of the Rev. Rod Parsley whose anti-Muslim sermons have argued that America was founded, in part, to see “this false religion destroyed.”

But not everyone agrees with the Times' assessment. Earlier today we talked with Georgia state Senator Regina Thomas, who is running for the Georgia congressional seat currently held by craven Blue Dog John Barrow. One of the unspoken problems Regina has in winning-- even though her mainstream values perfectly mirror those of the district while Barrow represents no one but his corporate contributors-- is that his huge warchest is allowing him to pay off cash-hungry ministers in the district to buy their support. Hagee's psychotic ministry of Armageddon has been extremely generous to Jews-- and whereas 99.9% of Jews are smart enough to see through his crazy apocalyptic game-- there are always a few kooks-- either too thick to understand or too greedy to care.

Hagee left it to Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of Congregation Rodfei Shalom, a modern Orthodox synagogue in San Antonio, to provide an explanation of his offending comments.

Standing with Hagee at the news conference, Scheinberg called it "ironic and absurd" that Hagee's words were twisted and labeled anti-Semitic when Hagee was lecturing on one Jewish perspective of the Holocaust.

"Pastor interpreted a Biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities," Scheinberg said. "Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian."

Scheinberg called Hagee a courageous Christian and a man guided by "an unparalleled moral compass."

And how many pieces of silver has Hagee given Rabbi Scheinberg precisely?

Most mainstream Americans of all faiths reject the divisive, hate-mongering rhetoric from Parsley and Hagee, no matter if they're targets are Catholics, Jews or Muslims. Most people realize that these outbursts are motivated primarily by hucksterism and a drive for donations from the crazed faithful. But the real problem is for the Republican Party and John McCain. According to Kathryn Kolbert, president of People For the American Way, an organization originally founded by mainstream Jews, Protestants and Catholics to battle the excesses of the religionist right, McCain's pastor problem hasn't gone away; it's gotten worse.

“For years, the Republican Party has relied on right-wing king-makers like Hagee and Parsley to bring their troops to the polls and win elections. But now, the American public is starting to understand just how far out of the mainstream these preachers and their political agendas are.

“McCain himself once called the leaders of the radical religious right ‘agents of intolerance,’ but changed his tune when he decided to run for president and knew he’d need their support. Now he’s got a hard sell: convince the public he’s a moderate, despite his conservative views, and try to win over the so-called ‘patriot pastors’ without acknowledging them publicly. Going in through the front door with endorsements backfired. Now, he’ll try the back door. After all, radical right leaders may well swallow their pride and back McCain based on his promise to give them the Supreme Court of their dreams.

“The American public has a good nose for sniffing out hypocrisy, and People For the American Way will help. For months, we’ve been pointing out McCain’s flip-flopping on Religious Right leaders, and posting the outlandish statements and over-the-top videos of Parsley and Hagee ranting away. Now the truth has reached a wider audience. We’re going to keep it up, watching for the next chapter.”

UPDATE: HAGEE AND THE JEWS

Rabbi David Saperstein is one of the wisest men of faith I have ever met. He wrote about the conundrum Jews face when thinking about allying themselves with a chacater as demented and twisted as John Hagee.

Jews can empathize with Sen. McCain because we have faced the same dilemma with Rev. Hagee. No fundamentalist Christian is more overtly supportive of Israel, raised more money for Israel, nor used his religious and political clout to more energetically mobilize support in America for Israel. Further, he was an evangelical who made clear that his relations with Jews over Israel would not be used to try to convert us. Yet, his fundamentalist views had led to reprehensible statements about gays, Catholics, and even the victims of Hurricane Katrina.



And his particular understanding of the Bible led him to use his political clout in efforts to undermine support for the Israel- Palestinian peace process and a two-state solution. Nonetheless, it had become common to find Jewish leaders joining in Pastor Hagee’s “Salute to Israel” events around the country and paying public tribute and homage to the pastor for his efforts. Two months ago, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, challenged Reform Jewish rabbis with the contradictions of participating in such events with someone who held views that were anathema to our commitment to tolerance, pluralism and intergroup respect. While I hope that Rev. Hagee continues his support for Israel, which I assume he gives for its own sake, we should refrain from allying with him in any manner that gives our stamp of approval to him generally or to the deeply troubling views he has expressed.

McCAIN AND HAGEE REJECT EACH OTHER. WHAT ABOUT PARSLEY?

Not sure about America... but McCain's campaign is sure under a curse

I don't know many religionist fanatics. But I do know one-- although I often wonder if when he spouts his nonsense it's because he's on drugs or because he thinks the Holy Spirit has taken hold of him. In any case he's a Jewish Christian Zionist and a big defender of the Rev. John Hagee. (He's also a defender of his mother's canasta circle switching their allegiance from Hillary to McCain, but that's a whole different story.) Anyway, yesterday he sent me a long and bizarre message about what John Hagee really meant to say when he said that Hitler was fulfilling God's will when he had that unpleasantness with the Chosen People a few years back.

The only reason this came up is because his mother's new favorite candidate chased Hagee around the country for two years asking for his endorsement. Nor, of course, is Hagee the only demented carnival act masquerading as a religion who McCain has pursued. He's tried to line up every snakehandler and fire-eater from one end of the Old Confederacy to the other. And some not from the Confederacy at all, like lunatic fringe anti-Christ Rod Parsley from Ohio, another blood-thirsty raving maniac who McCain publicly acknowledges as his spiritual guide.

Anyway, although my crazy friend thinks Hagee is just dandy and continues to defend him, McCain has finally decided he can't be associated with him any longer. According to CNN, McCain has officially rejected Hagee's endorsement. Funny, when Louis Farrakhan endorsed-- unbidden-- Barack Obama, it took Obama 30 seconds to publicly reject the endorsement. McCain pursued Hagee like a horny dog and then took months and months of pressure to finally admit it was a mistake.

In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has decided to reject his endorsement.

The Huffington Post had published a recording of Hagee saying that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God’s will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy.

“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well,” McCain said in a statement to CNN Thursday.

He didn't know? Doesn't he have a research department? Or are they all spending all their time digging around in the dirt looking for gotcha moments to through at African-American ministers. A simple Google search for the single word "Hagee" brings up over 700,000 entries and the wikipedia one is right on top, which explains everything McCain needs to know about the deranged "minister" he begged for an endorsement.

Not to be outdone, the enraged Hagee says McCain can't reject the endorsement because he withdraws it! Which of these loons did it first? We'll never know-- or will we?. John Amato sums this whole mess up nicely at Crooks and Liars and also wonders if Holy Joe Lieberman will end his love affair with Hagee as well.

In any case, it should be interesting to see what the religionist nuts have to say about McCain rejecting their boy Hagee-- and it will be interesting to see what McCain does about his Parsley problem:




UPDATE: McCAIN FLIPS OUT AND SAYS HE DOESN'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH ANY OF THESE CRAZY PASTORS

McCain wishes he never met Hagee or Parsley. He called Hagee "crazy and unacceptable" and then later repudiated Parsley's endorsement too. He told the A.P., "I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn't endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement," regarding Parsley's ministry of hatred and war against Islam.

YES, McCAIN WOULD INDEED BE A NIGHTMARE-- BUT NOT NEARLY AS MUCH FOR HAMAS AS FOR THE AVERAGE AMERICAN

John McCain has proven throughout a long winding career that, if elected president he will be the dream candidate for all the worst corporate interests that have been in cahoots with the Bush Regime-- Big Oil and Gas, predatory lenders, those who want to squeeze extra pennies out of our country by shipping jobs overseas, polluters, and, most of all, the MilitaryIndustrial Complex every thoughtful American from George Washington to Dwight Eisenhower to Naomi Klein and John Cusack has warned us about. But McCain isn't talking about who he's the dream candidate for-- or pointing to the 66 lobbyists on the Double Talk Express this year. Instead he's trying to claim he'll be Hamas' worst nightmare-- just the way Bush and Cheney always claimed al-Qaeda was against them. And the claims of McCain, who has hired on Karl Rove as a political advisor-- the man who exposed his wife as a drug addict and thief in 2000-- are as patently false and pernicious as Bush's and Cheney's. And misleading. Al Qaeda would probably cease to even exist as a viable entity with Bush and Cheney. McCain, who begged radical religionist loon and bigot, John Hagee, for an endorsement, has taken to trying to separate himself from Hagee's vicious anti-Catholic, anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-American ravings. Now he even calls Hagee's wild and hate-filled pronouncements "nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, nonsense." When lunatics like Hagee endorse Obama-- and some do, although, unlike McCain, Obama doesn't seek their endorsements-- Obama has told them to take their endorsement somewhere else. But McCain is still trying to smear him by claiming he's somehow "the Hamas candidate." More of the same kind of Karl Rove crap Americans are sick and tired of hearing.

The real nightmare that a President John McCain who present would be for the entire world and, particularly for the American people. Obama gets that and McCain is on a rampage against him, hoping against hope that he gets a chance to run against fellow Establishment Insider Hillary Clinton. Neither Clinton nor McCain can make a credible case to personify the kind of genuine change that Americans crave after 7 years of Bush-Cheney. McCain is a one trick money; he wants war, war, war. An OpEd in today's Orlando Sun-Sentinel points out that what Americans do want-- relief from the economic crisis that McCain-supported Republican policies have caused-- are beyond McCain's grasp.

John McCain has stated that he does not understand economics, and various statements he has made certainly prove he needs to take Economics 101.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which is far from being any left-leaning, anti-McCain newspaper, McCain has proposed tax cuts of over $650 billion a year, much of which would benefit the wealthy and large corporations. Much of these cuts would come from extending Bush's tax cuts, despite the fact that McCain voted against them twice, saying they mostly benefited the wealthy.

Asked how he would pay for these cuts, he has claimed that he would eliminate congressional earmarks, i.e., bridges to nowhere, and cut $160 billion a year from the discretionary budget. Where the $160 billion a year in cuts would come from, were not addressed. Once again, McCain-Omics are devoid of reality. The facts, according to The Wall Street Journal, are that total discretionary spending totals about $1 trillion a year, and the chances of a 16 percent cut are "non-existent," according to the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that promotes fiscal discipline.

WHAT'S WITH McCAIN AND THE RELIGIOUS FANATICS ALL OF A SUDDEN? MEET ROD PARSLEY

McCain's campaign is more than just lobbyists

If you think McCain is nuts for cavorting around with high profile bigot John Hagee (future head of McCain's National Weather Service... well, you're correct. And wait 'til you get a load of his other spiritual advisor, televangelist huckster Rod Parsley. Parsley-- when he isn't bilking his Ohio flock for everything they're worth-- is a Republican warrior, urging Christians to go to war against Islam to "destroy" it. He not only endorsed McCain, McCain endorsed him.

A few years ago my friend Tim was working for Sherrod Brown in Ohio and he became very aware of the Parsley phenomenon there. He looked into it closely and found a pretty ugly picture:

He has preached this prosperity gospel while accumulating vast personal wealth, including a $1 million, five-bedroom, 5 1/2-bath house with a swimming pool; a $63,000 Cadillac ESV and a $68,000 Lexus LX470 for himself and his wife, Joni; and a $5,000 Polaris all-terrain vehicle. Parsley shares a gated 21-acre compound in Fairfield County with his mother and father-- church officials Ellen and James Parsley-- who live in a $940,000 home. The senior Parsleys also own a $450,000 vacation home on Lake San Marcos near San Diego.

Parsley's megachurch and related industries raking in millions of dollars and pays no taxes, yet he is one of the most blatantly political preachers in America, his so-called churches an offshoot of the Ohio Republican Party. He endorses candidates left right and further right, a clear violation of his tax-exempt status. "On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, a supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-seat sanctuary, a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly show), and a 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day, a week before the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a 'strong, true, consistent conservative.' The endorsement was important for McCain, who at the time was trying to put an end to the lingering challenge from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite among Christian evangelicals. A politically influential figure in Ohio, Parsley could also play a key role in McCain's effort to win this bellwether state in the general election. McCain, with Parsley by his side at the Cincinnati rally, called the evangelical minister a 'spiritual guide.'"

Senator Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran (R-AZ) has bonded with Parsley as though he were Rosemary or Sage. Like McCain, Parsley is a war-monger, pushing America into a posture of aggression towards other countries civilizations.

I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.

...We find now we have no choice. The time has come. We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment.

Just a few years ago McCain was telling Americans Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were "agents of inolerance." Now he's ready to start drafting young Americans to send them off on a misguided Christian crusade to slay Moslems.

McCAIN YIELDS TO PRESSURE AND REPUDIATES HAGEE'S BIGOTRY... SORTA, KINDA

He seems to be enjoying himself

McCain wants his cake and wants to eat it too. He is desperate to hold on to the far right evangelical kooks, represented by witless bigots and hucksters like Hagee and Parsley on the one hand. And he needs to keep from offending mainstream Americans while he prostrates himself before the nut-cases and loons who have come to dominate the GOP coalition in recent years. It all sort of backfired on him last week when all the months and months of sucking up to religious right fanatic John Hagee "paid off" with an endorsement from that anti-Catholic bigot, an endorsement McCain has been choking on ever since.

I was on a conference call with Nancy Pelosi, the highest ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, a few days ago when someone told her about Hagee and McCain and read some of Hagee's vituperative quotes about the Catholic Church. She seemed stunned and unwilling to believe it and said she was sure McCain would repudiate that kind of hate talk. He didn't. She finally joined a growing chorus of mainstream Americans asking McCain to reconsider.

Finally in New Orleans today, just before addressing a secretive far right group of extremists, McCain tried wiggling out of the controversy, distancing himself from Hagee's hate-speech while trying to hold on to Hagee (and his delusional End of Times followers). USAToday reports he came a lot closer to renouncing Hagee.

"We've had a dignified campaign, and I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics," McCain said.

"I sent two of my children to Catholic school. I categorically reject and repudiate any statement that was made that was anti-Catholic, both in intent and nature. I categorically reject it, and I repudiate it," McCain said.

"And we can't have that in this campaign," McCain said. "We're trying to unite the country. We're uniting the country, not dividing it."

It's ironic that McCain made this remark in the midst of courting another far right anti-Catholic bigot, Tim LaHaye, who is every bit as raving mad as Hagee.

“McCain is trying to have it both ways,” said Peter Montgomery, who oversees People For the American Way’s research department and Right Wing Watch blog. “He wants the backing and political muscle of Religious Right leaders, but doesn't want to be associated with their extremism. He runs the risk of alienating Catholics and moderates by pandering for the support of the Religious Right.”

In 1987, LaHaye was famously forced to resign just days after signing up as national co-chair of Jack Kemp’s presidential campaign when the Baltimore Sun revealed numerous anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish statements in LaHaye’s writings. For instance, LaHaye called Catholicism a “false religion” and said the Jews “brought the judgment of God upon themselves and their land” by rejecting Jesus.

Catholics United has applauded McCain's denunciation of Hagee's anti-Catholic agenda. Now they are asking him to also reject his endorsement, like Obama did with Farrakhan. Needless to say, McCain will not ever do that. He's a gutless wonder and wants it both ways.

Damien LaVera, a spokesperson for the DNC makes a good point. "If John McCain doesn't have the integrity to say whether he knew about John Hagee's history of divisive remarks when he sought his endorsement and which of those comments he agrees with, how can voters trust him to change Washington?" After all, McCain semi-repudiated-- he said "IF" Hagee's remarks have offended Catholics-- the anti-Catholic statements. What about Hagee's anti-gay statements, his denigration of African-Americans, his bigoted nonsense of people who read Harry Potter novels, his crazy statements about Jews and his viciously anti-Muslim diatribes? Does McCain agree with him on those-- or does he just figure he only needs the Catholic votes so the hell with the Harry Potter fans and the rest? Jeepers, remember the old John McCain when he was a relatively young man in his 60s and had a bit of moderate in him? Then he denounced these religionist lunatics in no uncertain terms. He even attacked George Bush for getting into bed with the same crew he's embracing now-- people he then claimed were in the "16th century," and who are "racist and cruel." McCain contrasted himself to Bush, saying he would "never do such a thing"-- as accepting the endorsement of these bigots-- and now... well now he can just change his name to John W McBush... or McHagee.

McCAIN: STAY THE HELL OFF MY LAWN OR ELSE!

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

No, that isn't a quote from Hillary or Obama. In fact it isn't from one of McCain's opponents or even from a Democrat. It's from a close colleague of over thirty years, another right-of-center Republican, Thad Cochran, the senior senator from Mississippi. Cochran told the Boston Globe his feeling that McCain-- who has since been pressured into endorsing him-- is unfit to be president, and especially Commander-in-Chief, is based on his temperment. "He said he has seen McCain's temper fly too often in committee hearings or on the Senate floor... During McCain's 2000 campaign, his hometown newspaper, the Arizona Republic, published an editorial saying that the country should be warned about McCain's 'volcanic' temper." McCain has one of the filthiest potty mouths in Congress and there have been more complaints about him cursing out fellow senators than about anyone in modern history-- and usually Republicans like John Cornyn (R-TX), Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA). (Thad Cochran, a former cheerleader, has a really lovely singing voice too and you should check out this little song of his.)

Even at Fox, which has begun full-time shilling for McCain, it is news when McCain doesn't lose his temper or threaten or curse someone out. Media Matters reports on a Fox Special on McCain acting like a normal person for a change:

On Special Report, Brit Hume aired a report by Carl Cameron about Sen. John McCain keeping his temper in check when the microphone did not work during a donor's conference in Florida and later when he was hit on the head by a TV camera. At the end of the report, Cameron stated: "McCain makes no bones about blowing his stack occasionally and having a temper. A campaign has the capacity to test the temperament and character of a candidate. If today was a pop quiz, you got to say McCain passed." Hume replied: "Yeah, with flying colors I'd say, under the circumstances."

Today, though, the media isn't reporting how calm, cool and collected McCain is. Instead they're pointing to his "testy"-- some would say bullying-- exchange with NY Times writer Elisabeth Bumiller on his campaign plane. You can watch much of it and read the whole transcript at Crooks & Liars. When McCain was a young man he was universally known as "Punk" and "McNasty." Punk had a different meaning back in the 1930s than it does now but you can definitely see where the "McNasty" comes from by reading his exchange with Ms. Bumiller:

“Senator, can I ask you about Senator Kerry. I just went back and looked at our story, the Times story, and you told Sheryl Stolberg that you had never had a conversation with Kerry about being about vice president...”

McCain testily replied, “Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that. That I had a conversation. There’s no living American in Washington-- that knows that, there’s no one.”

Bumiller: “Okay.”

McCain: “And you know it, too. You know it. So, I don’t even know why you ask.”

Bumiller: “Well, I ask because I just read…”

McCain: “You do know it. You do know it.”

Bumiller: “Because I just read in the Times in May of ’04 you said….”

McCain: “I don’t know what you may have read or heard of, I don’t know the circumstances. Maybe in May of '04 I hadn’t had the conversation…”

Bumiller: “But do you recall the conversation?”

McCain: “I don’t know, but it’s well known that I had the conversation. It is absolutely well known by everyone. So do you have a question on another issue?”

Bumiller: “Well can I ask you when the conversation was?”

McCain: “No. nope, because the issue is closed as far as I’m concerned. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it in America.”

Bumiller: “Can you describe the conversation?”

McCain: “No, of course not. I don’t describe private conversations.”

Bumiller: “Okay. Can I ask you…”

McCain: “Why should I? Then there’s no such thing as a private conversation. Is there (inaudible) if you have a private conversation with someone, and then they come and tell you. I don’t know that that’s a private conversation. I think that’s a public conversation.”

Bumiller: “Okay. Can I ask you about your (pause) Why you’re so angry?”

McCain: “Pardon me?”

Bumiller: “Nevermind, nevermind.”

McCain: “I mean, it’s well known. Everybody knows. It’s been well chronicled a thousand times. John Kerry asked if I would consider being his running mate.”

Bumiller: “Okay.”

McCain: “And I said categorically no, under no circumstances. That’s very well known.”

The 2004 New York Times piece in question ends in this way: "If Mr. McCain is offered the vice-presidential spot, people close to Mr. Kerry say, the request will come from the candidate himself and not through the campaign's vice-presidential vetting process."

"Asked if Senator Kerry had made such an offer, Mr. McCain said no without hesitation. But asked if the two men had ever discussed it, even casually, he paused for a moment. 'No,' he said finally. 'We really haven't.'"

Now perhaps the reason McCain was so unhinged and argumentative today goes beyond just his nasty personality and the embarrassment of begging Kerry to give him the VP nomination. Looks like he stepped into another pile of crap, right after his embrace of anti-Catholic bigot Jon Hagee. This time he's in bed with one of the most extremist lunatic-fringe organizations in America, Tim LaHaye's Council for National Policy. He's courting this group of dangerous miscreants in New Orleans-- which is where he was flying when he started snarling at poor Elisabeth Bumiller. Fox and the Moonie Times first reported McCain's closed door secret session (no press allowed) with the radical extremists today. (Fox says the session, or at least part of it, will be videotaped and shown to ordinary Americans.) Some of the lobbyists who run McCain's campaign are members of the whacko far right group and he may have been talked into this imprudent meeting by one of them and lashed out at Brumiller in anger. Or maybe he was just reacting badly to some of the advance press on the meeting:

The depth of disaffection from Mr. McCain among prominent members of CNP is so strong that some are already questioning the group's bona fides.

"It will say more about the state of the conservative movement than it does McCain," a veteran CNP member said. "If he is accepted at CNP, this will mark the official end of the conservative movement as we knew it."

Like some other members of the narrow coalition of radicals McCain has been assembling, the Council for National Policy (CNP), is extremely bigoted, especially towards Catholics and gays. Like Hagee, Lahaye insists Catholicism is a "false religion" and often runs his mouth off about how popes are "antichrists". Although this secretive organization guards it's membership list closely, it has been confirmed that among the members are familiar right wing names like Dobson, Weyrich, Coors, Wayne LaPierre of the National Riffle Association, Richard Viguerie, Mark Mix of the National Right to Work Committee and Grover Norquist. Talk about getting fleas from who you lay down with!

WILL HARRY POTTER FANS JOIN CATHOLICS IN BOYCOTTING JOHN McCAIN'S NARROW & BIGOTED CAMPAIGN?

McCain's lust for power going up in flames-- with Harry Potter books

Virtually all of John McCain's instructors at the Naval Academy faulted him for refusing to read manuals or take instruction from people with experience. Aside from being a drunken playboy he was a terrible student, graduated 6th from the bottom of his class and crashed up half a dozen airplanes-- always someone else's fault-- before being shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese, his ticket to glory. And, apparently, textbooks and airplane manuals aren't the only think Mr. Know-It-All refused to read. He brags that he doesn't know squat about economics and can hire MBAs if he gets into the White House, forgetting, I suppose that an MBA is at the head of the current Regime that has done our economy such grievous damage with his ignorant and greed-obsessed ideology and policies. And what's worse, one has to wonder if McCain has ever bothered to read the U.S. Constitution.

He has basically rubber stamped every Bush-Cheney initiative to emasculate and eviscerate it. But in recent days we have come to see how he doesn't care about-- or, perhaps, understand-- what the Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, had in mind when they firmly took care to separate Church and State-- for the good of both. Their forethought has been a great blessing to America for the past 230 years. And, then, along comes Mr. Know-It-All. If McCain learns anything from the John Hagee scandal-- which is doubtful (Know-It-Alls don't learn, his problems since his teenage years)-- it should be that there are very sound reasons for keeping religion and government out of each other's business.

His relentless pursuit of an extremist cult leader, John Hagee, is making other Republicans, particularly Catholics, gays and Jews, who have been demonized by Hagee over the years, rethink their attitudes about the smoothly hyped image of John McCain as a wise and moderate leader. Regardless of his PR machine, he is neither wise nor moderate, as the Hagee episode clearly demonstrates. As Claire Hoffman writes in her "Under God" column in today's Washington Post, "incendiary faith is the opposite of consensus building."

McCain has said that he is proud to be associated with Hagee. This must be in part because McCain's strategists think he needs to burnish his evangelical credentials and Hagee's vote, along with his 19,000-member strong congregation, is just the solution.

Thing is, this country is big. Real big. And you need to bring together a lot of people to vote for you if you want to be president. That may be a little harder for McCain to accomplish thanks to his association with Hagee, who in recent years has many, including but not limited to Catholics, homosexuals, Muslims and Harry Potter-author J.K. Rowling. He has suggested that Hurricane Katrina was God's wrath for the city's "gay parade" and he has called the Roman Catholic Church a "false cult system."

...Where things get uncomfortable is when Hagee is grinning on stage next to McCain, who could lead this diverse country and directly affect the lives of said Catholics, gays and Muslims. Obama faced this same question of a divisive friendship last week when he said he would reject the endorsement of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

McCain for his part has said he won't reject Hagee's endorsement but that "in no way did I intend for his endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee's views, which I obviously do not."

Now, it is one thing for McCain to alienate the Catholic leaders who have called for him to change his tune on Hagee and risk losing the support of American Catholics who make up as much as a quarter of voters. But if that doesn't scare him, Hagee's views on the Harry Potter books should: Hagee has called them "witchcraft" and suggested that they "desensitize readers and introduce them to the occult." According to my own casual statistical research about 99.9 percent of Americans are fans of the Harry Potter [books]. If I were McCain, I'd start building consensus there.

UPDATE: MEANWHILE, WHAT ABOUT McCAIN AND DRUGS?

No, I'm talking about his wife's addiction or about her being arrested for stealing drugs from a charity. That's the past. I'm talking about all his lobbyists again. The vast majority of the American people want to see more regulation of prescriptions drugs, not, as McCain wants, less. The lobbyists who run the Double Talk Express and who are likely to man any McCain administration would never agree to take away the profitable ability of Big Pharma to screw Americans over royally.

THE CATHOLICS ARE ATTACKING-- AND FOR GOOD REASON

A couple days ago CNN took a look at the McCain-Hagee love affair. It's worth watching if you haven't been following this explosive story closely:



None of the CNN commentators mentioned that McCain pursued the Hagee endorsement relentlessly for a very long time. He and his allies-- like Lieberman-- knew exactly what Hagee was all about and tried to rope him in anyway. You listen to McCain now and you almost get the idea that Hagee just forced his way up on the stage and started screaming "I endorse you, I endorse you." That isn't what happened at all. Few mainstream Americans know-- since the media has kept it a secret-- that McCain publicly admitted last year that he belongs to the radical Christian Nationalist cult.

Now, Farrakhan endorsed Barack Obama out of the blue and with no consultation with Obama or his staff. Obama wasn't on stage with Farrakhan and he didn't accept the endorsement and, in fact, publicly rejected it. McCain repeatedly begged Hagee to endorse him and appeared onstage with him as them embraced each other's venal agendas. Is McCain anti-Catholic? Not that I've ever seen. Would he sell out Catholics or Jews or African-Americans or gays or anyone else to get to the White House? In one second flat-- and he'd throw that poor old mother of his he drags around the country to imply he might live long enough to be president if he wins, right under the Double Talk Express-- and tell one of the lobbyists to drive over her if that's what it took.

So should anyone, logically speaking, support, or even vote for, McCain? Well, if you're one of the 19% of Americans who think George Bush has done a good job as president, McCain is your man. And if you-- like him and Hagee-- see no future and you'd like to kick that notion off with a military draft, McCain is the man for you.

Meanwhile, wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall when McCain, Lieberman and Hagee-- 3 stooges-- sit down for a chit chat and some java?

IT'S SATURDAY-- TIME FOR SOME STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT JOHN McCAIN

With John Hagee's endorsement in hand, establishing him as the candidate of the certifiably insane extremist wing of the GOP, McCain is now testing the waters of triangulation against the conservative Republican base he was formerly courting so assiduously, by trying to appeal to normal mainstream voters, calling himself a "liberal Republican." He has a long and hateful voting record that clearly shows he isn't. Just this week alone, the nonpartisan Children's Defense Fund and the equally nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters each ranked him as the worst scoring reactionary throw-back in Congress on children's issues and on conservation and environmental issues-- the worst, not the second worst or in the middle of the pack-- the absolute bottom of the far right barrel. That is the John McCain that a lazy mainstream media has allowed to paint himself-- for years and years-- as a "moderate."

Yesterday author and journalist Joe Conason pointed out a political quagmire it will probably take more than John Hagee's incantations against Catholics, gays, Jews and New Orleans to get him out of. Sometime in March the total number of American dead in Iraq will cross the 4,000 mark. How many are too many for McCain? He's already said he's willing to keep fighting there for 100 years or 10,000 years. Are 40,000 troops too many to sacrifice for greater oil profits? (It certainly isn't for lower gas and energy prices as you may have noticed.) 400,000? If John McCain were in power a couple decades ago he says he would have continued fighting in Vietnam. Why? Because he hates them? I think we've see what a president driven by narrow hatreds leads to. We don't need another one-- an even more self-righteous one, if you can imagine such a thing-- like George Bush.

This week's Economist has a clear-eyed view of McCain's chances to actually pull off a third George Bush term, No Country For Old Men. The Economist poo-poo's the NY Times story about McCain's lobbyist connections and the DNC suit against McCain's unethical camapaign practices (too complicated for ordinary people to grasp) but "both stories point to a long-term problem: money."

McCain sells himself as a scourge of special interests and hammer of lobbyists. He also styles himself a hands-on reformer who has tried to fix America's campaign-finance system. For a presidential candidate, this might prove the equivalent of attaching a sign to your behind saying "Kick me".

Mr McCain is no stranger to the world of lobbyists. Several members of his staff, including his campaign manager, Rick Davis, are lobbyists. So are about 60 of the most generous contributors to his campaign. The senator is not averse to taking lifts on corporate jets. The public-finance system Mr McCain helped design is so unwieldy that even the man who invented it finds it a nightmare.

The New York Times article points to another worry for Mr McCain: that swooning journalists may soon abandon him for a candidate even more to their liking. Mr McCain had no trouble wooing the media when his rivals were George Bush and Mitt Romney. A few hours shooting the breeze with the senator on the Straight Talk Express and most journalists are eating out of his hand. But what happens when his rival is the coolest kid in town?

Mr McCain's problems go further. In a normal year he would enjoy a huge advantage on national security. Mr McCain is a war hero who has spent most of his professional life cogitating on matters of war and peace. He is also a hawk in a country where hawkishness is normally considered a virtue. He was calling for "rogue state roll-back" in 1999 when Mr Bush was arguing for a more humble foreign policy (remember that?).

But this natural advantage has been upended by the Iraq war. Mr McCain is more closely identified with the war than anybody except Mr Bush and Dick Cheney. He was one of the loudest supporters of the surge. Exit polls show he is first choice among Republican primary voters whose top concern is Iraq. He has said it is "fine with me" if American troops remain in Iraq for "maybe a hundred years".

But can you base a successful presidential bid on defending an unpopular war? Recent polls show that around two-thirds of registered voters want to bring the troops home within a year. That includes a third of Republicans as well as more than 90% of Democrats. The success of the surge has done almost nothing to reduce Americans' desire to leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

...McCain is on equally treacherous ground when it comes to domestic policy. The voters are in a strongly anti-Republican mood: they prefer Democrats on everything from health care to taxes. Democrats are more united than Republicans, who are at each other's throats over immigration and global warming. They are also more fired up: they have been raising more money and packing in bigger crowds than Republicans for over a year now.

Hagee's no where in sight but at least McCain has Holy Joe watching his back while he explains how he feels about a century of war in Iraq:

McCAIN'S SPIRITUAL ALLY, JOHN HAGEE, MAY HATE AND DEMONIZE CATHOLICS BUT HE IS CERTAINLY NO FRIEND OF ISRAEL'S OR THE JEWISH PEOPLE EITHER

Is there some religion that aspires to a Gospel of Hatred and Bigotry?

If it wasn't enough that normal people are upset that McCain has decided to stay in bed with arch-bigot and fringe loon John Hagee, their bizarre alliance is also being questioned from the right. Yesterday in Texarkana the Rev. Mike Huckabee "accused the Rev. John Hagee of playing politics over principle by endorsing" the Double Talk Express. Despite the furor raised over the endorsement by American Catholics, especially by Republican Catholics, Huckabee feely admits he wanted Hagee's endorsement. Is this the party of crazy extremist bigots or what?

Speaking after a rally in Texarkana, Huckabee said he was surprised by Hagee’s endorsement because of McCain’s lack of fervor on abortion -- despite his 100% anti-abortion rights voting record. (McCain has, however, voted for stem-cell research.) Huckabee also said Hagee told him he endorsed because he assumed McCain would win the nomination.

“He just thought that the political rationale was he wanted to get on Sen. McCain’s team, and he thought he was gonna win the nomination,” Huckabee said. “I don’t think that’s a foregone conclusion, and even if I did, I would stand on principle more than I would politics.”

If Hagee has accomplished nothing else in his miserable career of duping suckers and frightened congregents out of their savings, he at least has the usually biased mainstream media-- who have built McCain up into some kind of grand moderate he never was-- looking into McCain's connections with the dangerous lunatic fringe of extremist politics and religionism. It will be hard for them to get out from under the way they grilled Barack Obama about a non-existant relationship with Louis Farrakhan without using the same standards, for a change, in looking at the very real relationship between John McCain and John Hagee. As Glenn Greenwald reminds us today:

Hagee's so-called "commitment to Israel" actually means that he wants Israel united so that the Rapture can happen and all Jews, including Israelis, will be slaughtered and sent to hell. And the "spiritual leadership" which McCain heralds consists of calling the Catholic Church the "Mother Whore" and a "cult" and arguing that Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in the devastation of tens of thousands of lives, was God's punishment against New Orleans because it scheduled a gay pride parade that week.

The fact that McCain thinks he can get away with openly embracing one of the most influential and hateful bigots in the country is a reflection of the profound media double standard he knows favors and protects him. Just imagine if Obama had issued a statement similar to McCain's with regard to Farrakhan: "I am very proud of Minister Louis Farrakhan's spiritual leadership to thousands of people" and "don't have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. I'm still 'honored" to have his support."

As it is, Obama -- who never appeared on a stage with Farrakhan or sought or praised his support -- was attacked by the Jamie Kirchicks of the world even though he denounced Farrakhan's views and rejected his support. Yet here is McCain, refusing to denounce anything about Hagee, instead openly embracing him and expressing "honor" at receiving the endorsement, and there is... almost nothing. For those in the media who sputtered on about the nonexistent Obama/Farrakhan matter -- and even for those who didn't -- how can you possibly justify not covering all of the aspects of this odious McCain/Hagee association?

UPDATE: WILL REPUBLICAN JEWS VOTE FOR McCAIN?

Will McCain disavow Hagee's assertion that Jew's are repulsive to God? He may. But he won't disavow Hagee's bizarre ideas about getting all the Jews gathered up in "Greater Israel" so Armageddon can get going already. That's because McCain himself believes that tripe.

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."