Hagee controversy lingers as a problem for McCain

March 3, 2008

There still hasn’t been a single stand-alone article about this in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Still, slowly but surely, John McCain’s John Hagee problem is becoming a political controversy the presumptive Republican nominee is unsure how to handle.

Yesterday, on CNN, DNC Chairman Howard Dean went on the offensive, questioning why McCain would seek out and embrace a virulently anti-Catholic extremist. Soon after, Wolf Blitzer spoke with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), a prominent McCain surrogate, and highlighted the controversy the McCain campaign doesn’t want to talk about.

It was a pleasant surprise in its own right that Blitzer brought the subject up — Dean didn’t really give him much of a choice — but as Josh Marshall noted, the interview was based partly on a faulty premise: “Let’s be clear what happened here. John McCain solicited the support and endorsement of Hagee and then he held a joint appearance with Hagee in which he formally endorsed him. In these terms, Obama has no connection whatsoever to Farrakhan. He’s just someone who said positive things about Obama. So the premise for even asking Obama is dubious in itself, whereas McCain has openly embraced Hagee.”

But the real trouble came with Hutchison’s effort to explain the problem away. It was pretty embarrassing to see a long-time senator spin so poorly.

The entire transcript is online, but consider the talking points the McCain campaign sent Hutchison onto CNN with:

* Asked about Hagee’s record of calling the Catholic Church “the great whore” and “a false cult system,” Hutchison responded Hagee “has done some very good things” and “has a very large congregation.” Bigotry is fine if the bigot has a lot of fans?

* Hutchison said, “John McCain has said he doesn’t agree with” Hagee’s anti-Catholic rhetoric. That, of course, is false — McCain has said no such thing.

* Asked if McCain is “ready to embrace someone who calls the Catholic religion ‘a great whore?’ Hutchison said the story itself is “turning into a political attack.” In other words, we shouldn’t even ask the question about McCain cozying up to Hagee in the first place.

It was quite a ridiculous display.

In other news about the Hagee controversy, the AP’s Libby Quaid has an item today suggesting that the longer this controversy lingers, the greater the likelihood that Hagee’s support will cost McCain votes in the Catholic community.

Also, while Bill Donohue and the Catholic League have been beating the drum the loudest, Catholics United issued a forceful statement today as well.

Catholics United today called on its more than 20,000 members to ask Sen. John McCain to reject an endorsement from controversial pastor John Hagee, and unequivocally condemn the Texas church leader’s apparent anti-Catholic bigotry.

Rev. Hagee, an evangelical minister known for incendiary rhetoric, has referred to the Catholic Church as “the Great Whore,” and blamed Adolf Hitler’s Catholic education for his subsequent acts of genocide. Sen. McCain, who in the 2000 presidential campaign condemned “the agents of intolerance,” actively sought Hagee’s endorsement, and flew to San Antonio for a press event with the preacher.

Despite mounting public pressure and grave concerns raised by Catholics United and the Catholic League, Senator McCain has failed to denounce Hagee’s remarks.

“John McCain’s refusal to rebuke John Hagee calls into serious question his claims to straight-talk and principle,” said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. “Until he clearly rejects these offensive comments, Sen. McCain risks alienating millions of Catholics and the vast majority of Americans.” Catholics comprise 21% of the electorate in Texas and 26% of the electorate in Ohio.

Catholics United’s grassroots mobilization includes asking John McCain to “stand up for his convictions and reject this endorsement.” Outreach efforts include asking Catholics to contact the McCain campaign via email and in person at upcoming events in Texas and Florida.

Note to McCain: this one still isn’t going away.

This is beautiful. McCain will most likely try to dodge this issue and hope it goes away or is replaced by another controversy du jour. But if this things still has legs in a few days, McCain will have to either piss off the fundies by rejecting and denouncing one of their own or risk chasing away conservative Catholics who would otherwise want to vote Republican because of the party’s anti-abortion stance. This is really a no-win situation for McCain and either way he’s going to lose votes. He deserves it.

  • McCain should just imagine that Hagee is a radio personality in a bad suit introducing him and D&R Hagee. Besides everyone knows a great whore who didn’t believe in contraception wouldn’t be in business long.

    If you consider the questions about Jesus’ parentage, perhaps Hagee’s religion is the Great Bastard.

  • You can clearly see why our founders rejected the marriage of church and state. Religious bigotry has no place in our system. McCain is in a true dilemma and the beautiful thing is, it is of his own party’s making. They have done so well mobilizing the bigots, they can no longer do without them. I sure don’t feel sorry for McCain or the other thugs; this is what they deserve. I hope this story has true legs because people need to understand what a bargain the Republic-thugs have made with the right wing Christian community.

  • It’s hilarious. “Moderate” Repugs have been letting the thirty-percenters define St. John of the Straight Talk in order to retain the “base.” He’s complied. Maybe the Repugs will get a clue, after he’s trounced in the election, that the “base” is really a bigoted, crazy minority that would best ignored when the Repugs next try to seduce America with tales of golden geese and King Midas.

  • This is how you win in politics. It’s not about declaring defeat and whining about how tough all your opponents are. It’s about finding where members of their coalition disagree, and driving a wedge there. McCain can’t keep all his different constituencies together and we need to drive them apart as quickly as possible.

    The biggest hit is between the Limbaughs and the media: McCain can’t have them both. McCain needs the Limbaughs on election day, but he’ll be roasted alive if he doesn’t have the media carrying water for him. And the more pressure we put on the media to ask tough questions, the more they’ll realize they never really had answers. It won’t be done overnight, but if we keep this going, they’ll realize by August that he’s given up on them and it’ll probably be sooner. McCain was never the man they thought he was.

    And it’s the same with this Hagee guy. If played properly, McCain will eventually have to openly reject Hagee, which will piss him off; but it’ll be too late and the people Hagee targeted will still hate McCain. And McCain’s biggest weakness is that he assumes the media will be there to protect him from this stuff, so he drags his feet and makes small controversies into bigger ones. We just need to make sure the heat stays on. This is the first real campaign McCain’s been in, we need to show him how easy he’s always had it.

  • Hagee’s right out of the 17th Century, but then so is the rest of the American Taliban. Watching McCain twist and turn on this one – lose the mouthbreathers or lose the Catholics? – is truly a treat.

    Sometimes you don’t have to hit the back end of the aircraft carrier to suffer a rampstrike.

  • Gotta love the news ticker running during this clip. Just as Kay talks about Hagee supporting Israel, the ticker reports on Isreal bombing Palestinian civilians. As for Kay, if McCain’s statement speaks for itself, why is she there?

  • Someone (I’ve forgotten who) made a comment the other day that I want to repeat:

    Hispanics voters are predominantly Catholic. Democrats should be sure this fall that every Hispanic voter knows that the Republican Party not only welcomes but ASKS FOR the support of people who think that the Catholic Church is the Great Whore.

  • Interesting the Hutchison said that this is turning into a political attack. Why didn’t Blitzer then ask her to agree that the bone-headed question asked by Russert was a political attack.

  • Is it possible to die from an overdose of schadenfreude?

    If not, then I guess that quesy feeling is probably from lunch…

  • McCain is like a bull in a China shop. Everytime he turns around he risks breaking something. Sucking up to every group to not risk losing their votes will only backfire over time if that’s his strategy. Given a few more months on the campaign trail, people may just start seeing him as the flip-flopper Mitt in a different suit and white hair.

  • CB: Asked about Hagee’s record of calling the Catholic Church “the great whore” and “a false cult system,” Hutchison responded Hagee “has done some very good things” and “has a very large congregation.” Bigotry is fine if the bigot has a lot of fans?

    yeah, this is what absolutely jumped off the screen, as if there’s a threshold of votes above which it really doesn’t matter what that constituency believes.

    hmmm….

  • As I read CB’s post, before I got to the comments section, the thought that was running though my mind (quite loudly) was “This is beautiful !”

    And there it was: the 1st three words of the first comment. I love it!

    Irony and justice all wrapped up in one satifying keystone cops routine. This is sweet. I hope it gets really long legs.

  • I think that Hagee may be the final knife in McCain’s — already miniscule — chances. There are a lot more quotes and opinions in the Hageeography than his anti-Catholic stance.

    In 1996 his church ran a fund-raiser auctioning off the services of local high schoolers — not unusual. He called it a ‘slave auction’ — less common but not unheard of — though usually by a secular group AFAIK. His advertisement was unique, though. “Slavery has returned to America at the Cornerstone Church.”

    As for women:
    “Q: What’s the difference between an enraged Doberman and a woman with PMS?
    A: Lipstick”
    “Q: What’s the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS?
    A: You can reason with a terrorist.”

    On Islam:
    “All Muslims have a religious duty to kill Christians and Jews.”

    But it is his opinions on Judaism and the future of the Jews that are the most complex and fascinating. Yes he suports Israel — from the position of the farthest right-wing Jews. Yes, he uses psuedo-Jewish vestments at his services and calls groups by the names of the 12 tribes. He also:

    supports the right of Jews to live in Israel to the point of implying they may not have a right to live anywhere else;

    Blames Jews for the death of Jesus (and recommends THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST –despite Gibson’s Catholicism);

    Implies that the Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves as a punishment from God and that Hitler was doing God’s work in forcing Jews to return to Israel;

    and preaches conspiracy theories that do not use the word “Jewish” but resemble those in THE PROTOCOLS.

    Finally on the Jews, remember that his ‘theology’ is similar to that of Tim LeHaye. The result of the return to Israel will be, in order:
    a) the ‘rapture’ (getting all ‘true Christians’ out of the line of fire
    b) the coming to Power of the Antichrist
    c) an Armageddon which will kill all those returned Jews in Israel (and may also destroy the East and West Coasts of the US) — with a small ‘remnant of Jews who have ‘accepted Jesus as the Messiah’ being miraculously hidden and saved
    d) the Second Coming — I am not sure if he sees it as gorily as does LeHaye.

    Add to this his better known ‘gays caused Katrina’ and ‘Catholicism is the Whore of Babylon’ statements.

    When McCain said he ‘didn’t accept all of Pastor Hagee’s positions’ it implied he accepted some of them. Shouldn’t McCain be asked whih ones he does accept.

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