OK, I’ve just about given up. John McCain actively sought the support of an anti-Catholic, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-woman, and anti-Semitic televangelist, and despite widespread condemnations from a variety of circles, reporters simply won’t cover the story or push McCain for an explanation. As Andrew Sullivan put it, John Hagee is “a white Farrakhan, but the media has essentially given McCain a pass.”
But bloggers continue to gift-wrap this controversy for the media, making it especially easy to cover this story, which they surely would if McCain were a Democrat and Hagee weren’t a conservative white evangelical.
The latest edition of TPMtv is especially good, highlighting some of Hagee’s greatest hits, and McCain’s embrace of this obvious nut.
Of particular note was the clip noting that the U.S. policy of a two-state solution in Israel will incur God’s wrath. (Hagee, more specifically, said support for a two-state solution will lead God to allow terrorists to cause a “blood bath” on American soil.) Is McCain comfortable with this?
Generally speaking, even if reporters at major outlets don’t care about a candidate’s scandalous friends, they usually take note of blatant hypocrisy. As it happens, this controversy has that, too.
Chris Korzen highlighted the details:
Senator John McCain is still defending his acceptance of an endorsement from megachurch pastor John Hagee — who has called the Catholic Church “the Great Whore,” and accused it of inspiring Adolf Hitler to initiate the Holocaust.
But the presumptive Republican nominee’s continued intransigence is revealing a new design flaw in the Straight Talk Express. Even as McCain refuses to distance himself from Hagee’s anti-Catholic comments, it turns out that during the contentious 2000 GOP primary he had himself denounced then-Governor George W. Bush for cozying up to Catholic-bashers.
It was widely reported during the run-up to the 2000 contest in Michigan that the McCain campaign delivered a “Catholic Voter Alert” in the form of robo-calls to Catholic voters. Why? Because Bush refused to denounce the anti-Catholic views of Bob Jones University after receiving its tacit endorsement. In the alert, McCain criticized the Governor and lauded his own outspoken criticism of anti-Catholic bigotry. Here’s the text of the McCain campaign’s phone message:
“This is a Catholic Voter Alert. Governor George Bush has campaigned against Senator John McCain by seeking the support of Southern fundamentalists who have expressed anti-Catholic views. Several weeks ago, Governor Bush spoke at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Bob Jones has made strong anti-Catholic statements, including calling the Pope the anti-Christ, the Catholic Church a satanic cult! John McCain, a pro-life senator, has strongly criticized this anti-Catholic bigotry, while Governor Bush has stayed silent while seeking the support of Bob Jones University. Because of this, one Catholic pro-life Congressman has switched his support from Bush to McCain, and many Michigan Catholics support John McCain for president.”
My, how the tables have turned.
Quite right. There’s also additional details available today on Hagee blaming Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on gays.
I should note that Hagee did appear on CNN Headline News this week, which may seem like a step in the right direction. It wasn’t. Hagee talked to professional clown Glenn Beck, who didn’t ask him any questions about his scandalous comments, but rather, asked Hagee whether “Barack Obama is the Antichrist.”
McCain has suggested that Hagee endorsed him, not the other way around. That’s true. But it’s also missing the point.
The issue here has to do with the role of extremists in public life. Barack Obama never sought support from Louis Farrakhan, never appeared on stage with Farrakhan, never pronounced himself proud to be backed by Farrakhan, but was nonetheless asked on national television to specifically disavow the man. People don’t want to put a political coalition that includes Farrakhan in office.
McCain and his staff actively sought out Hagee’s endorsement, he appeared and campaigned with Hagee, he said he was proud to be backed by Hagee. Hagee is, in short, part of McCain’s political strategy. Now he tells us he doesn’t agree with Hagee about everything. Well, which things? Are we supposed to believe that McCain’s not into the bigotry, or the foreign policy aimed at apocalypse, but just likes Hagee because of their shared opposition to gay marriage? … McCain’s trying to wink with one eye to a segment of the electorate, wink with his other eye at his fans in the media, and somehow maintain a reputation for straight talk throughout all this.
If reporters would at least pretend to be even-handed about this, we’d all appreciate it.