John Hagee and Joe Lieberman: Friends in War and Hate

Update: Obama Far More Popular Among American Jewry Than Lieberman

One of John McCain’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders and top campaign surrogates, Sen. Joe Lieberman, will address a controversial, militaristic conference sponsored by an organization founded and led by the bigoted Pastor John Hagee tonight, Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

The Christians United for Israel (CUFI) group will hold its Third Annual Washington-Israel Summit in Washington, D.C. beginning today.

McCain had sought out and received Hagee’s endorsement before renouncing him earlier this year. “I’m very proud to have Pastor Hagee’s support," said McCain before repudiating Hagee.

Hagee’s anti-Catholicism and homophobia and whacky statements on blacks and women had caused an uproar on the internet, but it was Hagee’s statement on Judaism that finally saw McCain break with Hagee publicly in May.

A late 1990s sermon by Hagee was made public in which Hagee stated that Hitler was fulfilling God's will.

The group, Activist Dems, launched an internet campaign to Tell Sen. Lieberman to immediately withdraw his commitment to deliver the keynote address at Hagee's Israel Summit on July 22.

Christians United for Israel (CUFI) echos neocon foreign policy prescriptions regarding Iraq, Iran and the Middle East, with an emphasis on stopping "Islamofascism," positions and language repeated by McCain and Lieberman on the campaign trail.

Tell Sen. Lieberman to immediately withdraw his commitment to deliver the keynote address at Hagee's Israel Summit on July 22.

Tell Sen. Lieberman to immediately withdraw his commitment to deliver the keynote address at Hagee's Israel Summit on July 22.

Activist Dems are delivering a petition to Joe Liberman who is desperate to prove that the is more of a whack than we would have thought.

McCain Leading the GOP on Its Course to Debacle

Bloomberg's Al Hunt says ' Republicans (are) ... petrified about (a) November debacle'.

And with John McCain, weak and listless, as the GOP nominee, Democrats are looking for a big win.

McCain will never capture the hearts of the religious right, no matter how many John Hagees McCain finds under their respective rocks.

Below is an updated, edited piece from last fall, Religious Right to Kill 2008 Republican Nominee (October 2007).

Update II: Novak - McCain's Christian Problem (May 12, 2008)

Update: Evangelicals deserting ahead of 2008 election (October 2007)

Perhaps the key question about the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nominee is: How badly will the Republican nominee under-perform with the religious right in the general election?

Looking at the nominee, the answer appears to be very badly.

Though the religious right voters arguably comprises merely some 15 percent of the electorate in the general election, absent their enthusiastic support, the Republican nominee is dead.

The religious right has found no acceptable candidates in the GOP's first-tier candidates, so Democrats had some fun observing their nomination process while Obama emerged as the Democratic nominee and the GOP winner John McCain took the mantle.

"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson last year. Few religious right leaders have forgiven McCain for his wildly unpopular (in Republican circles) McCain/Feingold bill, and his April 9, 2000 speech trashing the religious right (that’s the Robertson/Falwell “agents of intolerance” speech).

The Republicans are going to lose this fall, and they are right to be very afraid.

Rev. John Hagee Is a Bigoted Whack Whose Endorsement McCain Sought and Received

How can a complete whack like the Rev. John Hagee whose endorsement of and political relationship with John McCain are a matter of public record not dominate the airwaves?

The apocalyptic-minded and anti-Catholic Rev. John Hagee was pursued by John McCain, and Hagee ultimately endorsed McCain in late February when they appeared together in San Antonio. (picture at right)

Hagee is a bigoted nut, but also a major Republican political player whose specific foreign policy prescriptions are seen by him as preparing the way for the Second Coming, and are identical to the controversial policy positions taken by McCain on Iran and Iraq, now.

Turns out that Hagee, of the let’s-bomb-Iran corner of the rightwing, is also a prominent signer of the Forgotten American Coalition's statement proclaiming that we need to stay in Iraq and that the “… Iraq War must be seen in the broader context of Islamo-fascism's war on America and Western Civilization. It is one front in a global conflict fought from Europe and the Middle East to Africa, the Balkans, the Indian Subcontinent and, finally, to the streets of our cities. ...”

If those words sound familiar, it’s because McCain had been repeating them in substance in his stump speech for months.

What has not been repeated for months is Hagee's venom coming from the Founder and National Chairman of the religious right's Christians United for Israel.

As Frank Rich writes this morning of Hagee:

Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is 'the Great Whore,' Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking 'the blood of the Jewish people.' That’s because the Great Whore represents 'the Roman Church,' which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

Have a look at this video and you'll get the picture.

My Friends, McCainCon Is in Motion

Update: Novak - McCain's Christian Problem

Obama advocates concerned about the recent pro-McCain coverage on CNN and MSNBC as a precursor of biased media treatment to come in the general election can relax.

McCain is a fatally weak GOP candidate to face Obama, and it’s likely that many GOP movement wingers see him as a 2008 sacrificial sheep happily slaughtered to the 2012-2016 gods.

There's no open talk from GOP insiders of course, but there is a secret let-McCain-fall program: Call it McCainCon [a play on the secret EComCon conspiracy from the Seven Days in May movie based on the Fletcher Knebel- Charles W. Bailey II book].

I'm suggesting a plot by conservative movement officers to sabotage the GOP nominee for president of the United States.

And many conservatives need only participate with faint energy in the campaign to add their support to this McCainCon conspiracy, watching a man they dislike take the fall in a Goldwateresque election for the GOP.

Consider some structural election facts and Democratic capabilities.

GOP Coalition

McCain has always been one of the least likely candidates to assemble a winning GOP coalition for a presidential run.

Consider the religious right.

"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who reiterated his determination to not work and vote for McCain a few weeks ago.

And religious right leaders have not forgiven McCain for his wildly unpopular McCain/Feingold bill, and his April 9, 2000 speech trashing the religious right (that’s the Robertson/Falwell “agents of intolerance” speech).

Looking forward to the Ohio/Texas races this Tuesday, its bears noting that in the last GOP primary in Wisconsin (Feb. 19), McCain barely exceeded the margin of victory over Mike Huckabee that Obama scored over Hillary, 18 percent, and 17 percent respectively.

With respect to the religious right, the question is not whether, but how badly McCain will underperform in the general election. In McCain the GOP has picked a candidate arguably as bad as Rudy or Romney.

And John McCain’s courting of and endorsement by John Hagee who awaits a coming world war that will usher in the second coming, calls the Catholic Church the "anti-Christ" and "great whore," and says Jews are responsible for their persecution, will not help McCain with either the religious right or the casually political independents and working class Catholics—all with whom McCain needs in order to excel in the general election.

Iraq

With overwhelming majorities (including active duty personnel and veterans) calling for a pull-out from Iraq, how do you think an anti-Iraq War, pro-veteran Obama will do against a man calling for troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years?

Bush

McCain has now tied himself so intimately with Bush with accompanying flipflops on torture and tax cuts for the super-wealthy, that no amount of September/October spinning can extricate McCain from the political sinkhole that is George W. Bush.

No Election for Old Ways

On both style and substance, Obama offers a change away from the last eight years of government under Bush/Rove/Cheney. Does anyone believe that McCain in both style and substance offers something different than the Bush regime?

Conclusion

There are other weaknesses—the economy, unemployment, education, health care, as well as desired changes of political tone, attitudes toward government being the peoples’ instrument, and pro-Democratic disparity in party enthusiasm—in which McCain offers no match for Obama.

Honest GOP players know this, though saying it out loud would be silly; and the fact of the matter is that many GOP movement warriors simply do not like McCain for a variety of personal and political reasons and are happy to watch him take the fall in a silent and deadly political plot of inaction.

McCain and Hillaryland

I understand that Hillary is desperate thus we can expect a bit of nuttiness from her, but as for McCain, though his hypocrisy is being exposed more than he would like, one would not believe that he would be desperate at this point in the campaign.

Clinton

Entering the weekend before her political demise as a presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton calls Obama a "blank screen". Yawn. That's what Hillary does, and it does not even rate a refutation anymore. Facing defeat in Texas, Clinton may challenge Texas vote rules, yawn. A new ad suggesting a President Obama could kill your children, yawn, and laugh, that was pretty funny.

McCainland

That's much better than John McCain though, who enters the weekend having met with and sought and gained the endorsement of religious right whacko Texas pastor John Hagee, who "eagerly awaits the Armageddon, considers the Catholic Church to be the Anti-Christ, and has said that Jews brought their own persecution upon themselves." (Eric Kleefeld, TPM) For more on this nut Hagee, see Salon and TNR. [The two are pictured above in a Post photo.]

Other reactions, from the Post:

HOUSTON -- The president of the Catholic League blasted John McCain on Thursday for accepting the endorsement of Texas evangelist John Hagee, calling the controversial pastor a bigot who has "waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church." ...

But Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement Thursday 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.' "

Catholics United, a national online group, also criticized McCain. "By receiving the endorsement of an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church, McCain once again demonstrates that he is willing to sell out his principles for a chance to win the Presidency," Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, said in a statement. "We hope Senator McCain will take the principled position of publicly and unequivocally distancing himself from Pastor Hagee's anti-Catholic comments. Intolerance and bigotry do not belong in American politics."

The McCain campaign declined to comment on the statements.

- Michael D. Shear

I bet Tim Russert will just leap up from his desk in his passion to ask McCain about Hagee.

I guess this is what we can expect from McCain who seems to have gone slug-nutty of late.

Good thing that there no Catholic or Jewish voters in the general election, McCain. By the way, most of the American people do not care for bigots.