McCain Finally Rejects Hagee Endorsement He Sought
85 days after they shared a San Antonio stage to announce their partnership, John McCain finally rejected the endorsement of end times Texas Pastor John Hagee. After weeks of retreat in the face of Hagee's bigoted comments, McCain surrendered altogether on the day after Hagee's past statements about Adolf Hitler's divinely mandated role in driving European Jewry to Israel became public.
Today, McCain played dumb, claiming ignorance regarding the man whose endorsement he sought and whose Armageddon-accelerating organization (Christians United for Israel) he addressed in 2007:
"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. I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright's extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today."
Given Pastor Hagee's high profile that includes prominent books and nationally broadcast TV shows, McCain's Sgt. Schultz defense ("I know nothing. Nothing!") and his campaign's claim that the Hagee endorsement was "poorly vetted" are nonsense. The courtship of Hagee was just another element in McCain's strategic reversal towards the religious right, a journey of opportunism to what Jon Stewart in 2006 deemed "crazy base world." Ever since he stood at a podium with John Hagee on February 27th, McCain has been answering questions and offering feeble "unpologies" for Hagee's slanders towards the Catholic Church and the residents of New Orleans.
By severing ties with Hagee today, McCain no doubt hopes to avoid perhaps the most important question raised by his association with the minister: does John McCain agree with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy?
Given McCain's shockingly bad judgment in seeking Hagee's support and the obvious dangers of the pastor's view of Iran and Armageddon as foreign policy, today's renunciation should not be the end of the story. Of course, in all likelihood, the American media will declare that it will be.
Which still leaves the man John McCain described as his "spiritual guide," the Reverend Rod Parsley...
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