Who could have seen this coming? After stubborn refusal, John McCain has finally decided it's politically expedient to cut ties with Armageddon-seeking lunatic fringe TV evangelist John Hagee (appearing with McCain in photo above).
From The New York Times:
Mr. McCain repudiated the Rev. John C. Hagee, a televangelist, after a watchdog group released a recording of a sermon in which Mr. Hagee said Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God’s plan to chase the Jews from Europe and drive them to Palestine.So McCain decides to cut ties only when Hagee is caught saying God wanted six million Jews efficiently murdered, but this influential conservative preacher has a long history of revealing kooky end-of-times yearnings most Americans would find abhorrent. For example, check out this short video featuring some of Hagee's follower/donors:
Later in the day, he also rejected the endorsement of the Rev. Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio, whose anti-Muslim sermons were broadcast on ABC’s "Good Morning America" on Thursday.
Controversy has dogged the Hagee endorsement since Mr. McCain announced it at a February news conference, and just last week Mr. Hagee issued a letter expressing regret for "any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."
Yet McCain appeared on stage to accept the TV evangelist's endorsement, knowing full well of the, eh hmmm, pastor's extreme beliefs.
McCain's delay in doing the right thing seems similar to an episode in 2000 when he adamantly refused for three days to apologize for saying "I hate gooks."
From The San Francisco Chronicle:
McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.So it's not the first time Grandpa Straight Talk has steered his Express off the tracks and into the ditch. We've seen that kind of leadership in the White House long enough.
Since then, reports of McCain's language have been circulating on Internet chat sites and e-mails among Asian Americans, many of whom find the the term offensive and inappropriate for an elected official.
...McCain made no apologies yesterday.
"I was referring to my prison guards," McCain said, "and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend some people because of the beating and torture of my friends."
...The horrors of the past cannot be an excuse for hurting people in the present, said Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, an anti-defamation group.
"If Sen. McCain had been captured by Nigerians, could he call those people `niggers' and think he wasn't going to offend everyone who is black?" Akoi asked. "We can all feel for what he went through, but if that's his level of sensitivity, I'm very disappointed."
Obama in '08!
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