McCain finally rejects Hagee endorsement

[Haruko]

(CNN) — In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has decided to reject his endorsement.

The Huffington Post had published a recording of Hagee saying that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God’s will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy.

“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,” McCain said in a statement to CNN Thursday.

He added that his relationship with Hagee did not compare with Obama’s lengthy association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “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,” said McCain.

The Arizona senator had earlier renounced comments from Hagee that termed the Catholic church "the great whore" and "an apostate church."

In a statement released before McCain rejected his endorsement, Hagee said his words had been taken out of context. "The intentional mischaracterization of my statements by an Internet journalist seeking to use me as a political football in the upcoming presidential race is a gross example of bias at its worst. I will not stand idly by while my character is assassinated and my views on the Holocaust are grossly distorted.

"To assert that I in any way condone the Holocaust or that monster Adolf Hitler is the biggest and ugliest of lies. I have always condemned the horrors of the Holocaust in the strongest of terms." He also pointed to millions of dollars worth of donations his ministry had made to humanitarian efforts in Israel.

McCain has faced similar pressure to distance himself from Minister Rod Parsley over the minister’s statement that Islam was “an antichrist religion that intends through violence to conquer the world.” A McCain aide downplayed the association, telling CNN Thursday that the senator had met Parsley only one time, over breakfast, and was not aware of the minister’s statements before accepting his endorsement.

UPDATE: Citing critics who had been "grossly misrepresenting" his positions since his decision to back John McCain, Hagee withdrew that endorsement Thursday afternoon.

"I am tired of these baseless attacks and fear that they have become a distraction in what should be a national debate about important issues. I have therefore decided to withdraw my endorsement of Senator McCain for President effective today, and to remove myself from any active role in the 2008 campaign," he said in a statement.

"I hope that the Senator McCain will accept this withdrawal so that he may focus on the issues that are most important to America and the world."

[Havok]

Well hopefully he will shut the fuck up as well, unlike Wright, who couldn't keep his mouth shut.

[Kanastrous]

What?

NO!

The more Hagee runs his mouth, the better.

Although he probably won't.

[General Zod]

What?

NO!

The more Hagee runs his mouth, the better.

Although he probably won't.

It's doubtful the Press would pay more than 2 seconds of attention after a renouncement anyway, since he's both rich and white.

[Kanastrous]

There is that.

[Patrick Degan]

Hagee isn't an angry black separatist (possibly) Muslim, so not only will he not shut up, the press won't even bother giving him a second look while constantly repeating the Wright soundbytes over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

[Darth Wong]

Amazing that it took Hagee calling Nazism the Will of God before he finally became a political liability to McCain, whereas all it took was Rev Wright saying he's angry at white people (not exactly an incomprehensible sentiment from an older-generation black person) for him to become an albatross around Obama's neck.

He added that his relationship with Hagee did not compare with Obama’s lengthy association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “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,” said McCain.

Fuck you, John McCain. And Jon Stewart, why the fuck do you keep saying that this clown McCain is going to run a clean campaign? Have you not looked at the shit he's saying? Do you like him just because he keeps coming on your show?

[Illuminatus Primus]

Stewart actually said that? That's pretty low considering his historical skepticism and fairness. What the fuck is wrong with the McCainites? Are they that desperate for the same old heartless retard conservatism, just with more believable "Compassionate" gift-wrapping?

[Gil Hamilton]

Stewart actually said that? That's pretty low considering his historical skepticism and fairness. What the fuck is wrong with the McCainites? Are they that desperate for the same old heartless retard conservatism, just with more believable "Compassionate" gift-wrapping?

John McCain is a reasonably frequent political guest on the show.

[Koolaidkirby]

Amazing that it took Hagee calling Nazism the Will of God before he finally became a political liability to McCain, whereas all it took was Rev Wright saying he's angry at white people (not exactly an incomprehensible sentiment from an older-generation black person) for him to become an albatross around Obama's neck.

He added that his relationship with Hagee did not compare with Obama’s lengthy association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “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,” said McCain.

Fuck you, John McCain. And Jon Stewart, why the fuck do you keep saying that this clown McCain is going to run a clean campaign? Have you not looked at the shit he's saying? Do you like him just because he keeps coming on your show?

Well, to be frank, almost everything that I've seen from McCain has been respectable towards the Democrats (even though I'm not an American, I still consider myself reasonably well informed), and when he does go negative (it looks here like he was just trying to stop parallels from being drawn between Hagee and Wright). Its NOTHING compared to what we've seen from other Republicans *cough* Bush *cough*

And before anyone starts jumping on me for being a Republitard, I'd just like to point out that I still think that McCain is a tool shed.

[FSTargetDrone]

Hagee and Parsley both, McCain seems to want to ignore the fact that he actively sought out the endorsements of these clowns of the cloth.

I am still waiting with not so bated breath for there to be just as much wall-to-wall coverage of this crap as there was with Wright.

Anyway, here's a related opinion piece from last week:

Thursday, May 15, 2008 - Page updated at 06:32 PM

ON DEADLINE: Preachers a problem for McCain too
By WALTER MEARS

AP Special Correspondent

This could be the campaign of loudmouth preacher problems, and not only for Barack Obama. While The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is poster pastor for the type, Republican John McCain's right-wing ecclesiastical stable has a record of ranting, too.

So when the Republicans play the Wright card against Obama, as they have and will again, the Democrats might want to call the hand and raise them a John Hagee, a Rod Parsley or an echo of the late Jerry Falwell. All of those television preachers have voiced views out of tune with the American mainstream. McCain courted all of them for their campaign endorsements, but says that does not mean he agrees with everything they say or believe.

He has indeed repudiated their more outlandish statements, like Hagee's 2006 claim that Hurricane Katrina was the judgment of God for the sins of New Orleans, and that the Roman Catholic Church is a cult and "the great whore." Hagee backed off on the hurricane and has offered an apology of sorts for his anti-Catholic statements.

The San Antonio television preacher expressed deep regret on Tuesday "for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful." That would be quite a list, since he also has called the church apostate, and has suggested that historic Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler's views of the Jews.

Hagee had said earlier in the campaign season that his comments were mischaracterized, although that is a hard case to make on slurs as explicit as his.

McCain, who already had condemned Hagee's comments about Catholics, called his Tuesday statement a laudable apology and said it was "very helpful." He needs Roman Catholic support, and Hagee's insults might have cost him votes.

Wright, now retired, was Obama's pastor in Chicago, close to the senator and his family, but a campaign liability after fiery sermons denouncing America were resurrected on television. Obama said he hadn't heard them, and denounced them as divisive. After that became an issue, he delivered his first campaign address on race relations, but stopped short of renouncing Wright, until the preacher repeated some of his diatribes in a Washington speech at the end of April. Wright threw in a suggestion that Obama was just playing politics with his earlier criticism.

At that point, the breach was final. Obama said Wright's statements were offensive, divisive and destructive, contradictory to his own views, and would give "comfort to those who prey on hate."

But the Wright tapes are still there, replayed by the North Carolina Republican Party in an ad McCain said should not be run. It was anyhow, briefly on television, but to an Internet audience widened by the controversy. While McCain has disowned the Wright issue, calling it a distraction from the real differences between Republicans and Democrats, it won't go away. Not while there are independent conservative organizations to raise and spend money on anti-Obama TV ads.

McCain's relationship to hard-line preachers is a bit more complex. He renounced them eight years ago, but changed his line when he needed conservative support for his 2008 campaign.

He got it from the late Rev. Falwell, from Hagee, from Parsley of Columbus, Ohio, an influential voice from the conservative pulpit. Parsley wrote in a 2005 book that U.S. conflict with Islam is inevitable because "America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed ..."

In Cincinnati on Feb. 26, McCain called Parsley "one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide ..."

McCain said his relationship with Hagee and the others is one in which they may endorse him, but he doesn't endorse all their views. And he said it isn't like Obama's link to Wright. "I didn't attend Pastor Hagee's church for 20 years," he said when the anti-Catholic comments threatened to become a campaign problem.

He said the circumstances were different, as they were. His ties to the television preachers were not in church, they were for political purposes. And they were a reversal of his own homily in the 2000 presidential campaign, when he was trying to build support among independents and centrist Republicans.

"Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right," he said.

He swallowed that, made peace with Falwell and delivered the commencement address at his Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., in 2006.

Falwell said he understood McCain's earlier rejection. "It just came down to pure old politics," Falwell said.

Perhaps it still does.

---

EDITOR'S NOTE: Walter R. Mears reported on presidential politics for The Associated Press from 1960 until 2004. He is retired and lives in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Huh. So McCain isn't aware of past some craziness, but he sure sounds like he knows them when he praises these guys.

It's almost a shame Falwell is dead. It's not quite as effective to show the words of a dead man.

Ought'a be a law keeping these religionists from making endorsements...

[Cycloneman]

The San Antonio television preacher expressed deep regret on Tuesday "for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful." That would be quite a list, since he also has called the church apostate, and has suggested that historic Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler's views of the Jews.

When did facts start offending people? I mean, this guy is an amoral fuck, no question, but I'm sure he's said worse things of Catholics than that the historical Catholic church did nasty shit and was racist.

Ought'a be a law keeping these religionists from making endorsements...

Pretty sure you lose tax-exemption for that. Beyond that, though, it'd be infringing on their freedom of speech.

[General Zod]

Well, to be frank, almost everything that I've seen from McCain has been respectable towards the Democrats (even though I'm not an American, I still consider myself reasonably well informed), and when he does go negative (it looks here like he was just trying to stop parallels from being drawn between Hagee and Wright). Its NOTHING compared to what we've seen from other Republicans *cough* Bush *cough*

It only "appears" respectable because he's being polite. It's a standard Republitard tactic of appearing as polite as possible to make your opponent seem that much more harsh whenever you lambast them with anything. Unfortunately it manages to work well on people more concerned with politeness than things like honesty or integrity.

[Koolaidkirby]

Well, to be frank, almost everything that I've seen from McCain has been respectable towards the Democrats (even though I'm not an American, I still consider myself reasonably well informed), and when he does go negative (it looks here like he was just trying to stop parallels from being drawn between Hagee and Wright). Its NOTHING compared to what we've seen from other Republicans *cough* Bush *cough*

It only "appears" respectable because he's being polite. It's a standard Republitard tactic of appearing as polite as possible to make your opponent seem that much more harsh whenever you lambast them with anything. Unfortunately it manages to work well on people more concerned with politeness than things like honesty or integrity.

That could be the case, as this is only really the second American Federal Election I've been following with a real understanding of the issues, so I could be somewhat naive on the matter. Especially since the only election I can really compare this too is the mud slinging fest that was the 2004 election.

Although this doesn't seem the sort of tactic that would work against Obama in the general election, (it worked for Obama against Hillary, but I don't think it would work if his opponent was a running a positive campaign, as that would force the media to cover the *shudders* issues, and we all know how much they hate that, they obviously prefer elections to be chalked full of drama and scandal (they're so desperate they're practically making up scandals at this point)