John Nichols in The Nation reminds us that John McCain has a pastor problem — the Rev. John Hagee — and it is potentially more dangerous to the republic than the overblown outrage directed at Barack Obama’s former pastor.
Hagee, whose views about a host of social issues give new meaning to the term “hateful,” is not McCain’s pastor. They have no personal or spiritual relationship. Rather, Hagee is a close political ally of McCain and an ardent supporter of the Arizona senator’s presidential bid.
McCain sought Hagee’s endorsement and continued to defend and embrace the pastor – saying he was “glad to have the minister’s endorsement – even after Hagee said that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans because of the city’s “sinful” acceptance of homosexuality.
Nichols adds, “McCain has wed himself to Hagee politically. The senator is not linked to minister on spiritual grounds, he is linked to him on political and policy grounds.”
Thus, as McCain today visits New Orleans – a city that has suffered greatly as a result of political neglect and policy malfeasance – it is reasonable to ask whether the senator who says he is “very honored” to have Hagee’s support shares Hagee’s view that thousands of people in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana died and lost their homes because God disapproves of gay-pride rallies.
Indeed, it is far more reasonable to demand that McCain talk about where he agrees and disagrees with Rev. Hagee on questions about the causes of natural disasters and the response of a Republican administration to them than it is to ask Obama about the Rev. Wright’s statements. Obama turned to Wright for spiritual sustenance.
McCain, far more significantly, turned to Hagee for political sustenance – and, if we are to presume that neither of these men are hypocrites, because of their ideological compatibility.
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Hank Kalet 