Media Matters for America wonders whether MSNBC will cover controversial televangelist John Hagee's endorsement of John McCain as much as it did Louis Farrakhan's endorsement of Barack Obama? That's a good question. If they do, they might want to look into a number of things: Suchas how McCain didn't just get the Hagee endorsement out of the blue. Unlike Farrakhan's unsought endorsement of Obama, MCain courted Hagee for more than a year. And though Hagee's anti-Catholicism is in the news today, his anti-Semitism has been an issue as well.
Although Hagee's endorsement of McCain has blown-up in the news, and has focused on Hagee's notorious anti-Catholicism, and is framed around demands that McCain renounce Hagee's support the way that Obama renounced Farrakhan -- some bloggers and reporters have been covering Hagee's bigotry and extreme views for a long time. The blog posts below tell the basic story, and via links in each, open a window onto the whole weird world of John Hagee, John McCain, and Hagee's Christians United for Israel. (There are even cameo appearances by John McCain's favorite ex-Democrat, Joe Leiberman).
Bruce Wilson reported on how Hagee blames Jews for the Holocaust:
In "Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To war" Hagee has stated that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by rebelling against God and that the Holocaust was God's way of forcing Jews to move to Israel where, Hagee predicts according to his interpretation of Biblical scripture, they will be mostly killed in the apocalyptic Mideast conflict Hagee's new lobbying group seems to be working to provoke and which John Hagee believes to be a necessary precondition for the "Rapture" that will lift Christians, but not Jews, bodily into Heaven to enjoy physical immortality amidst paradise.
Over the past year, frequent and generally favorable media coverage of a new US national political lobbying group, "Christians United For Israel", and its outspoken founder Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee has helped cement Hagee's brand recognition as a steadfast friend to Israel and has cast a favorable light on his new CUFI lobbying group that is designed to flex the political muscles of tens of millions of American evangelicals, ostensibly on Israel's behalf.
Max Blumenthal writes by way of introduction to his video about Hagee's Christians United for Israel conference in Washington, DC last summer:
I have covered the Christian right intensely for over four years. During this time, I attended dozens of Christian right conferences, regularly monitored movement publications and radio shows, and interviewed scores of its key leaders. I have never witnessed any spectacle as politically extreme, outrageous, or bizarre as the one Christians United for Israel produced last week in Washington.
Bartholomew reports that none other than John McCain was also at the CUFI conference, courting Hagee's support -- and telling him what he wanted to hear.
Bruce Wilson reported that McCain quietly met with Hagee in early 2007.
[Crosssposted from Talk to Action]