allowed the camel in the tent. I just heard the best response to people saying we are "allowing" this man's issues to be political.
Anna Lord, Democratic candidate for HD-21 in Colorado Springs, was asked by someone about the shame of this being a political issue and she said,
If this is a political scandal, it is the politician's fault. The reason it has the potential to be a political scandal is because the politicians have intwined themselves with this religious figure and used him for support and resources. Absent that, it would only be a church scandal. The Catholic abuse issue was NOT a political scandal because of that lack of linkage
That is the important point.
The Haggard story is causing political turmoil
because he was a political figure. The interviews with Barbara Walters weren't because he had a church in Colorado Springs; they were because he was a voice to be reckoned with in Republican circles. he was the one on the phone with George Bush weekly
and the Republicans advertised that fact.
The personal issues of Haggard have been dealt with in many other diaries. But focusing on the fact that Haggard would not have been a political liability except for that symbolic liplock of political expediency can not be overstressed. The politicians invited this churchman into the political process. The political issue was of the politician's making - if they had treated him as a consitutent, rather than a resource, they wouldn't be up to their knees in the mud. It was their choice to walk there, it's now their problem to get out of. Crying foul for their own actions biting them is a load of crap.