Liberals Hate Bush Because He's a "Christian"?

In yet another article on those wacky Bush haters, AP hack writer Nancy Benac includes the following gem, no doubt for context:

John McAdams, a political scientist at Marquette University, said resentment of Bush is particularly strong among liberals who already hold three things against him: "First, he's a conservative. Second, he's a Christian. And third, he's a Texan. When you add all of those things up, that invokes pretty much every symbol of the cultural wars."

"It's particularly galling when somebody who mangles his syntax and doesn't pronounce words extremely well and is from Texas beats you," McAdams added.

Yup, that's right:  They Hate Us 'Cause We're Christian'.

My question: how does trash like this make its way into a article from a major news service?