Another reason not to vote for McCain

I like John McCain. I really do. I think he in general is a honorable man and there is no question he served this country in arguably the harshest imaginable way aside form being killed. I think he is overall an honest person who wants good for the entire country. I disagree with his stance on the war, some fiscal subjects and I question some statements he's made about war in general, but over all I like the guy. However, there are a few moments over the last few years that really get me. When he campaigned in SC while seeking the Republican nomination, our now President and resident evil bastard George Bush along with members of the religious right ran a smear campaign filled with lies that destroyed McCain's chances. McCain mentioned how the religious right was attacking him in a speech in February 2000 (thrown in with some nonsense):

I stand with them. I am a pro-life, pro-family fiscal conservative, an advocate of a strong defense, and yet Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable presidential candidate. They distort my pro- life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters. Why? Because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message.

He continues to say what he thinks of Robertson, Falwell and their ilk.

I recognize and celebrate that our country is founded upon Judeo- Christian values, and I have pledged my life to defend America and all her values, the values that have made us the noblest experiment in history. But public -- but political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value.The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are...

They are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.

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.

That seems pretty noble and sincere. Besides the slight distortion on the country's founding it really is a good way of putting how the religious right theocrats and the far left race baiting portions of both ends of the political spectrum can operate. Well it didn't last too long because since then he has snuggled up to the religious right including now all dead Jerry Falwell and currently brain dead George Bush, both of which were can we say less than neighborly to him during the 2000 campaign. In 2006 McCain gave the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University and now this....

Senator John McCain got support on Wednesday from an important corner of evangelical Texas when the pastor of a San Antonio mega-church, Rev. John C. Hagee, endorsed Mr. McCain for president. Mr. Hagee, who argues that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive, biblically prophesized military strike against Iran that will lead to the second coming of Christ, praised Mr. McCain for his pro-Israel views.

HOLY SHIT. Hagee is what crazy insane people call "fucked in the head". His completely transparent Pro-Israeli stance is only a thinly veiled pro-apocalypse stance. This is the guy who thinks that the sooner we bring war to Israel, the sooner the second coming of christ. He supports pre-emptive strikes on Iran which I'm sure is one way he sees to bring his pro-apocolypse pornographical desires to fruition. He's highly critical of the Roman-Catholic church and makes barely tenable ties of catholicism to Hitler's holocaust (sound familiar?). The man who says shit like this

"All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that."

"Christians don't steal or lie, they don't get divorced or have abortions. If the Ten Commandments were followed by everyone we would be able to fire half the police force and in six months the prisons would be all half empty."

Ugh. So Hagee endorses McCain. What does McCain have to say about it?

Mr. McCain, who has been on a steady search for support among conservative and evangelical leaders who have long distrusted him, said he was “very honored'’ by Mr. Hagee’s endorsement. Asked about Mr. Hagee’s extensive writings on Armageddon and about what one questioner said was Mr. Hagee’s belief that the anti-Christ will be the head of the European Union, Mr. McCain responded that “all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support.'’

He's proud. Ok, ok. I know he needs votes and needs support from the evangelical wing of the republican party (is there another wing any longer?) but have some balls McCain. Stand up to the people who passed out fliers (not saying Hagee in particular but the religious right) claiming he had an illegitimate black child, is gay, his wife is a drug addict and that he cheats on his wife (the last charge which has recently resurfaced and has been denied). Passing them out in SC obviously playing on white racial fear and religious temperament in the state and totally ruining his campaign. McCain, one of our countries greatest war heroes should have balls. Why can't he stand up to the people whom he called the "agents of intolerance". If there is anyone I would have thought had the balls to do it, it would have been McCain. War hero McCain. Where is he now? Pandering to the same people he scolded in 2000. Pandering to those who did their dirtiest to destroy him. I can accept McCain dealing with some of their out there ideas (although barely, but that's the current status of the republican party). I mean in some aspect he agrees with Hagee on bombing Iran. As early as 2006 on Larry King's miserable blabber show he said this

... I think that it's very clear that Iran is becoming more and more belligerent and needs to be reigned in. They are penetrating -- they have penetrated southern Iraq to a significant degree or in sending people into southern Iraq. They are continuing their development of nuclear weapons and now this latest provocation. No one believes that Hezbollah would have acted the way they did without at least the approval, if not the encouragements of the Iranian government. This is serious.

But I can not stand with McCain excusing the dirty work of the religious right. He is excusing their tactics and therefore their stance. He is excusing their revisionist history, their anti-intellectual campaigns, their intolerance. He is excusing them. There are plenty of other pastors and religious groups and churches you can snuggle up to. Why chose Falwell and Hagee? Re-grow a pair McCain. You used to have some big ones.