Bad day for John McCain, Part I: crazy preachers

Suddenly it’s not true that Their Crazies Don’t Count: the media are now covering McCain’s connections with Hagee and Parsley.

It looks as if the media convention called Their Crazies Don’t Count may be falling apart.

Now that John Hagee has said that Hitler was doing God’s work when he killed all those Jews,

McCain has finally been forced to reject the endorsement he so fervently sought and so gratefully accepted.

So far, McCain is holding on to the endorsement of anti-Muslim bigot (and Gospel-of-Wealth “send-me-money-and-God-will-make-you-rich” hustler) Rod Parsley &#8212 the man McCain called “a moral compass, a spiritual guide” and who in turn calls Islam “an anti-Christ religion” and says that Muhammed was inspired by demons to be “the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil” &#8212 which seems hard to reconcile with McCain’s proclaimed goal of rallying moderate Muslims against the terrorists.

Update Now McCain has tossed Parsley overboard, too.

But McCain explains that in accepting Parsley’s endorsement he didn’t endorse Parsley’s views. That seems hard to reconcile with McCain’s notion that Barack Obama somehow bears responsibility for the crimes of Bill Ayers because Obama and Ayers served together on the board of a very respectable community foundation. As to Hagee, well, McCain says he had no idea what Hagee believed in when he flew to Texas to appear on stage with Hagee to accept his endorsement.

Next shoe to drop: the McCain-Moon connection, especially via Charlie Black, who helped arrange Capitol Hill hearing-room space for Moon’s “coronation.”

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com