I am a lot less interested in the various candidate denunciations of the views of thier supporters and pastors (that's easy), than I am the real world political alliances that influence and forge public policy. Louis Farrakhan and for that matter, Jeremiah Wright, are not running big political machines.  But John Hagee is. Via his controversial lobby Christians United for Israel, he assembles the most aggressive of the Armageddonist oriented Christian Zionists into a considerable political force who are beating the drums of war with Iran. John McCain, and for that matter, his supporter Sen. Joe Lieberman, have calculated that CUFI is a necessary constituency for his presidential ambitions.

The question is not whether John McCain endorses the outrageous anti-Catholicism, anti semitism, and anti gay bigotry (clearly he does not) so much as what influence will John Hagee and his allies have on the foreign and military policy of the United States in a McCain administration?

If the answer is 'none' -- then why did McCain so aggressively seek Hagee's support? He really can't have it both ways.

It was not so long ago that McCain denounced Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Bob Jones as "agents of intolerance."  What has changed? Even one of his top foreign policy advisors, former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, continues to view the Religious Right as "a serious problem."

I wonder what kind of problem Eagleburger and McCain think the religious right is, and whether Hagee (and for that matter Parsley) are part of the problem?