McCain and Hagee

McCain has sought out and proudly accepted the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee. Listen to this guy demonize the Catholic Church in the video below. He also told NPR that Katrina is God's retribution against homosexuals.

So now McCain is doing a little back pedalling but has failed to clearly denounce Hagee's views. As I've said before, I developed a lot of respect for McCain back in 2000 (even imagining the possibility of a Gore-McCain ticket), but his efforts to woo the extremist wing of the Republican Party and to get into bed with George W. has definitely tarnished his reputation in my eyes.

More on the story from Salon.com (including a video of CBS News' coverage last night), and comments from Matthew Yglesias.