Live by the Donohue, Die by the Donohue

So our pall Bill Donohue isn't happy about McCain's new BFF (pictured above). It seems that besides the wacky apocalyptic anti-Semitism--the 'we have to save Israel in order to incinerate it' plan--he has enough hate in his heart for the Catholics as well:

"There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but are not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them. Indeed, for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example, he likes calling it 'The Great Whore,' an 'apostate church,' the 'anti-Christ,' and a 'false cult system.' To hear the bigot in his own words, click here. Note: he isn't talking about the Buddhists.

"In Hagee's latest book, Jerusalem Countdown, he calls Hitler a Catholic who murdered Jews while the Catholic Church did nothing. 'The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself,' he writes....

"Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee."

And, talking to Greenwald, Donohue has this to add:

Why were they so exercised about Bob Jones? This is worse. . . . If someone said to me: who is the biggest anti-Catholic bigot in the evangelical community, I would say: hands down, John Hagee.

Let's be clear: Donohue is a thug--a loathsome, bigoted outrage pimp¹ whose agenda is the suppression of any viewpoint not consistent with his Catholic ultra-conservatism. (Remember when he got Melissa and Amanda fired?) This here is a blind squirrel/nut-type interaction, the rare case where Donohue is outraged about genuine anti-Catholicism, but it doesn't legitimize anything else he's done.

At the same time, having seen the Catholic League act as a de facto Republican operative, I'm amused to see him turn against his former masters. Some bloggers have expressed skepticism that this will be widely reported; I think Donohue has the power to make it news.

And as SteveM points out, Hagee isn't just McCain's problem--he's a problem for the GOP as a whole, embraced by all the leading Republicans (and faux Democrats). And the Hagee problem illustrates the much broader dilemma faced by the GOP: when you build a coalition from varieties of religious intolerance, you can't be surprised when the various intolerances are intolerant of each other.



¹Paperwight coined the phrase