McCain’s Staunchest Supporter to Attend Confrence with Hagee?!

One of John McCain’s staunchest supporters for the continued war in Iraq and potential military actions against Iran, Joe Lieberman, Independent Senator from Connecticut, plans once again to attend & be a keynote speaker at Pastor John Hagee’s “Christians United for Israel” Conference, on July 22nd, where he will be speaking with Hagee & Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor.

As you may recall, February 29th, Senator McCain sought out and received Pastor Hagee’s endorsement. Fox News reported that same day,

“McCain refuses to renounce Hagee endorsement,” and “defended his endorsement from evangelical pastor John Hagee Friday, balking at a request to denounce the San Antonio megachurch leader given his past controversial statements about Catholicism.”

McCain clarified his acceptance of the endorsement, “I don’t have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions.”

In my blog, documenting the time line of Pastors Hagee & Parsley’s endorsement in relation to the media firestorm over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Dallas News reported, Republican Texas Senator, present at the ceremony gave the nod of approval to the boisterous Pastor, “Cornyn: ‘Hagee Is Just Alright With Me.’”

After the Main Stream Media’s love affair with Senator Barack Obama’s connections to the outspoken Rev. Jeremiah Wright cooled, attention was turned towards both Pastor Hagee & Pastor Rod Parsley for their inflammatory sermons against Jews, Muslims & the Catholic church.

On May 22nd, MSNBC reported, “that McCain decided to “reject” the endorsement of evangelical pastor John Hagee. While McCain has denounced some of Hagee’s past comments, he had not until today rejected Hagee’s actual support.”

Now back on December 17th of last year, Alex Koppelman at Salon.com reports, “In his endorsement of John McCain today, Joe Lieberman touts the straight-talking courage of the senator from Arizona.” He quotes Lieberman having this to say about McCain,

“when others wavered, when others wanted to retreat from the field of battle, John had the courage and the common sense to stand against the tide of public opinion and support the surge in Iraq, where we are at last winning.”

At Politico.com, Jonathon Martin, draws a comparison between the two senators as such, “Lieberman is McCain’s wingman.” Continuing on, Martin states of the close connection these supporters of the continued occupation in Iraq have,

“When McCain needed a quick reminder in Jordan last week on how to characterize Islamic radicals in Iraq receiving aid from Iran, Lieberman was there to whisper into his colleague’s ear. A day later in Israel, the Connecticut senator proved equally helpful, stepping in to help McCain clarify the meaning of the Jewish holiday of Purim.”

Now, how do we draw a conclusion as to what exactly the McCain renouncement of Pastor Hagee really means? If back in February, McCain can receive the endorsement of a controversial & prominent religious leader, and brush off the views he does not agree on, “like crumbs on his suit jacket,” while at the same time, according to Lieberman, has the “courage and the common sense to stand against the tide of public opinion,” how do we reconcile McCain’s quick to the gun “dumping” of the Hagee & Parsley endorsements, once public opinion surged against their views.

More importantly, how do we finalize that McCain has truly disavowed these controversial endorsements, the men that made them, and that they will not have access to a potential McCain presidency? We have less than two degrees of separation between McCain and at least one of these questionable Pastors, John Hagee. Joe Lieberman, who according to Keith Olberman, still plans to jointly address Hagee’s “Christians United for Israel” Conference, with Pastor Hagee himself, while having, figuratively, the ear of John McCain to whisper advice into.

Heck, it might be easier to count the number of degrees in separation between your uncle and Kevin Bacon, let alone doing the difficult math between Senator McCain and Pastor John Hagee.

Lieberman’s official website, displays the press release from the July 16th, 2007 Christian’s United for Israel Conference last year, which transcribes the Senator’s comments to the audience.