A highly controversial San Antonio evangelical pastor has endorsed John McCain. Notice in Elisabeth Bumiller's piece---she fails to bring up anything about Hagee's core beliefs. I guess they are all the same to her.

McCain: I was pleased to have the endorsement of pastor John Hagee yesterday.

McCain is happy as a clam. Looks like the pastor had a bit of a problem with the IRS and Hagee's not too fond of the Catholic church either. From his book Jerusalem Countdown:...

Adolf Hitler attended a Catholic school as a child and heard all the fiery anti-Semitic rantings from Chrysostom to Martin Luther. When Hitler became a global demonic monster, the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII never, ever slightly criticized him. Pope Pius XII, called by historians 'Hitler's Pope,' joined Hitler in the infamous Concordat of Collaboration, which turned the youth of Germany over to Nazism, and the churches became the stage background for the bloodthirsty cry, 'Pereat Judea'.... In all of his [Hitler's] years of absolute brutality, he was never denounced or even scolded by Pope Pius XII or any Catholic leader in the world. To those Christians who believe that Jewish hearts will be warmed by the sight of the cross, please be informed—to them it's an electric chair.

This is the kind of hate that permeates the extreme wing of the religious right. Bill Donohue is freaking out over Hagee and McCain. Glenn Greenwald interviewed him today:

The Catholic League demanded that McCain repudiate Hagee and his endorsement, just as Barack Obama did earlier this week with Louis Farrakhan (despite the fact that Obama, unlike McCain with Hagee, never sought out or accepted Farrakhan's endorsement) In the interview, Donohue made some extraordinary statements. He compared Hagee both to Louis Farrakhan and Bob Jones, but noted: "Hagee is far more powerful than Farrakhan is today. . . . Hagee is a major player. There's no end to his money. He has an empire down there." Regarding the intense 2000 media controversy when then-Gov. George Bush spoke at Bob Jones University, Donohue said:

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.

The entire podcast interview, which lasted roughly 15 minutes, can be heard here.