Holy Joe Strikes Again

Eight years ago, Senator Joseph Lieberman ran with Al Gore and almost became Vice President. Since then, however, he has made a name for himself sucking up to the Republicans to the point where his own state's Democrats rejected him in 2006. Ostensibly caucusing with Senate Democrats, Lieberman votes with the GOP most of the time, is well to the right of the Democratic mainstream, and is reportedly on the short list for a Cabinet post in a John McCain White House.

Which makes his latest actions all the more frustrating. After the media finally started noticing John Hagee's hatred of anyone not white, straight and Protestant, McCain finally dumped him from his list of endorsers. Of course, that didn't stop some people - Lieberman, for example - from continuing to get all squishy and chummy with this wingnut.

This weekend, Hagee is holding a summit of his "Christians United for Israel" group, and Lieberman is slated to give the keynote speech. The problem is that Hagee supports Israel not because it's a vibrant democracy, nor because it's an oasis of knowledge and innovation in a desert of medieval ignorance, nor because it's a firm friend of the United States.

No, Hagee supports Israel because according to his theology, the Second Coming cannot take place unless there is an independent and resurgent Israel. Once Jesus comes to Earth, all Jews and other non-Christians (including the "wrong" kind of Christians) will either convert to the "right" religion, be killed, or be cast into hell forever.

In other words, Hagee is actually praying for the eventual extinction of the Jews.

Nice guy.

Especially since Lieberman claims to be an Orthodox Jew, one would think he would stay as far away from this fruit loop as he possibly can, but no. He still insists that Hagee "devoted much of his life to fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews."

That may be a tad harder to claim after the unearthing Hagee's latest rant. Back in 2003, as the United States was about to invade Iraq, he claimed that the Antichrist will be not just "a blasphemer and a homosexual," but Jewish as well:

There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people. It suggests that this man is at least going to be partially Jewish, as was Adolf Hitler, as was Karl Marx.

So in Hagee's rather warped world view, Jews are not only destined to all go on the spiritual chopping block, but Jews are actively evil. In other words, Hagee buys into all the anti-Semitic nonsense which has been circulating for centuries, depicting Jews as evildoers who seek to undermine and destroy the world.

And this is the kind of guy with whom Lieberman wants to be associated?