John McCain has been flying under the radar as the Democrats grab the headlines, but more news organizations are paying attention to the Hagee story and his anti-Catholic remarks.

I have been giving McCain the benefit of the doubt. He’s shown he’s willing to say almost anything to get elected, but I thought there might be lines he would not cross. Well, he brought up the Weather Underground issue on his own today, so he’s making it clear that Karl Rove tactics will be front and center in his campaign.

Given that John McCain actively sought the endorsement of a right wing nut who has called the Catholic Church the “great whore,” he might want to be careful about going down this path.

The mayhem at Fox News this morning shows that some members of that organization are becoming uncomfortable with Fox’s attempts to destroy Obama and distort everything he says.

This morning, one anchor on Fox News literally walked off the set after his two-co-anchors continuously tried to distort Obama’s statements and take them out of context.

Then, Chris Wallace came on air and said he was watching the program for two hours and expressed his disappointment that the program was basically engaged in “Obama-bashing” all morning, especially on a day when Obama was being endorsed by Bill Richardson and we have the passport controversy.

Good for Wallace. It’s nice to see he hasn’t completely forgotten the concept of journalistic integrity.

We’ll see how this plays out.

They have a story on the web site, and Keith Olbermann addressed the story last night.

I’m amazed that McCain worked for this endorsement, and I have no idea why he is sticking with Hagee. This man is a nut, and his anti-Catholic statements are disgusting. This will be a story in the general election.

Glenn Greenwald explains how Hagee’s anti-Catholic rants are getting attention from the mainstream media.

The larger point is whether candidates should be asked about the views of their supporters. Greenwald nails it.

Neither presidential candidates nor anyone else should be held responsible for the views of those who support them, unless the candidate seeks out that support and/or expressly welcomes it. With regard to Pastor John Hagee, that is precisely what McCain has done — repeatedly. He was introduced by Hagee at a South Carolina campaign event last year, an event proudly displayed on McCain’s campaign website. McCain expressed how “honored” and “pleased” he was over Hagee’s endorsement multiple times yesterday

He doesn’t agree with him, but he won’t reject or denounce him. Read some of Hagee’s comments and you’ll see just how crazy this guy can get.

John McCain appeard onstage with John Hagee in order to pick up his endorsement. John Hagee is known for his controversial statements about the Catholic Church.

On the right, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League is objecting Hagee’s extremist writings, particularly his denunciations of the Catholic Church. For example, Donohue pointed to instances in which Hagee has referred to the Catholic Church as, “The Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” the “anti-Christ,” and a “false cult system.” Is Tim Russert going to repeat any of that to McCain, in the same way he read out Farrakhan’s “gutter religion” line about Jews?

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

Obama never sought the endorsement of Farrakhan and has repeatedly repudiated him. McCain, on the other hand, has embraced Hagee, just like he pandered to Jerry Falwell last year.

TPM might be the most influential blog on the net, having pushed the attorney purge story last year and then receiving a Polk award for their excellent work. It will be interesting to see if their coverage of this endorsement leads the national press to pick it up.

Love it.

The President of New York’s chapter of NOW is not happy with Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama.

Here’s one of her past statements:

Psychological Gang Bang of Hillary is Proof We Need a Woman President

John Ashcroft has plenty to answer for regarding his failures leading up to 9/11, so he decides to attack the 9/11 Commission in a pathetic attempt to avoid scrutiny of his own shortcomings.

This is getting to be ridiculous. Radical Muslims are calling for the Pope’s death? And our government thinks we can create Jeffersonian democracies in the Middle East?

Have we finally reached the point where Ann Coulter is no longer taken seriously? Has she finally joined Pat Robertson and other loons who should be ignored by the media, rather than being featured on shows like “Today”?

With her recent comments that certian 9/11 widows “enjoyed” their husbands’ deaths, Coulter took her beligerent condemnation of liberals too far for most decent people to handle. Coulter is not a serious political commentator - rather she’s a comedian using the arena of politics to sell her books. Idiotic statements like this one just add fuel to the fire. She can be very funny, but she can also be incredibly cruel. She belongs on programs hosted by Limbaugh and Hannity, but serious programs shouldn’t give someone spewing this kind of hate any airtime at all.

Five 9/11 widows issued a dignified response to Coulter’s comments. Money quote:

Contrary to Ms. Coulter’s statements, there was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive.

That says it all.