I hate it when this happens.

Actually, this is a double "I-hate-it-when-this-happens" post.

That's because last night I tried to write a post explaining why I hated the fact that only a day after I commended McCain's approach to handling bigoted supporters (in contrast to Obama's inept approach) the question resurfaced -- this time taking the form of McCain accepting support from an anti-Catholic bigot.

I do hate it when things like that happen. But what I hate even more than that was when most of the post I'm rewriting disappeared in front of my very eyes just when I was ready to publish it -- as if I never wrote it. (I hit the "escape" key to close the find-in-page box before I saved the text, and because I hit it one time too many, the text was erased without possibility of recovery. Never knew that "escape" did that. Grrr. On the bright side, though, I now know why so many corrections I "knew" I had "made" never appeared in the published post. By escaping from the find-in-page box, I undid the very corrections I have used the find feature to identify and correct. It is absolutely fiendish to have words disappear.)

Anyway, last night I was almost tempted to ask, "What is this? Another day another bigot?" But that might sound bigoted. And depending on the meaning of the word, it might be bigoted. Many of us are bigoted in large ways and small.

By most people's standards, John Hagee does appear to be an anti-Catholic bigot. At least (via Glenn Reynolds link to Ann Althouse) I see that John Donohue of the Catholic League says so:

Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement today that Hagee has written extensively in negative ways about the Catholic Church, "calling it 'The Great Whore,' an 'apostate church,' the 'anti-Christ,' and a 'false cult system.'"

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

I guess "retraction" should now be added to denunciation, rejection, and repudiation.

I don't know which if any of those labels should be applied here, but after the anti-Catholic bigot accusation surfaced, McCain at least made it clear that he does not support all of Hagee's views:

....a day later the Arizona senator sought to maintain some distance from the evangelical leader after the Catholic League and the Democratic National Committee called on McCain to denounce his support, citing controversial remarks Hagee has made in the past on a variety of subjects.

"Yesterday, Pastor John Hagee endorsed my candidacy for president in San Antonio, Texas. However, in no way did I intend for his endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee's views, which I obviously do not," McCain said today in a statement, "I am hopeful that Catholics, Protestants and all people of faith who share my vision for the future of America will respond to our message of defending innocent life, traditional marriage, and compassion for the most vulnerable in our society."

What is the proper standard with bigotry?

And what about Mike Huckabee (already known as an anti-Mormon bigot)? He is very upset at Hagee for endorsing McCain, for he thinks he was more deserving of the endorsement:

The dust up is emblematic of the uneasy relationship between McCain and the evangelical community. Evangelical voters have trended away from the Arizona senator in the Republican primary contests in favor of Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, told MSNBC that he was "shocked and disappointed" by Hagee's endorsement.

Today Donohue noted that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee expressed disappointment that he hadn't received Hagee's backing.

"If Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama were fighting over the support of Louis Farrakhan, we'd say they're nuts," Donohue said. "So what are we to conclude about McCain's embrace of Hagee, and Huckabee's lament for not getting the bigot's endorsement?"

Let me say that I agree with Ann Althouse's characterization of this video of Hagee's anti-Catholic pronouncements as "disgusting."

Politically, though, I see that this puts me into a strange bedfellowship with Glenn Greenwald, who adopts her characterization (as modified by Greenwald, of course).

My larger concern here is why Greenwald (whose post carries on at length about the virtues of Donohue) is now sharing the bed with a man who considers gays lucky not to be attacked in the streets? What gives? Anyone with ideas like that would normally be labeled a bigot by Greenwald's standards, but far from merely being given a pass, Donohue gets a glowing writeup plus a podcast interview!

Why? Simply because he's accusing McCain of bigotry? (Needless to say, Greenwald does not mention Huckabee, much less his lust for the Hagee endorsement.)

Strange bedfollows indeed. If the same logic by which Greenwald tarnishes McCain is applied to Greenwald, then why isn't Glenn Greenwald tainted by anti-gay bigotry?

What are the rules here? It strikes me that according to simple logic, political endorsements should flow in one direction -- from the endorser to the candidate endorsed. It is illogical to say that a candidate should be charged with sharing the specific views of someone who endorses him, but what's murkier is the extent to which an endorser's views pollutes the candidate he's endorsing. This would seem to depend not on whether there's any logical association, but on how obnoxious the views are, and particularly how notorious he is. The fact is that regardless of how bigoted he is, John Hagee is simply not as notorious in the public eye as is Louis Farrakhan, so his endorsement unlikely to be seen as "counting" as much.

An endorsement coming from David Duke would be an entirely different matter, and it would not have been enough for John McCain to simply say he doesn't "agree with all of David Duke's views." He'd have had to specifically reject the Duke endorsement -- and Duke -- outright.

There is going to be plenty more of this kind of stuff, because endorsements are in season, and so are charges of bigotry.

This is not to say that Hagee is not a bigot, but if we look at the dictionary, there is bigotry everywhere, and bigots everywhere.

I think I'll close by quoting from the dictionary again:

As I said before, if the word means what the dictionary says, most of us are bigoted about one thing or another -- including Hagee, Donohue, Greenwald, and (gulp) me!

How do I rid myself of these strange bedfellows?

Hmmm....

Maybe hitting the escape button last night wasn't such a bad idea!