Cornyn Should Reject Hagee's Anti-Catholicism

A couple of weeks ago, our Republican senator stood on the same stage with John McCain as he received an endorsement from San Antonio preacher and bigot, John Hagee. Since then, McCain has repudiated Hagee's hateful statements about the Catholic Church. Hagee (pictured above) had called the Catholic Church "the great whore", "the antichrist" and a "false cult system".

Republicans like Cornyn are quick to condemn people like Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam, but they don't mind crawling into bed with other hatemongers who are just as bad, if not worse. Hagee is one of those right-wing fundies that's convinced that he's right and everyone else is a sinner or worse.

His bigoted descriptions of the Catholic Church are beyond the pale of decency. McCain finally realized this and repudiated it. It's time for Cornyn to do the same, that is, unless he agrees with those views.

Democratic spokesman Hector Nieto put it well when he said, "The Texas Democratic party would hope to see Sen. Cornyn do the right thing and denounce Hagee's comments, but after watching Cornyn vote lock-step for President Bush and Karl Rove's radical agenda for the last eight years, no one here is holding their breath."

I'm not holding my breath either. Cornyn is very comfortable with the "holier-than-thou" fundie crowd -- he's one of them. I don't expect him to stand up for tolerance.

Fortunately for Texans, We 've got another candidate running for the U.S. Senate this year against Cornyn. His name is Rick Noriega. Noriega is a candidate who believes in tolerance, fairness and equality for all Americans. Check him out at Rick Noriega for Texas. I think you'll like what you see.

But Cornyn already has a huge war chest. If you can, give Rick a few dollars so Texas can have a great senator. It doesn't have to be much -- every five or ten dollars will help. I don't have much money myself, but I've been sending him $30 a month and will continue to do so. I urge you to help also. Consider it your gift to Texas.