IF REVEREND WRIGHT WERE WHITE...

Ezra Klein thinks the Reverend Wright brouhaha is about left-wing politics, not race. I think it's about both in combination, but I agree with him that a white (Democratic) candidate with a white pastor saying similar things would be catching hell right now:

...here's the thought experiment: If in 2004, it turned out that John Kerry's minister of 20 years -- a man who had been like a father to him, who had married Kerry and Theresa Heinz, and who figured heavily into Kerry's autobiographical book -- held the same opinions as Wright, how big of a deal would it be? My sense, as we're seeing with the furor over Obama's laughably casual relationship with Bill Ayers, is it would still be a firestorm. Americans recoil from the Chomskyite critique, and any Democratic candidate whose personal relationships implied a sympathy for that worldview would have a tough time of it. In fact, it looks like this is the narrative Wright is really fitting into -- a narrative that ranges from Ayers to lapel pins to Obama not holding his hand on his heart during the national anthem -- rather than a story of racial strife....

I'll say it again: It's not either/or. With Obama, it's a racial story and a commie/hippie/America-hater story. But it would be a big deal if it were just a commie/hippie/America-hater story. I'm old enough to have dim memories of the Berrigans and other activist anti-war members of the clergy, and someone with that background who went on to counsel a Democratic presidential candidate would certainly be as easy to slot into a 1960s-script Two Minutes' Hate as Jane Fonda is (or as William Ayers is).

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While we're on the subject, I want to make note of a Hagee story that didn't get enough attention this week. It's from Talk to Action, and it points out that Hagee actually did say that God damns America -- or, at least, that God curses America:

"As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now." That ominous slam at America came from Pastor John Hagee....

Hagee's pronouncement of God's "curse" and "doom" on our nation was not a passing comment. It was a major theme of Hagee's book, Day of Deception (1997). In fact, Hagee devotes a whole chapter to it. Here's the curse and doom quote in context:

In "America Under a Curse," a seventeen page chapter in Day of Deception, John Hagee wrote, "As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now. Look at the scriptures and see for yourself. The stand we have taken on abortion, the stand we have taken against God in our classrooms, just may have sealed or doom."

... In a later book, Hagee has described a terrible, permanent divine curse upon Jews for worshipping idols....

As a consequence of America's disobedience and rebellion, according to McCain-endorser John Hagee, God's has cursed America and that curse has caused American military defeats, in Korea and Vietnam, plagues such as AIDS and social blights like violent crime. God's curse on America has also led "hundreds of thousands" to secretly sacrifice children to the devil....

Sounds a bit like the most famous quote of 2008. But don't worry -- it's a similar sentiment expressed from a right-wing point of view, so you'll never hear about it again.