Senator John McCain has charged that Rev. Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell represent “the forces of evil.” On another front, in Washington state McCain continued his tactic of authorizing phone calls alerting voters to the Bob Jones University appearance of Governor George W. Bush. McCain first used this strategy in Michigan; he first denied approving the calls and then later admitted he did.
Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today:
“Rev. Pat Robertson was wrong to call Warren Rudman a ‘vicious bigot’ and Rev. Jerry Falwell was wrong to defend Bob Jones III as not having ‘an anti-Catholic bone in his body.’ But neither man can plausibly be called ‘evil.’ Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were evil. But to say that Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are evil is to trivialize the term and thereby make light of what truly is worthy of that name. McCain appears to be losing it.
“The Catholic League pounded away at George W. Bush for the way he handled his Bob Jones appearance, but we also acknowledged his apology. McCain has not. This explains McCain’s demagoguery: by authorizing more ‘Catholic voter alert’ type calls trying to intimidate people from voting for Bush, McCain is playing with the politics of fear.
“Since McCain is so upset with Bob Jones University, we implore him to ask his South Carolina operative, Rep. Lindsey Graham, to give back his honorary degree to this anti-Catholic school.”
