Joe Lieberman can embrace John Hagee, whose only desire is to see Jesus Christ come down from heaven and send Joe Lieberman, and every other Jew like him, straight to hell where they can suffer unimaginable torments for ever and ever.

Of course, Joe doesn't believe in Jesus, so he may feel a smug sense of security. Comparing Hagee to Moses? GACK.

What if the Koran said that when all the Jews return to Israel, Mohammad would come back and bring paradise-on-earth to all the Muslims and the Jews would then be roasted forever-and-ever in a fire that did not consume them? Would Joe Lieberman embrace Osama bin Laden? Perhaps only if it was politically expedient.

Loved reading it - let the fireworks begin...

We can only hope that postings like these lead to some real, public discussion. It seems there are too many taboos.

To Ralph Krandem's point about Joe helping people who are praying for the destruction of all Jews as a prelude to the Second Coming: The Hagees think they're using Joe to bring about the Rapture, Holy Joe thinks he's using the Hagees-Rapturites to bring about the Coming of the True Messiah (my memory of the Old Testament is a little fuzzy, I can't say I'm sure what Joe thinks). That's the great thing about being a delusional religious fanatic: You're right, everybody else is wrong, and it's okay to use useful idiots to get what you (and God) want (see Bush, George and Blair, Tony).

On Joe Klein's "I can't imagine voting against him", Very Serious Beltway Denizen Lawrence O'Donnell made the same point on the old Franken show just before the CT primary. He said that in his eighteen years in the Senate, Joe Lieberman had advanced no important cause or movement, had not written or meaningfully sponsored any significant legislation, nor even given a memorable speech with the exception of one about Bill Clinton's sex-life. That said, quoth Larry, it would be a mistake for the voters of CT and bad for the Democratic Party nationally if Joe Lieberman were not re-elected.

(To his credit, he did call for Lieberman to drop out after he lost the primary, but that was such a jaw-droppingly stupid comment, so full of fatuous Beltway self-satisfaction, that I've never forgotten.

Phones ringing off the hook? Phones have hooks? Well, that certainly dates us, doesn't it? I bet we know what carriage returns are, too. Not to mention distributor rotors, linoleum and card catalogs. Time marches on.... :-)

Here's what I don't really understand: what Lieberman and Hagee advocate under the guise of being "for Israel" is not good for Israel in any measurable way. It would tend to lead to the largest possible amount of strife both in the hard-line refusal to allow territorial compromise and in the notion of attack on Iran (presumably, at the expense of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in the first instance, and Israeli and Iranian civilians in the second).

Who is this doing any good for?

Israeli blogger Yossi Gurvitz yesterday advocated for direct communication between Israel and Iran, hoping to draw on the mutual history of positive relations (not during the Shah's regime; Gurvitz is a historian, he was hearkening back to thousands of years of prosperous and mutually beneficial relationship between the Persian/Iranian population and the Jewish population). Someone on his comment thread suggested that a common enemy would make such dialog more likely. Would that common enemy not be the conglomorate of Lieberman, Hagee, and the NeoCons?

I wish to point out that Hagee's and others' notions of "the Rapture" are not held by all Christians by any means. They are doctrines invented in the 19th century by an English millenarian preacher and have gained wide currency among evangelicals, but are utterly foreign to Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and "mainline" (i.e. Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Congregational, and many Baptist) Protestant churches, not to mention the historic peace churches (Anabaptist and Mennonite) and many other churches. If the word "heresy" had not become so debased, it would be the right word to apply to the whole millennarian racket.

Thanks for exposing the danger of Christian fundamentalism in such a clear and concise way Glenn. Perhaps, since these nutjobs are 100% GOP faithfull and are so effective at quashing any strategic geopolitical foreign policy development(thus represent a threat to our national interests), the government should start some sort of effort to neuter these groups. Send in the auditors, take away their tax shelters, SOMETHING. Hagee is just another David Koresh or Jim Jones, only more influencial and powerful.

This seems to have developed into a uniquely American problem. I don't see other organized Christian denominations so obsessed with the end of times....

I wish the pope would speak out more against warmongering Christians like Hagee. Christian leaders regularly call out to moderate muslims to reign in their more radical cousins, well they have their own housecleaning to do....

I find the Hagee crowd most disturbing and have felt this way for over 15 years and as a fellow Christian I have absolutely nothing in common with these right wing Christian Zionists and their totally incorrect interpretation of what the Bible teaches about the nation of Israel.The scriptures they swear by teach that Israel in these latter days would be established by The Messiah at his return and as far as I know this hasn't happened yet.

These types of Christians are as blind theologically as they are politically and they are a very poor example of what Christians are as I have come to learn by being in the Christian mainstream for more than 20 years and teaching in that group for my livelihood. For a person to think that most or all Christians are like the Hagee groups would be a mistake as I have found many that are not in any way like these particular folks are.It just so happens that the main stream media caters to these types of groups and their representation as 'common Christians" is not correct, they just get the air waves because the MSM likes their message and agrees with the New world order message that controls the media.