I'll freely admit that Steve Harrison, the Democratic candidate in NY-13, is one of my favorite challengers in this cycle. Yesterday, his team emailed over a press release that underscores the essential rightness of that assessment. It appears some controversy over endorsements is brewing in that race, and he's handling it exactly as he should.

Harrison is running against the only republican sent by the City to Washington, one Vito Fossella. Recently, Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine and currently otherwise in some hot water for what can fairly be described as over-zealous advocacy for Hillary Clinton's Presidential ambitions, hosted a fundraiser for Harrison and endorsed his candidacy. Unfortunately, she also recently made remarks to the effect that John McCain's military service does not automatically qualify him for the Presidency.

While that seems a fairly unobjectionable statement - military service alone does not qualify someone for political office, though it's not a detriment, either - apparently, some veterans have demanded that Harrison renounce her support for being, as the phrase goes, anti-military.

In the past, of course and usually to the grim displeasure of Progressive activists, Democratic candidates have tripped over themselves to buy into (and thereby reinforce the legitimacy of) frames like this, abjectly groveling that no, they don't hate America, mom, the troops, apple pie, and so on. Harrison isn't doing that. Instead, he said this:

I honor and admire the service of Senator John McCain and I always have. I believe that his service to country and grace under confinement are factors, among many, that can be weighed in determining who is best qualified to be our next president. But, as was true with the Democratic nominee in 2004, military service is only one of many factors to be considered. If military service were the sole determinant of presidential timber, then George Bush is unqualified for the position. Like Gloria Steinem, I believe that both Democratic presidential candidates are better qualified to lead our nation than the Arizona Senator.. But the fact that we do not support Sen. McCain's candidacy is not inconsistent with honor for his service.

That statement neatly reframes the issue at hand, creating a distinction between the respect owed by a public figure to the service and sacrifice of another, and the political opposition to the political goals of the person that brought the sacrifice in question. In a district with an unusually high percentage of veterans - for New York City - that's a smart move, and it's also the right and decent thing to do.

Meanwhile, however, the question of endorsers opens a huge can of worms for republicans in this district and the rest of this state, a fact tied in to the Presidential candidacy of John McCain, which Vito Fossella has endorsed, underlining his endorsement by campaigning with the Arizona Senator in Manhattan and New Jersey prior to his final securing of the nomination. John McCain is supported by people who subscribe to a particularly virulent strain of anti-Catholic bigotry, support he eagerly sought and refuses to disavow.

ThinkProgress has some of the details.

Last month, hard-line conservative Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, announced his support for Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) candidacy for president. Despite Hagee’s numerous bigoted remarks — including his claim that the Catholic church is “the Great Whore” and a “false cult system” — McCain said that he was “very honored” by the endorsement.

Other endorsements sought by John McCain include those of Pat Robertson and "Left Behind" author Timothy LaHaye. These are some interesting characters, if one considers outright religious bigotry a subject of interest. For example, Timothy LaHaye.

In 1987, LaHaye was famously forced to resign just days after signing up as national co-chair of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign when the Baltimore Sun revealed numerous anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish statements in LaHaye's writings. For instance, LaHaye called Catholicism a "false religion" and said the Jews "brought the judgment of God upon themselves and their land" by rejecting Jesus.

Pat Robertson himself is a goldmine of bigotry religious and secular. He also, more relevantly for a New York City district, had some very unflattering things to say about the victims of 9/11.

Don't ask why did it happen. It happened because people are evil. It also happened because God is lifting His protection from this nation and we must pray and ask Him for revival so that once again we will be His people, the planting of His righteousness, so that He will come to our defense and protect us as a nation. [Emphasis added]

Shorter: the people in the towers got what they deserved.

"If they look over the course of 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings," he told ABC news in May 2005 when asked whether 'activist' judges were more of a threat to the U.S. than terrorists. [Emphasis added]

Shorter: 9/11 doesn't matter compared to more Alitos on the bench. Bring on the terrorists.

Republican Federal candidates, including Vito Fossella - himself a Catholic - are placed in a quandary by the support their Presidential candidate is seeking and receiving. Republican officeholders in New York - and in the Catholic belt that stretches from the City to the east, north and south as far as Pennsylvania, Ohio and the Canadian border - rely on white ethnics to sustain their majorities. John McCain's pandering to fundamentalist Evangelicals is diametrically at odds with republican electoral goals, opening up a potentially decisive strategic opportunity for Democrats.

In New York's Thirteenth District, that opportunity may be most ripe. In neighborhoods that still mark their seasons by the feast days of the saints, and where the local church remains a focus of the community, talk of the Whore of Babylon might not go over too well.

One wonders whether Vito Fossella will disavow his support of his own Presidential candidate. It's pretty clear that McCain doesn't think highly enough of Fossella's constituents to reject supporters who consider many of these constituents religiously and morally inferior.

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