Apples, oranges

Gary Kamiya of Salon is the latest liberal writer to attempt to make John McCain's endorsement by Texas televangelist Rev. John Hagee equivalent to Barack Obama's 20 years under the tutelage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

I'll try to make this as simple as I can: McCain was never a member of Hagee's church. Nor, for that matter, was McCain ever a member of Rev. Rod Parsley's church (Parsley being another "psycho Christian" whose name Kamiya brings up).

So far as I am aware, McCain is a lapsed Episcopalian who doesn't attend any church regularly. In attempting to mend fences with the Religious Right -- he viciously dissed them in 2000 -- McCain has courted ministers like Hagee and Parsley. It would certainly be fair to criticize McCain for this, but it is in no way analogous to the 20-year relationship between Obama and Wright, which is what liberals like Kamiya are attempting to suggest.

It's an apples-and-oranges comparison, and ought to be rejected as such.