We have all heard plenty about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor or former pastor to Barack Obama, but how about the Rev. John Hagee, supporter of John McCain?

Granted, supporter, in the sense of having provided an endorsement, is not the same as pastor, in the sense of having been part of a 20-year relationship, but even so. It must count for something when a candidate for president declares himself proud to have the support of a guy who is waiting anxiously for the great beast of the Book of Revelation to devour the Whore of Babylon. Especially when there is a suggestion he might take the whore to mean the Roman Catholic Church.

Yes, that’s what Catholics think the Rev. Hagee means when he gets cranked up with his Book of Revelation imagery, and they were mighty disturbed when McCain proudly accepted the endorsement.

So why isn’t this a raging national issue, and why isn’t McCain pestered about it at every whistlestop, and why doesn’t he feel obliged to give a major speech on national television explaining himself?

For my full and carefully considered discussion of this issue I refer you to the Thursday edition of the Daily Gazette, but in brief, I believe that Christian crackpottery has gained national respectability, thanks in no small part to the efforts of our current president and his strategists, while the kind of racial paranoia personified by the Rev. Wright remains beyond the pale.

You can believe the anti-Christ is going to appear any minute and that you and your fellows are going to be physically swept up into the sky to enjoy the eternal company of your Lord and Savior while the rest of humanity burns in hell, and that’s a sign of good character, qualifying you for high office. But if you believe the U.S. government conspired to invent the AIDS virus to exterminate black people, then you’re a nut.

Of course, I think they’re all nuts.

And on that diagnostic note, I take my leave for a few days. When I return I will tell you all about what I have been up to.