Politix II: Christ Almighty, What a Hypocrite

No word yet on how many Republican politicians were nabbed in a nationwide roundup that netted 1,600 sex offenders, but the president of the National Association of Evangelicals has resigned after denying an accusation by a male prostitute that the pastor paid him for sex over a three-year period.

Recalling Bill Clinton's infamous "I didn't inhale defense," Haggard said that he bought methamphetamine prior to a tryst with the prostitute but threw the drug away and did not have sex.

The evangelical association is an umbrella group for more than 45,000 churchs with 30 million members.

As Josh Marshall notes, Haggard's fall from grace is the conservative equivalent of Jesse Jackson getting caught wearing a hood at a Klan cross burning. Josh suggests that the political implications are enormous.

I'm not so sure that they are, although the Haggard bombshell may further supress evangelical turnout in the mid-term election, which is expected to be lower than in previous elections because of disaffection with the Hypocrite in Chief, who has played evangelicals like a cheap violin during election season but has done little to further their agenda.

More here.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF DENIAL OF REALITY

As he usually does, Andrew Sullivan hits the right note at The Daily Dish:

"I'm afraid I feel for Haggard. This is what happens to a man psychologically and spiritually destroyed by actually advancing a lie he knows to be a lie about homosexuality as a 'chosen lifestyle' while being gay himself.

"His denial of reality, his inability to cope with the world as it is, is often part of the same fundamentalist psyche we see exhibited at all levels of the Rove machine - and, dangerously, within the president himself. Denial is a very powerful psychic force. When combined with addiction, it can fuel destructive behavior. In a human being, it can destroy a person, a family, a marriage, an entire life."

NAUGHTY POLITICIAN ROUNDUP

* Disgraced Republican Representative Mark Foley is extending his taxpayer financed stay in a fancy rehab center that caters to celebrities.

More here and here.

* It turns out that GOP damage control on the Foley scandal was underway before the story broke.

More here.

* Don Sherwood, a Republican congressman from Northeastern Pennsylvania accused of beating up his former mistress, agreed to pay her about $500,000 in a settlement that contained a powerful incentive for her to keep quiet until after Election Day.

More here.

* Despite running an attack ad accusing a Democratic senatorial candidate of accepting money from pornographic movie producers, the Republican National Committee itself has accepted several donations over the past few years from the president of a large pornographic movie distribution company.

More here.