Brokaw Brandishes 'Jesus a Community Organizer' To Bash Giuliani
NEWSBUSTERS
By Mark Finkelstein on NBC
How distasteful was Donna Brazile's line about Jesus being a community organizer and Pontius Pilate a governor for purposes of making an invidious comparison between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin? Enough that even ardent Obama-phile Chris Matthews rapped Dem congressman Steve Cohen's knuckles for repeating it on the House floor.
But, incredibly, when Rudolph Giuliani appeared on Meet the Press today, Tom Brokaw used the same line to confront Rudy over comments in his GOP convention speech about Obama's community organizing. Brokaw went so far as to display a button [screencap after jump] bearing the phrase. Brokaw might just as well have been wearing it.
TOM BROKAW: Senator Obama, who had an Ivy league education and could've gone to Wall Street, went back to Chicago, on the South Side. As you know, his supporters have defended him for working with poor families, many of whom lost their jobs when the Gary steel mills closed. In that mocking fashion, it seemed to a lot of people that you were belittling the role of a community organizer, and it led to this button -- it was addressed to Senator Palin, because she also talked about it -- "Jesus Christ was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor." In retrospect, do you think you had too much sport with his role as community organizer, Mr. Mayor?
Brokaw clearly wasn't quoting the line to criticize its use. To the contrary, he was using it himself as a cudgel against Giuliani. Maybe Matthews is going to have to sit Brokaw down and lecture him on the rules of decorum. There are limits—even for the most partisan of Obama fans. |
