The Religious Wright
By JAMES TARANTO
Rear Window
Our apologies for the extended absence. A freak slip-and-fall turned what was to have been a few days' rest and relaxation into something of an ordeal, involving surgery and a five-day hospital stay. We're now back in our Manhattan apartment with a broken leg and a wheelchair; all that's missing is Grace Kelly and a murder-mystery.
We are delighted to be writing again. However, recovering from this sort of injury can be demanding in terms of both time and energy, so that we may not be up to our usual daily pace. If that proves the case, enjoy Political Diary when we're off, and know that we're eager to be fully back to normal as soon as we can.
[Mike Huckabee]
Bye-Ku for Mike Huckabee
In Hope, Arkansas
Was born a smooth governor
Whoever he is
(Previous bye-kus: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd combined, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore.)
The Religious Wright
Are we wrong to think that Barack Obama's campaign is imploding? For the past few days the national spotlight has been on Jeremiah Wright, pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ and Obama's so-called spiritual mentor, who turns out to be a certifiable America-hating crackpot. As ABC News reported last week:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
Obama's response--which we'll get to in a moment--has been to assert that the most outrageous of Wright's utterances are news to him, and to avoid discussing the pastor's overall theological worldview.
In a set of "talking points" on the church's Web site, Wright proclaims himself an exponent of "black liberation theology." He cites James Cone, a distinguished professor at New York's Union Theological Seminary, whom he credits for having "systematized" this strain of Christianity.
Here is a quote from Cone, explaining black liberation theology (hat tip: Spengler, a pseudonymous columnist for the Asia Times):
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.
Could Obama really have been unaware for all these years that his spiritual mentor follows a racially adversarial theology, one that demands of God that he be "for us and against white people" and that he participate "in the destruction of the white enemy"? It doesn't exactly sound like the sort of change we can believe in.
National Review's Rich Lowry notes that Obama's 1995 memoir, "Dreams of My Father," cites a Wright sermon called "The Audacity of Hope," the title of which Obama borrowed for his own campaign slogan. Without evident disapproval, Obama quotes a passage from that sermon in which Wright describes "a world . . . where white folks' greed runs a world in need."
Writing on the Puffington Host, self-described Obama backer Gerald Posner says he finds it hard to believe Obama could not have known about Wright's post-9/11 calumny:
There was no more traumatic event in our recent history than 9/11. Reverend Wright's comments would have raised a ruckus at most places in America, coming so soon after the the attack itself. . . .
If the parishioners of Trinity United Church were not buzzing about Reverend Wright's post 9/11 comments, then it could only seem to be because those comments were not out of character with what he preached from the pulpit many times before. In that case, I have to wonder if it is really possible for the Obamas to have been parishioners there--by 9/11 they were there more than a decade--and not to have known very clearly how radical Wright's views were. If, on the other hand, parishioners were shocked by Wright's vitriol only days after more than 3,000 Americans had been killed by terrorists, they would have talked about it incessantly. Barack--a sitting Illinois State Senator--would have been one of the first to hear about it.
Can't you imagine the call or conversation? "Barack, you aren't going to believe what Revered [sic] Wright said yesterday at the church. You should be ready with a comment if someone from the press calls you up."
And what does Obama have to say for himself? Essentially nothing. In his own Puffington Host post, the senator issues a series of condemnations without troubling himself to specify what he is condemning:
I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue. . . .
The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. . . .
Let me repeat what I've said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.
In the same post, Obama claims that Wright "has never been my political advisor; he's been my pastor." In fact, as Bloomberg reports, Wright served on an advisory committee for the Obama campaign, from which he was forced to resign Friday.
Why does Obama feel it necessary to resort to these lawyerly--dare we say Clintoneque--evasions? (The American Thinker blog sends them up to great effect.) Why can't he simply speak from the heart and tell us what he really thinks of black liberation theology? Two possibilities come to mind, both of which may be true.
One is that Obama's condemnation and rejection of Wright's appalling statements is not sincere. That is not to say that Obama shares Wright's hatreds; we have no reason to think that he does and would be surprised if he did. It may just be that the whole question is a matter of indifference to him, except inasmuch as it affects his own political ambitions. If Obama doesn't speak from the heart, perhaps it is because his heart has nothing to say.
Obama apparently has been aware for some time that his association with Wright was likely to be a political liability. The New York Times reports:
In the interview last spring, Mr. Wright expressed frustration at the breach in [his] relationship with Mr. Obama, saying the candidate had already privately said that he might need to distance himself from his pastor.
At this point, though, "distancing" himself plainly is not enough. Obama needs to renounce Wright and his noxious beliefs forcefully and specifically, even if he personally is blasé about them.
But this brings us to the second possible reason he hasn't done so: that it may entail a political cost as well. After all, it's not as if the malevolent minister is preaching to empty pews. There is a segment of the black community that embraces Wright-style bigotry, shown anecdotally in this quote from the ABC News story:
"I wouldn't call it radical. I call it being black in America," said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.
We would like to think this point of view is not terribly common. But Wright's congregation has 8,000 members, the biggest in its denomination, according to the Religion News Service. Possibly Obama has reason to fear losing crucial black support if he expressly repudiates Wright and what he stands for.
One of the Obama campaign's chief selling points has been the promise of "unity" and of rising above racial division. But how can you you unify the nation while countenancing hatred of it? And how can racial division be overcome when those who preach hatred are able to find such a large audience?
Party Animal
This is a story we wish we'd been around last week to write about. From the Associated Press:
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has apologized to his family and the public, but did not elaborate on a bombshell report that he was involved in a prostitution ring.
Spitzer says he "acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family" and says he has to spend time with his family.
Spitzer's wife stood at his side, her hands behind her back and her eyes cast downward, as he made the statement. The New York Times reported earlier in the day that Spitzer told his senior aides he was involved in a prostitution ring. . . .
The Times reported that a person with knowledge of the governor's role believes the governor is identified as a client in court papers. Four people allegedly connected to a high-end prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP were arrested last week.
The Web site of the Emperors Club VIP displays photographs of scantily clad women with their faces hidden, along with hourly rates depending on whether the prostitutes were rated with one diamond, the lowest ranking, or seven diamonds, the highest. The most highly ranked prostitutes cost $5,500 an hour, prosecutors said.
Apparently he later resigned. We were wondering what political party this Spizter guy belonged to, but we couldn't find any reference to it in the AP story. We searched and searched, and finally came up with this AP photo caption:
Eliot Spitzer (R) holds a news conference in New York City with his wife Silda by his side.
So he's a Republican after all!
(Or at least he's on the right.)
Planning His Next Career Move
"Spitzer Finds Organics and Water Where New Planets May Grow"--headline, NASA press release, March 13
Accountability Journalism
Got the runs? It may be Dick Cheney's fault! Well, OK, maybe fault is too strong a word. As the Associated Press reports:
Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.
A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.
True, KBR was still a subsidiary of Halliburton when these problems took place. But Cheney had not headed Halliburton since 2000. Seems as though the AP is eager to hold certain politicians "accountable" for things over which they have no responsibility.
In economic news, meanwhile, the AP's Jeannine Aversa reports:
Dangerous cracks in the nation's job market are deepening. Employers slashed jobs by the largest amount in five years and hundreds of thousands of people dropped out of the labor force--ominous signs that the country is falling toward a recession or has already toppled into one.
Does this sound vaguely familiar? It's dated March 7, but perhaps you recall this Aversa report, which we noted Feb. 4:
In a shower of pink slips, U.S. employers cut jobs last month for the first time in more than four years, the starkest signal yet that the economy is grinding to a halt if it hasn't already toppled into recession.
The funny thing is, if the nation actually does topple into recession, Jeannine Aversa's readers will scratch their heads and ask, "Didn't we read this already?"
Homer Nods
Minnesota hasn't gone Republican in a presidential election since 1972. A March 4 item (since corrected) referred to the wrong party.
We Blame Global Warming
"Heat Shut Down Wade for Rest of Season"--headline, Associated Press, March 11
Redneck 5th Anniversary Gifts
"Clinton Stumps for Wife in Mississippi"--headline, Associated Press, March 9
What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?
"Playmates Bury 10-Year-Old Boy Head-First in Sand"--headline, KSDK-TV Web site (St. Louis), March 10
'What Bird Was Ready to Go!'
"Stop & Shop Recalls Prepared Chicken"--headline, Associated Press, March 5
Deeper, Too
"Study Says Grand Canyon Older Than Thought"--headline, New York Times, March 6
'I Can't Operate on This Man, He's My Son!'
"Revealed: Army Surgeon Actually a Woman"--headline, Daily Telegraph (London), March 5
Life Imitates the Onion
"87 Killed in Violent Kerfuffle"--headline, Onion, March 11
Good Thing We're Not a . . . Oh, Look! A Squirrel!
"Women's Week Keynote Speaker Says Women Need to Stay Focused"--headline, Star Press (Muncie, Ind.), March 11
News of the Tautological
"Private Eye Accused of Spying on Targets"--headline, Associated Press, March 6
Breaking News From 711
"Spain's Many Muslims Face Dearth of Mosques"--headline, New York Times, March 16
Breaking News From 2000
"Lawsuit Eyed by Sharpton Over Florida"--headline, New York Sun, March 10
Breaking News From 2001
"Bush Shakes Off Rocky Start"--headline, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 10
Breaking News From 2121
"Committee in Place for Clinton's 175th Birthday"--headline, Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.), March 7
News You Can Use
• "Declaw Your Cats--or Not"--headline, CNN.com, March 5
• "Blade of the Knife: It Holds the Secrets to Slicing, Chopping and Dicing"--headline, Star Press (Muncie, Ind.), March 6
• "Finally, a Reason to Start Drinking Alcohol"--headline, Reuters, March 7
• "Vatican Lists New Sinful Behavior"--headline, Associated Press, March 11
• "Anionic Charge Is Prioritized over Geometry in Aluminum and Magnesium Fluoride Transition State Analogs of Phosphoryl Transfer Enzymes"--headline, Journal of the American Chemical Society, March 5
Bottom Stories of the Fortnight
• "Tiny Iowa Town Rescinds $5 Cat Bounty"--headline, Associated Press, March 15
• "UNR Students Vote Against Beer Ban"--headline, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, March 6
• "Ron Paul Hints He's Quitting Race"--headline, Associated Press, March 7
• "State Democrats Determined to Raise Taxes"--headline, Los Angeles Times, March 5
• "David Broder Thrilled by Presidential Campaign"--headline, Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette, March 7
Man Without a Party
An article in the Denver Post pays tribute to Ralph Carr (1887-1950), who served as Colorado's governor from 1939 through 1943 and who took a heroic and unpopular stand during World War II:
On Feb. 19, 1942, then-Gov. Carr was fuming. He yelled at his staff even though they were not the object of his scorn, but since he did not have direct access to the White House and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, they'd have to do.
Clutching Executive Order 9066 in his hand, he paced and shouted, "What kind of a man would put this out?" The president's order allowed for the de facto declaration of martial law on the West Coast with one not-so-veiled purpose: to remove anyone of Japanese descent.
It was soon after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, which killed thousands of Americans. The Japanese were called "yellow devils" on the front page of papers like The Denver Post. People clamored for them to be locked up, sent to work camps, or--in the words of one Colorado farmer--"just killed."
No one distinguished between non-citizen and citizen. No one talked about constitutional rights. No one except for Ralph Carr.
"Now, that's wrong," Carr told his staff. "Some of these Japanese are citizens of the United States. They're American citizens."
We got to wondering what party Carr belonged to, but the Post story doesn't say. Finally we found his biography on the state government Web site, which reveals that he was a Republican.
Careful readers will note that this is a variation on the usual pattern for items that appear under this heading. Usually the stories concern corruption or other bad acts committed by politicians who--although news organizations don't think it necessary to inform their readers--are Democrats.
Though come to think of it, what party did that Franklin Delano Roosevelt fellow belong to, anyway? |
