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April 30, 2008

Articles of Interest 4-30-2008

189 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

HARVARD…I spent Tuesday at the Kennedy School for Public Policy at Harvard as a panelist on the 2012 plans and reforms for the next presidential primary.  It was a great conference and the first time both Republicans and Democrats sat down at the same table to talk about the process.

KALAMAZOO COUNTY…The Political, Candidate & Party Assistance teams were on the road again last night on the Kalamazoo "Unity Road Show".  We had a handful of local party people along with District Chairs and County Chair.  Special thanks to Gerry Hildenbrand and Fred Taylor for their help in putting this event together.

OBAMA “DENOUNCES” WRIGHT…yesterday Barack Obama criticized the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, saying that Wright's comments about the United States in recent days have been "destructive" and "outrageous."  NAACP reaction?

MICHIGAN’S YOUSIF GHAFARI…The U.S. Senate yesterday confirmed Yousif Ghafari to be our Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia. Congratulations!

HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER…Governor Pawlenty will be our featured guest on May 5th at the Rock Financial Center in Novi…more info below.

PETITION CIRCULATORS…time is running out.  If you have petitions for federal candidates…please mail them in so they can track their progress.  The deadline for judicial petitions have passed.  Three excellent Republicans; long-time Michigan Republican Party Legal Counsel Eric Doster, State Representative Kevin Elsenheimer, and former State Representative Jim Howell; will be on the ballot to replace retiring Judge Bill Schuette in the 58-county 4th District Court of Appeals seat.

BILL HARRISON…long time Kent county GOP activist, teacher and friend, Bill Harrison passed away last week.  His son Bryan and I worked together for Dick Posthumus.  Please keep the Harrison family in your prayers.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER DETAILS.
The MRP is doing all we can to assist the Michigan State House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) to add seats this November and reclaim the Majority lost in 2006. The HRCC will be holding its annual dinner on May 5th. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will deliver the keynote. This will be a great event. Location, time and cost details below.

Diamond Center
Rock Financial Showplace
46100 Grand River Avenue
Novi, MI 48374
To RSVP please call 517-371-1830 or mihrcc@gmail.com

5:00 – 6:00 PM ~ VIP Reception
$5,000/Couple

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM ~ Strolling Dinner
$1000/Person
$5,000/Silver Sponsor*
$10,000/Gold Sponsor**
$20,000/Platinum Sponsor***

*Silver sponsors will receive 5 tickets to dinner, or 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
**Gold sponsors will receive 10 tickets to dinner, including 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
*** Platinum sponsors will receive 20 tickets to dinner, including 4 tickets to attend the VIP reception

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/another-primary-plan-proposed-in-michigan/

Another Primary Plan Proposed in

Michigan

By John M. Broder

April 29, 2008,  6:39 pm

Yet another proposal to resolve the mess arising from

Michigan

’s too-early primary has been floated, this time by a group of prominent Democrats.  This latest plan would split the difference between the positions of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Mrs. Clinton insists that the state’s 128 pledged delegates be seated according to the result of the Jan. 15 primary, which she won although the national Democratic Party declared the contest illegal in advance and Mr. Obama’s name was not on the ballot. That would give her a 73 to 55 advantage in delegates.  Mr. Obama, saying the primary was illegitimate and should have no bearing on the

Michigan

 delegation, said he would accept a 64-64 split.  Various plans to untangle the debacle — including holding a new primary or seating just half the delegation — have been rejected by one or more of the various parties. Now

Michigan

’s so-called Gang of Four — Senator Carl Levin; Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick; Ron Gettelfinger, the United Auto Workers president; and Debbie Dingell, a Democratic National Committee member — are proposing that the delegation be split 69-59, reducing Mrs. Clinton’s 18-delegate advantage to 10 delegates.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90BOI601&show_article=1&catnum=3

Top

Michigan

Democrats suggest splitting delegates 

Apr 29 04:43 PM US/Eastern

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN

Associated Press Writer

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Democrats working to get the state's delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday suggested splitting them 69- 59 between presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.   The Democratic National Committee stripped

Michigan

of its 128 delegates for holding its presidential primary too early in the year.  

Clinton

 has argued that she should get 73 delegates based on the results of the Jan. 15 primary, which she won—18 more than Obama.   Obama, who removed his name from the ballot, wants the 128 pledged delegates split evenly, 64-64.   The compromise, suggested Tuesday in a letter to Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer, fell halfway between the two proposals.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/POLITICS01/804300395/1022/POLITICS

Talks turn on

Michigan

delegate split

Proposal aims to settle dispute: Give 69

Michigan

votes to

Clinton

, 59 to Obama.

Gordon Trowbridge /

Detroit

News

Washington

 Bureau

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A new proposal for resolving

Michigan

's delegate dispute with the national Democratic Party generated plenty of discussion but little apparent progress Tuesday.   The plan, from the four publicly neutral Democratic officials who have been working for weeks on the issue, tries to split the difference between Sen. Hillary Clinton, who won the Jan. 15 primary and would gain an 18-delegate advantage as a result, and Sen. Barack Obama, who did not compete in Michigan and has called for a 50-50 split of the state's delegates.   "Both candidates have a basis for their arguments," the "Group of Four" Michigan Democrats say in a letter to Mark Brewer, the state party chairman. They propose a 69-59 split, cutting

Clinton

's delegate gain from 18 to 10.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS04/804300339/1005/NEWS04

Time running out for state spending deal

Potential projects include piers, trails, upgrades to airports

David Eggert • Associated Press • April 30, 2008

Democratic and Republican lawmakers remain at odds over spending hundreds of millions of dollars on university buildings, airport runways, trails, fishing piers and other state projects.  And time is running out to strike a deal.  The Michigan Department of Transportation says Thursday is the deadline to approve spending to upgrade security and terminals, extend runways and make other improvements at more than 100 local and state airports. The construction season has started, and delaying major projects into the next budget year would result in higher costs due to inflation and potentially affect workers. That's because 60 percent of federal matching dollars for airports goes toward salaries and wages, according to MDOT.  Citing the time crunch and a potential loss of federal dollars to other states, Republicans want to focus on airports and some other projects for which the federal government will provide lots of funding.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS01/804300422/1003

Mayor and Beatty find plenty to text about

Governor's staff, McPhail draw unkind messages

BY M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 30, 2008

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's candid but less-than-kind text message about City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel revealed in a legal brief released Tuesday was not the only time the mayor and his former chief of staff talked about their fellow public officials.  Text messages the Free Press obtained but never published reveal that Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her advisers; Sharon McPhail, a former councilwoman who is the mayor's staff attorney, and the people of

Detroit

drew the ire of Kilpatrick, his former chief of staff Christine Beatty, and, apparently, the mayor's sister, Ayanna Kilpatrick.  Political observers have speculated on the nature of Kilpatrick and Granholm's relationship. At times tense, it appeared to improve after he helped her win re-election in 2006.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS01/804300419/1003

More messages rankle City Council

Cockrel Jr.: Let's push harder for mayor's removal

BY JIM SCHAEFER, ZACHARY GORCHOW and BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 30, 2008

The release of a long-sought document Tuesday containing more damaging text messages by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave new energy to a City Council effort to remove the mayor from office.  Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, who said she was unfazed by the revelation that Kilpatrick insulted her personally in one message, nonetheless said other texts released Tuesday eat away at Kilpatrick's ability to stay in office while he tries to fend off eight felony charges in the text message scandal.  She said she found most troubling the text messages that suggested Kilpatrick interfered in Police Department affairs to protect himself. The texts appeared in a proposed court motion that attorney Mike Stefani, who represented three whistle-blowing cops, gave to lawyers for the city and Kilpatrick in October, leveraging an $8.4-million settlement of the police cases.  "It's a further deterioration in the ability of the mayor to maintain the fiction that he is governing and that it's business as usual," Cockrel said.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/METRO/804300409

New texts, more trouble for Mayor Kilpatrick

Racy messages suggest he, Beatty lied about relationship, cop's firing; Council looks at ways to force Kilpatrick out

David Josar, Christine MacDonald and Paul Egan / The

Detroit

News

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

DETROIT -- City Council members are intensifying efforts to oust Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick after a judge on Tuesday released a legal brief containing excerpts of more than 100 damning and salacious text messages allegedly sent between the married mayor, his former chief of staff and other officials.   The messages, some in coarse language, reveal the mayor and Christine Beatty repeatedly declared their love, bantered about liaisons -- including one in City Hall -- flirtingly discussed marriage and plotted to oust police officers whose investigation threatened to expose the affair in late 2002 and 2003.

The notes, which contradict sworn testimony by both during a police whistle-blowers' trial last summer, were included in a legal brief that broke a logjam over the case.

An attorney for the cops, Michael Stefani, showed the motion to a lawyer for Kilpatrick hours before the city switched course and urged the council to recommend settling the case for $8.4 million.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/METRO/804300402

Excerpts are window on mayoral affair

Steamy texts indicate high-powered relationship developed amid efforts to stave off city crises.

Ron French and David Josar / The

Detroit

News

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

DETROIT

-- On Sept. 9, 2002, while President Bush huddled in

Cobo

Center

 with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to discuss the War on Terror, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had domestic battles on his mind.   Where would his mistress live if she were kicked out of her home by her husband? A night earlier, according to text messages released Tuesday, the mayor apparently had sex with Christine Beatty, his chief of staff and friend since their days at Cass Tech.   "Did you get busted," the mayor asked. "Actually I did get busted," Beatty texted back. "I wanted to see if you had room on Leslie (Street, the mayor's home before moving into

Manoogian

Mansion

) for me! LOL! (laughing out loud)"   "... If you really need a place to stay with me," Kilpatrick responded, "it's on." So begins three months of steamy text messages between

Detroit

's mayor and his chief of staff, littered with starry-eyed endearments and R-rated dialogue. The excerpts show the pair declaring their love for each other; the mayor suggesting he would someday be a "stepdad" to Beatty's children; Beatty turning to the mayor for comfort after she separated from her husband in 2003; and the pair setting up liaisons.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/METRO/804290442

Cockrel: Council could explore asking Granholm to oust mayor

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

DETROIT

-- City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said today the council may take more drastic action against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick if members decide he violated the city charter by withholding key information before they approved an $8.4 million police whistle-blowers settlement.   The council is limited because the charter does not specifically outline a way to remove the mayor, unless he is convicted of a felony. But Gov. Jennifer Granholm does have the power to remove an elected official under this scenario.   "Going to the governor may be something" council considers, Cockrel said. Cockrel said he previously wasn't a fan of that option but may support the move. If they try to remove Kilpatrick through the charter, it could result in a lengthy legal battle, he said.

http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/04/some_here_say_mbt_burden_unfai.html

Business owners from

Southwest Michigan

say business tax burden unfair

Posted by Alex Nixon

Kalamazoo

Gazette

April 29, 2008 09:30AM

KALAMAZOO

-- The new state business tax that went into effect this year was intended to shift some of the tax burden from manufacturers onto service-oriented companies, such as real estate agents and insurers.  But officials with those companies say the increases they may be forced to pay this year are unreasonable.  "I don't know how many businesses are owned by families," Clare Rothi, president of PFS-Premium Finance Corp., said during a forum Monday sponsored by Republican lawmakers from Southwest Michigan. "But this tax is going to impact them more than they ever could have imagined."  Rothi's company, which employs six people in

Kalamazoo

 and finances insurance policies, is facing a 460 percent increase under the Michigan Business Tax compared to what it paid under the Single Business Tax.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS01/804300335/1003

Ex-worker: Fieger was warned about reimbursing

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 30, 2008

A former paralegal for Geoffrey Fieger's law firm testified Tuesday that she told him they could get in a jam for reimbursing employees who contribute to John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign.  "I said we could get in trouble for that," Tania Rock told jurors on the fourth day of trial in U.S. District Court in

Detroit

.  Rock, who now works for another law firm, is the first prosecution witness to offer testimony indicating Fieger had been warned that reimbursing employees might be improper. Three lawyers in the firm have testified that they had no idea the reimbursements were wrong until they were confronted by federal agents in November 2005. They also said they never felt pressured to give.

Rock also testified she overheard another employee, Eric Humphrey, tell Fieger that the reimbursements were wrong.  Humphrey, who is scheduled to testify, sparked the Fieger investigation in April 2005 when he told the FBI that Fieger was reimbursing employees in the form of bonuses to contribute to Edwards.  Rock said she refused to give because she didn't have enough money and because she thought the reimbursements were illegal.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951606847454685.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Getting to Know John McCain

By KARL ROVE

April 30, 2008; Page A17

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.  As we ate near the Days' home in

Florida

recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history.  When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to reveal.  Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/us/politics/29cnd-mccain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

McCain Offers Details of His Health Plan

By MICHAEL COOPER and KEVIN SACK

Published: April 30, 2008

TAMPA — Senator John McCain, detailing his plan to solve the nation’s health care crisis, called Tuesday for federal intervention with the states to assure coverage for people who have been denied insurance.  Mr. McCain’s health plan centers on eliminating the tax breaks for employers who provide health insurance for their workers — a marked departure from the current system — and giving $5,000 tax credits to families to buy their own insurance. His goal in shifting from employer-based coverage to having people buy their own policies is to encourage competition and choice, and to drive down the costs of health insurance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042902706.html

McCain Offers Market-Based Health Plan

By Michael D. Shear

Washington

Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Page A01

TAMPA

, April 29 -- Sen. John McCain on Tuesday rejected calls by his Democratic opponents for universal health coverage, instead offering a market-based solution with an approach similar to a proposal put forth by President Bush last year. McCain's belief in the power of the free market to meet the nation's health-care needs sets up a stark choice for voters this fall in terms of the care they could receive, the role the government would play and the importance they place on the issue.   Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (

Ill.

) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) have vowed government action to fulfill what they cast as a moral right for Americans to have health insurance. They favor mandates for coverage; McCain (R-Ariz.) proposes tax incentives. Obama and Clinton would impose new regulations on insurers; McCain's plan is designed to avoid direct regulation. The Democrats would build on the current employer-based system; McCain would shift to a more individual approach.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120943129695651437.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

A Victory Against Voter Fraud

By JOHN FUND

April 29, 2008; Page A13

In ruling on the constitutionality of

Indiana

's voter ID law – the toughest in the nation – the Supreme Court had to deal with the claim that such laws demanded the strictest of scrutiny by courts, because they could disenfranchise voters. All nine Justices rejected that argument.  Even Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the three dissenters who would have overturned the

Indiana

 law, wrote approvingly of the less severe ID laws of

Georgia

 and

Florida

. The result is that state voter ID laws are now highly likely to pass constitutional muster.  But this case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, also revealed a fundamental philosophical conflict between two perspectives rooted in the machine politics of

Chicago

. Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the decision, grew up in

Hyde Park

, the city neighborhood where Sen. Barack Obama – the most vociferous Congressional critic of such laws – lives now. Both men have seen how the Daley machine has governed the city for so many years, with a mix of patronage, contract favoritism and, where necessary, voter fraud.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9958.html

GOP tests strategies in

Calif.

race

By JOSH KRAUSHAAR

4/29/08 8:15 PM EST 

The Republican primary to succeed retiring Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) is pitting a conservative

California

icon against a more moderate former congressman who is spending whatever it takes to win.   The race could offer an early test of intraparty Republican trends. At stake: whether an unstinting conservative message alone is enough to prevail in a low-turnout Republican primary in a year in which the GOP base is restless — or whether a candidate with Washington connections and lots of cash can still overcome ideological differences.   Doug Ose, who served in Congress in the neighboring suburban

Sacramento

 district from 1999 to 2005, is looking to make a political comeback by largely self-financing his campaign.    Ose has spent more than $1.72 million so far in the primary — almost none of which came from individual donors, according to his most recent filing report. An Ose spokesman said that since the end of the filing deadline, he has raised about $200,000 from individual donors. Some of the money he has spent is from campaign funds left over from his previous congressional campaign account.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9966.html

GI bill sparks Senate war

By DAVID ROGERS | 4/30/08 4:33 AM EST 

From

Annapolis

to

Vietnam

 and back to the Pentagon, John McCain and Jim Webb trod the same paths before coming to the Senate.

Iraq

 divides them today, but there’s also the new kinship of being anxious fathers watching their sons come and go with Marine units in the war.   So what does it say about Washington that two such men, with so much in common, are locked in an increasingly intense debate over a shared value: education benefits for veterans?   “It’s very odd,” said former Nebraska Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, a mutual friend. And that oddness gets greater by the day as the two headstrong senators barrel down colliding tracks.   An Arizona Republican, McCain has all but locked up the Republican presidential nomination and is preparing for a fall campaign in which his support of the

Iraq

 war is sure to be a major issue. Yet the former Navy pilot and Vietnam POW makes himself a target by refusing to endorse Webb’s new GI education bill and instead signing on to a Republican alternative that focuses more on career soldiers than on the great majority who leave after their first four years.

Undaunted, Webb, who was a Marine infantry officer in

Vietnam

, is closing in on the bipartisan support needed to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate, where the cost of his package — estimated now at about $52 billion over 10 years — is sure to be an issue. But McCain’s support would seal the deal like nothing else, and the new Republican bill, together with a letter of opposition Tuesday from Defense

Secretary

 Robert Gates, threatens to peel off support before the Democrat gets to the crucial threshold of 60 votes.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/start_drilling.html

Start Drilling

By Robert Samuelson

April 30, 2008

WASHINGTON

-- What to do about oil? First it went from $60 to $80 a barrel, then from $80 to $100 and now to $120. Perhaps we can persuade OPEC to raise production, as some senators suggest; but this seems unlikely. The truth is that we're almost powerless to influence today's prices. We are because we didn't take sensible actions 10 or 20 years ago. If we persist, we will be even worse off in a decade or two. The first thing to do: Start drilling.   It may surprise Americans to discover that the

United States

 is the third-largest oil producer, behind

Saudi Arabia

 and

Russia

. We could be producing more, but Congress has put large areas of potential supply off-limits. These include the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and parts of

Alaska

 and the

Gulf of Mexico

. By government estimates, these areas may contain 25-30 billion barrels of oil (against about 30 billion of proven

U.S.

 reserves today) and 80 trillion cubic feet or more of natural gas (compared with about 200 tcf of proven reserves).

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/gingrich-wright.html

Gingrich: Wright May Be Deliberately Trying to Hurt Obama

April 29, 2008 7:58 AM

ABC News' Nitya Venkataraman Reports: In a Tuesday appearance on Good Morning America, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., suggested that controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright is angry with parishioner Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and may be deliberately trying to hurt his presidential bid.   Saying that Wright "went out of his way to weaken Obama" during Monday's address at the National Press Club, Gingrich told Barbara Walters "I think Reverend Wright has a greater interest in his self-importance."  Gingrich described Obama former pastor as "hard-line anti-American", and said "if Rev. Wright continues to talk that the burden that Sen. Obama carries becomes bigger and bigger. "  Gingrich described Obama's challenges as "two-fold", citing "left-wing relationships" calling the

Illinois

senator "disingenuous" about them.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/obamas_opportunity.html

Obama's

Opportunity

By Dick Morris

April 30, 2008

At the start of his campaign, Obama ran in counterpoint to the previous candidacies of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Here was a black man running for president on issues that had nothing to do with race as he rose above the victimization rhetoric that characterizes so many speeches of African-American political figures.  Now, in attacking the Rev. Wright as he did Tuesday, Obama can further define himself in contrast to Wright, just as he did earlier vis-à-vis

Jackson

and Sharpton.   So if, as the Chinese ideogram suggests, crisis is a synthesis of danger and opportunity, the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright presents plenty of both for Obama.  In his statement Tuesday, Obama moved decisively and well to seize the opportunity that the Rev. Wright's wrongs pose.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26273

Obama's Millstone

by Monica Crowley

Posted: 04/30/2008

"A change is comin."  Over the past few days, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has pretty well hit us over the head with that declaration.  During his current incendiary but brutally honest "Pastor Ambition Tour," he has proclaimed that "a change is comin'.  I can feel it."   I say "brutally honest" because despite what you may think of Reverend Wright, he tells you exactly what he thinks, and he means what he says.    Sure, he changes his tone based on his audience: to white audiences (Bill Moyers, the National Press Club), he's a bit quieter, softer-spoken, and he doesn't drop his "g's."  To black audiences, he's a podium-slamming, fist-pounding, neo-segregationist with a penchant for mocking white people. 

But regardless of how it's delivered, his message is the same: black liberation theology, which demands an "apology" for slavery from the current generation, formal

U.S.

government prostration, and ultimately, reparations.  And that, of course, is just the beginning.  The list of grievances to be redressed is lengthy, with new insults added all the time.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGZhZGQ2Mzc3NDVmMzAxNmU1MjgzODk2MWFjODg1ZjY=

For Obama, the Danger From Wright Isn’t Over

Why the pastor will remain a mortal threat until Election Day.

By Byron York

April 30, 2008 4:00 AM

The most damaging thing Rev. Jeremiah Wright said at the National Press Club on Monday had nothing to do with God damning

America

, or AIDS, or chickens coming home to roost. It had to do with whether Barack Obama is telling the American people the truth about himself.  “Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls,” Wright told the Press Club. “Preachers say what they say because they’re pastors…. I do what pastors do. [Obama] does what politicians do.” A few days earlier, in an interview with PBS’s Bill Moyers, Wright said Obama, in his

Philadelphia

 speech attempting to calm the controversy created by Wright’s sermons, had said “what he has to say as a politician.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTgxZDU4M2U2YTNhYzIwZDAxMmE1ZDhlYWY4MzI4NmU=

The Hopeless Pastor

By the Editors

April 30, 2008 4:00 AM

Barack Obama made what his admirers consider an epochal speech on race in

Philadelphia

this March. So Obama’s longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who very much admires himself, decided to make his own epochal speech to the National Press Club in

Washington

.  Reverend Wright complained that the hostile media have chopped his thought up into sound bites, and then repeated all the bites. HIV may well be a government plot to slaughter black people (“I believe we are capable”). We had it coming on 9/11 (“You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you”). Louis Farrakhan, the racist crackpot with his science-fiction religion, “is not my enemy.” Farrakhan’s view of

Israel

 is “the same thing United Nations resolutions say, the same thing now that President Carter is being vilified for” (he got that one right). Like the

Roman Empire

 in Jesus’s day, “we run the world.” The reverend’s worldview is an intoxicated mix of despair and narcissism: White America is corrupt and all-powerful, and can only be shaken by an endless chorus of complaint, led by Afrocentric divines. There might be some Christianity mixed up in all this detritus, and someone might even find salvation in it.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWRhMjM3ZGFmNjUxZWE0NzE1MWMwMzJmMTMxYmI4NDI=

Looking for Mr. Wright

Obama’s gift to the McCain & Clinton campaigns.

By Jonah Goldberg

April 30, 2008 12:00 AM

God bless the Rev. Jeremiah Wright!

After Barack Obama gave his big race speech in mid-March, many critics noted that the

Illinois

senator had thrown his own grandmother under the bus to defend his controversial pastor. Well, Wright proved over the last few days that he would not be outdone. He not only threw Obama under the bus, he chucked much of the liberal and mainstream media under there with him. If this keeps up, to paraphrase Roy Scheider in Jaws, he’s gonna need a bigger bus.  For six weeks, Obama’s supporters have diligently argued that to so much as mention Wright is, in effect, racist. When Hillary Clinton said that Wright wouldn’t have been her pastor, Andrew Sullivan gasped on his Atlantic blog that this was “a new low” in the election. When Lanny J. Davis,

Clinton

’s consummate spinner, defended her on CNN by describing what Wright actually said, Anderson Cooper lambasted

Davis

 for daring to repeat Wright’s comments. Time’s Joe Klein chimed in, “You’re spreading the poison right now.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/obama-says-hes-outraged-by-ex-pastors-comments/index.html?hp

Obama Says He’s Outraged by Ex-Pastor’s Comments

By Jeff Zeleny

April 29, 2008,  2:57 pm

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – For the second day in a row, Senator Barack Obama sought to distance himself from the remarks made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and forcefully denounced the incendiary comments he feared would provide “comfort to those who prey on hate.”  “I’m outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to reporters here today. He added, “I find these comments appalling. It contradicts everything that I’m about and who I am.”  Seeking to quell the political damage the controversy is dealing to his campaign, Mr. Obama called a press conference after a town meeting here this afternoon to raise the volume of his criticism of his former pastor. In his speech on race last month in

Philadelphia

, where he tried to put the matter behind him, Mr. Obama said he gave Mr. Wright the benefit of the doubt.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/blogtalk-the-wright-obama-drama/

The Wright-Obama Drama

By Ariel Alexovich

April 29, 2008,  5:35 pm

Voices around the blogosphere say they’re tired of the media kerfuffle surrounding Barack Obama and his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., but they certainly keep writing about it.   They also say they’re sick of the expression “thrown under the bus,” but they keep using it. And they said it repeatedly today after Senator Obama held a news conference in

Winston-Salem

,

N.C.

, to reject and denounce Reverend Wright, who made news yesterday when he defended his fiery sermons and dismissed Mr. Obama as just acting like a politician.  Mr. Obama said it was “appalling” that his pastor would seek out the media limelight to make such remarks, which led John Cole at Balloon Juice to write that Mr. Obama “distanced” himself from Mr. Wright “because I refuse to say he threw him under the bus, which is now my least favorite expression in the English language.”   James Joyner of Outside the Beltway thought Senator Obama said exactly what needed to be said to put this issue to rest.

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/04/the_anatomy_of_wrights_disinvi.html

The Anatomy of Wright's Disinvitation

Posted by TOM BEVAN

April 29, 2008

Asked yesterday how he felt about being "uninvited" to give the public invocation at Barack Obama's announcement for president back on February 10 of 2007, Reverend Wright responded:  Oh, I was not invited because that was a political event. Let me say again: I'm his pastor. As a political event, who started it off? Senator Dick Durbin. I started it off downstairs with him, his wife, and children in prayer. That's what pastors do.   So I started it off in prayer. When he went out into the public, that wasn't about prayer. That wasn't about pastor-member. Pastor- member took place downstairs. What took place upstairs was political.  To the contrary, we know, thanks to an interview Wright gave to Jodi Kantor of the New York Times in March 2007, that Wright fully planned on giving the invocation in

Springfield

before Obama rescinded the offer just hours before the event:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/29/politics/main4056166.shtml

Obama's Risky Denunciation Of Rev. Wright

Analysis: CBSNews.com's Vaughn Ververs Says Harsh Words For Ex-Pastor May Help Obama, But Challenges Await

April 29, 2008

After days of largely ignoring the media blitz his former pastor has waged, Barack Obama reversed course and denounced the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the strongest and most direct terms yet on Tuesday. It was a decision that may help him reclaim some of the initiative in a tight presidential primary contest, but it is not without risks.   The decision to specifically address Wright’s controversial statements came after the campaign maintained for days that Obama had said all he had to say on the subject - a sign that there has been growing concern that the controversy was damaging his candidacy. The result was not just a denunciation of Wright’s comments, but of the man who attracted Obama into the Trinity United Church of Christ, married him and baptized his children.   The turning point was Wright’s combative appearance in

Washington

yesterday at the national press club, where he stood by the comments he has claimed were taken out of context in press accounts over the past months. Wright maintained that the

U.S.

 government was capable of acts of horror such as spreading AIDS through the black community, accused the government of committing terrorism abroad and called criticisms of such remarks an attack on the “black church.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/louis/index.html

Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?

Tuesday, April 29th 2008, 4:00 AM

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted.  Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds.   A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister).   It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club "who organized" the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.   On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: "My vote for Hillary in the

Maryland

primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton's presidency.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0408/Press_Club_President_responds_Reynolds_pitched_Rev_Wright_two_years_ago.html

Press Club president responds: Reynolds pitched Rev. Wright two years ago

April 29, 2008

National Press Club president Sylvia Smith responded today to a Daily News article reporting that club member Barbara Reynolds, a Hillary Clinton supporter, organized yesterday’s breakfast talk with Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr.   Smith said by phone this morning that she still doesn’t know if Reynolds supports

Clinton

, and doesn’t care either way.   “Reverend Wright is newsworthy, period,” Smith said. But Wright wasn’t as newsworthy two years ago when Reynolds first pitched Barack Obama’s controversial pastor as a potential speaker for the press club, according to Smith.  At that time, the speaker’s committee—of which Reynolds is now a part of, but wasn’t at the time—didn’t move forward with selecting Wright.   “He wasn’t newsworthy then in the broader context,” Smith said.  An ordained minister, Reynolds, teaches at Howard University School of Divinity, and knows Wright personally. So she was the ideal contact person for Wright when the controversy broke in mid-March.

Obama’s Break With Ex-Pastor Sets Sharp Shift in Tone

By JEFF ZELENY and ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: April 30, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM

,

N.C.

— Senator Barack Obama broke forcefully on Tuesday with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in an effort to curtail a drama of race, values, patriotism and betrayal that has enveloped his presidential candidacy at a critical juncture.  At a news conference here, Mr. Obama denounced remarks Mr. Wright made in a series of televised appearances over the last several days. In the appearances, Mr. Wright has suggested that the

United States

 was attacked because it engaged in terrorism on other people and that the government was capable of having used the AIDS virus to commit genocide against minorities. His remarks also cast Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, in a positive light.   In tones sharply different from those Mr. Obama used on Monday, when he blamed the news media and his rivals for focusing on Mr. Wright, and far harsher than those he used in his speech on race in Philadelphia last month, Mr. Obama tried to cut all his ties to — and to discredit — Mr. Wright, the man who presided at Mr. Obama’s wedding and baptized his two daughters.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9965.html

Obama breaks with former pastor

By BEN SMITH

4/29/08 8:13 PM EST 

Sen. Barack Obama coolly denounced the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his “appalling” words and for his personal and political betrayal Tuesday, a day after Wright seized center stage in the race for the White House and six weeks after Obama said he could no more “disown” his former pastor than he could his own grandmother.  Obama’s remarks were a second attempt to end perhaps the most damaging chapter of his political career — and strategists raised significant doubts about whether even Obama’s blistering words could immediately quell the crisis Wright has created for the Illinois senator’s campaign.

In the weeks since the Wright controversy first emerged, Obama has receded in the public eye, and his Hyde Park, Chicago, milieu — Wright, former Weather Underground bomber William Ayers and the San Francisco comments that made Obama seem distant from working-class Americans — has come to dominate his image and seemed to energize the flagging nomination hopes of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I am about and who I am, and anybody who has worked with me, who knows my life, who has read my books, who has seen what this campaign’s about, I think, will understand that it is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country,” Obama said in a press conference called after a rally in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he was campaigning Tuesday.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9961.html

The wrongs inflicted by Wright

By ROGER SIMON

4/29/08 8:13 PM EST 

Barack Obama has now reached the low point of his campaign. He hopes. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 20 years, has turned out to be the (totally) wild card in what heretofore was an unusually well-planned and well-executed campaign. Wright is no longer a part of the Obama campaign, but that hardly matters.   Before Wright burst forth in a series of appearances in the past few days, Obama’s worst-case scenario was to run out the clock until the Democratic convention, beating Hillary Clinton by the sheer weight of his pledged delegate majority and the unwillingness of superdelegates to overturn the choice of the people.   But the recent rantings of Wright have put that plan in some peril. It will still be difficult for Obama to lose the nomination, but if he does, he can blame Wright. And this is not just because Obama currently is trying to woo white voters who now may be even more suspicious of him.

It is because Wright’s message is the opposite of Obama’s. Obama’s chief selling point is that he is a healing force in American politics. Obama tells us he can bring people together.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04292008/news/regionalnews/sharpton_raps_obama_108577.htm

SHARPTON RAPS OBAMA

By CHUCK BENNETT and KAVITA MOKHA

April 29, 2008 --

Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict - infuriating the Rev. Al Sharpton, who accused the presidential candidate of trying to "grandstand in front of white people," sources told The Post.   During what a source described as a "heated" phone call yesterday, Sharpton told Obama he was disappointed with the

Illinois

senator's words on Friday, when Obama said "resorting to violence to express displeasure" was "completely unacceptable and counterproductive."   "[Obama] issues this statement and not a single rock had been thrown," said a source. "How does the candidate of change ask people to accept a verdict that is unjust?"   The source said Sharpton had hoped Obama would "side with the

Bell

 family" and not use it as an "opportunity to grandstand in front of white people."   An Obama spokesman described the conversation as a chance to "hear [Sharpton's] views and to get his perspective."