Donna Brazile offers Hillary Clinton a reminder about Rev. Wright

Donna Brazile -- an uncommitted superdelegate of the Democratic National Convention and one of television's few black, female political pundits -- interjected an intriguing observation this afternoon into a discussion on CNN about Hillary Clinton's stiff-arming of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

In short, Brazile provided a pointed reminder that some voters (African Americans, in particular, we would think) might recall that Wright did not turn on Clinton's husband during an hour of need for him.

Clinton, for the first time since the fury over Barack Obama's tart-tongued former minister erupted more than a week ago, today rebuked her rival in the Democratic presidential race for his link to the pastor. Responding to question during a sit-down with a Pittsburgh newspaper -- and then later reiterating her position to other reporters in Pennsylvania -- Clinton said she would not have been a member of a church headed by someone, like Wright, who indulged in racially tinged invective.

Her comments assured another burst of attention on the Obama-Wright connection -- something her campaign didn't have to do during the white-hot heat of the controversy. And it took part of the media spotlight away from her faulty memory (or, less kindly, utter fabrication) about her visit to Bosnia when she was first lady.

Clinton could have contented herself with decrying Wright's messages without saying, in essence, that no way would she tolerate an association with the likes of him.

That's what Brazile picked up on, making a reference to Wright's willingness to join dozens of other religious figures in attending an annual White House prayer breakfast just as the Starr report on Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky -- in all its lurid detail -- was about to come out. No doubt ...

... those at the event -- at least the vast majority of them -- highly disapproved of Clinton's behavior. But they were not willing to shun him.

Brazile's none-too-subtle point: There's a potential downside to turning away, with nary a forgiving nod, from those who once stood by you.

Wright, by the way, remains out of the public eye. He had been invited to preach tonight, Wednesday and Thursday at a church in Tampa, but his appearance was canceled because of security concerns.

-- Don Frederick

 

Comments

[gino midlands]

Re Rev Wright:
Spouting nonsense is an important part of a clergyman's job.

I also understand Rev Writght IS a U.S. Marine. Love those guys. Cut them a lot of slack.
Bill Clinton was a U.S. wiener.....

[pauL HERNANDEZ JR SFC US ARMY]

Lady Hillary what church do you go to "the Church of the holy lies". Quick duck there is a sniper comment coming at you from me an Iraq war veteran who knows the value of 4000 of my comrades in arms lives. They knew duty honor country none of which you have a clue on. You are grasping at straws after conducting an ineffective campaign which spent over 100 million and you want to run our budget? No thanks. YOu are trying to bring Barack Obama down to your rightful place in the gutter but thankfully the American people have spoken and not selected you to take the democratic banner to the fall election no matter what reality you create in your condo on De Nile. Your sense of entitlement ha brought you to an ugly place and your husband has already ruined what legacy he ha left just by sticking his split tongue into the contest. Don't go away mad just go away and let Barack Obama turn the page as Bob Seger would say and win one for us the veterans against the Iraq war and the rest of our patriotic americans who believe in truth liberty and the american way.

[Sean]

Shame on you Hillary for this dirty trick of yours. Who do you think you are going to fool?

[ADJr]

I'm tired of Ms. Clinton's self-serving words. Sometimes they can be quite "holier-than-thou". It's not easy to raise oneself on a pedestal and remain there for long.

[Bill L]

Obamamania everyone here thinks your a republican
I would think more like a sick Clinton supporter I'm a republican that will vote for Obama .. Rush even knows Obama will beat McCain because so many of us republicans can not stand McCAIN. But the truth is we dislike Hillary about as much. But Obama to me he is a breath of fresh air . He is smarter than all of them put together and he has not been in Washington long enuff to be part of the old boy machine..

[Emlyn]

There was no sniper fire? Quick, change the subject!

This is how a future president of the free world intends to conduct herself? I would have no self-respect.

My guess is that if Obama's pastor had been Jerry Falwell, or Pat Robertson, or John Hagee she'd have nothing bad to say, right?

Why the double standard?

[closet dem]

I have to agree with Lhar.

[Jon Becker]

Hillary must still be smarting from the article by ZZ Packer.
I personally would never socialize with the likes of Geraldine Ferraro and am surprised Clinton would.

[Loyal Democrat]

Time to call out the Clinton FEAR machine again ...already!

To janetP - Are you too young to know about Whitewater? Since real estate deals are important to you, I suggest you search on it....

To Randy - I assume you're saying he would not support it, just like he does not support the names you mentioned.

To sickanig - huh? Do you even live in america?

[donald169]

Shakespeare said it best: "A plague on both their houses!" We need a grown-up, and let these two equally ambitious and self-centered politicians stay in the Senate together, glowering at each other for the next four years. Bring back Biden. Draft Gore. Find a responsible winner.

[Obamamama]

I love this double talk. Oprah who made billions on woman's talk show showed she is a racist. She invited only a black candidate. african americans vote for obama - based on race. Last time I checked that meant you are racist!
When racists elect Obama, they are setting the the entire black race for failure!
Want an example why these folks are racists? Why are they calling themselves African americans? Why not include are the other blacks? That is because they do not want to share power with the other blacks. They think only blacks from africa should gain power. Are these really blacks from africa? No. these blood has been diluted with generations of white slave owners. They are as african american as the native americans are 100% native.
Viva la the racist "african americans". These are the ones who wanted to adopt french names to sound fancy.

[Shima]

It is a pure joke when news/medias says that Donna Brazile is uncommitted. She is committed to Obama and news/medias knows it very well. One can see how openly she praises Obama and say nasty things about Clinton. She is one of the Obama's supporters often selected by news/medias as their panel members to campaign free of charge on behalf of Obama which is a true sign of injustice against Clinton.

[bruce becker]

The Bosnia fake heroism makes her unelectable.
Remember the Swift-boat?
The right wing is not Obama. They will run ads on this lie every day all fall.
She must end her campaign for the good of the party.
Someone in the superdelegtate Clinton camp has to explain this to her. She cannot win the general election after this lie about her heroism. She did mistake poetry and flowers for bullets. She was caught in a terrible lie.

[Fred]

Donna Brazile can go jump in a lake. Hillary has put up with this lying skunk Obama for much too long. She needs to get serious about exposing his fraud on the public, before it's too late.

[Karyn Glodr]

For God's sakes, Wright attended a prayer breakfast! A prayer breakfast! There was no (or little) relationship between he and Bill Clinton. Why does Brazile think this is even worthy of mention?

This issue with Wright is NOT about race, but Obama and his supporters are deflecting the issue to that. It's more about one man's very close and intensely personal relationship - for 20 years - with a minister who has made ugly and inflammatory remarks. Why shouldn't we be concerned about this? I agree with some of what Reverend Wright has said, but what's with the God Damn America and that crazy thing about HIV and a government conspiracy? I have concerns with that, and about Obama's judgment in aligning himself with Wright.

As far as Clinton's remarks about what she would do if her pastor said those things - her comments were not racist, but people are crying that it's negaive campaigning. It's interesting that Obama supporters talk about the negative campaigning from the Clinton camp. First it was Stephanie Power and the 'monster' remark - one of the ugliest things I've ever heard. Then there was Tony McPeak calling Bill Clinton a Joe McCarthy wanna-be (excuse me, but it's Hillary that's running, not Bill). Then you have this guy from Iowa bringing up the 'blue dress' (again, Bill's not running). And finally, you have the Obama staff saying Hillary is 'deeply flawed' - one of the lowest comments I've heard yet. Yeah, right, nothing negative coming from the Obama campaign!

With Clinton and Obama in a statistical tie, she should stay in the race.

[Aba N. Done]

When Donna Brazile suggests there's a potential downside to turning away, with nary a forgiving nod, from those who once stood by you, is she referring to Clinton walking away from Wright or all of the African-Americans who have abandoned the Clintons, who stood by them for years and years?

[David]

Does anybody even have a count of how many standards Hillary have?

She has no shame in looking straight in the eye and lying.
She had no anwer but "I don't recall" when she was being questioned during white water investigation.

She said she will not turn down lobbyist money.

...and now proclaims to be the defender of common working people. She see no shame in lying during the election. If she is elected president, she will drop nuclear bomb on the us citizens and will say, "I do not recall pushing that button". Please send home that liar now.

[alee21]

But the point is that the blacks have forsaken the Clintons.

So Brazille is saying Clinton should defend Obama? Why? Obama did nothing to stop the South Carolina controversy; he stoked the Ferraro episode for all it's worth to benefit him.

They are all politicians and they all want to win the nomination.

Hillary Clinton has to fight back -- look at what the Obama camp is doing.

So spare me the feel-good, touchy feely nonsense.

[Janten]

Pat Taylor is wondering: "Does Hillary have a pastor?"
Check out these pages. . .

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html

[Phil Douglas]

This 20 year veteran does not appreciate Senator Clinton's false claim to have been "under fire."

You'll note that's it's clear from the video that no-one except the military personnel in uniform were wearing bullet proof equipment, such as Kevlar helmet and body armor.

Her seeking to wrap herself in such false heroics demeans all military personnel (and MANY Department of Defense civilians) who have been heroic. And I might add these people have had to leave their children at home, not take them to such a danger zone.

[Margaret]

All candidates "crazy" pastors are up for discussion to be fair. Hillary is a hypocrite and her ultra-right-wing prayer "cell" as they call it is much creepier than Wright:
-----------
"There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

"You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as "The "Fellowship," also known as The Family.

"But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

"Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells"--their term--and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia.

The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes--knitting together international networks of right-wing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian.

"In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolf Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003:

"During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership.

"The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators.

"During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.

Clinton fell in with The Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker.

"When she ascended to the Senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton.

She has written of Doug Coe, The Family's publicity-averse leader, that he is "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."
-----

[Ishshah]

I am not sure what URL is or where to find one, but I do know what a LIE is and it's not a verbal mistake, especially when you have a video showing that what you say is absolutely nothing like the actual situation that took place. Was Hillary trying to sound like she put herself in some real danger, that she was actually brave enough or foolish enough to dodge bullets as she ran from her plane or helicopter or whatever transportation she had the privilege of making her foreign travel in. She took her friends and family for a trip, from my point of view.

As far as Pastor Wright is concerned, he is a black minister and if he is unhappy with the politics of America, especially in today's world, it isn't very surprising. Obama is very confident in who he is and what he believes. I have several loved friends and family that say things that make me shutter sometimes, and I believe they have a right, it doesn't effect what I believe. Let's just listen carefully to what the canidate says and not what their supporters or others say. It is extremely important to me that the next president of our great country is truthful and the idea of honesty will be a refreshing difference after the past eight years. Elizabeth

[A de la Torre]

Although Rev Wright comments are divisive and crude. There is some truth to his comments in how our country is perceived by the rest of the world, ie. arrogant and superioristic. I am very proud to be an American, but our government has done some pretty horrible things throughout the world. It is a reality we need to confront, he just was overly blunt in how he put it. Sometimes its hard to look in the mirror

As far as race, I can see from some of the posts, unfortunately racism is quite alive in the US.

Clearly Obama is not perfect, but I believe he is our best hope to re-establish our credibility and ability to engage the rest of the world.

As a Latino, born in NYC, Non-Black America, including myself, can't even compare what is defined as racism compared to what Blacks in America have suffered for generation upon generation.

I used to consider voting for Hillary if Obama didn't get nominated. If Hillary wins, I probably won't vote at all. I haven't witnessed Obama tearing her down to the point if she wins, the Republicans could use what he said against her. Unfortunately, she'll said anything to win, even if it means sacrificing the Democratic party's ability to win the November election.

[Fred]

Good point Aba. Before Obama began his deceptive campaign, the Democrats were strongly supportive of the Clintons. Now, after lie upon lie, race card upon race card, Obama has destroyed the unity of the party, and will most likely hand the Presidency over to McCain. One more thing; unfortunately, Obama has also set race relations back about 50 years.

[Daly]

Doug Williams Thank you! for raising a daughter that looks at more that the first woman or first black. Whatever she decides you can be proud that she has at least used her own brain to reach her decision.

As we raise our son I am always stressing to him to look at all angles and make his choices based on his own brain power.

Not that it matters but I am a black christian woman married to an african muslim man. My son has a name from my husband's country, while I do not intend or expect that my Son would ever run for president; after this year I am afraid that his name and his ancestry would haunt him.

Our family like Obama's is a salad, we happily include german, irish, swedish, chinese & puerto rican AMERICANS in the family. I celebrate this fact and look forward to when the word race will only mean to do or move quickly.

I hope Obama can move us toward celebrating our diversity . Yes We Can!