Hillary's Ties to Religious Fundamentalists - a lot more vunerable than Barack Obama

via Andrew Sullivan:  Martin Marty on Jeremiah Wright:

This is simply must-reading for any fair-minded person interested in the full Jeremiah Wright story. There are very, very few people in American religious life as respected as Martin Marty, few scholars as learned, few Christians as sincere. He has been a professor of religious history at the University of Chicago for 35 years, one of the greatest universities in the world. If you do not know of him, here his is Wikipedia page and his own home-page. More here. I have never met the man but I have read a fraction of his over 5,000 articles, was deeply informed by his masterful Fundamentalism Project (co-edited with Scott Appleby) for The Conservative Soul, and know of few more distinguished, principled or decent public figures. Along with Barack Obama, he will not disown Jeremiah Wright, or Trinity United Church of Christ, where he attended services and listened to many Wright sermons.

The Chronicle Review

Prophet and Pastor -Martin E. Marty

To his former professor, congregant, and friend, Jeremiah Wright has been both

Through the decades, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has called me teacher, reminding me of the years when he earned a master's degree in theology and ministry at the University of Chicago -- and friend. My wife and I and our guests have worshiped at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he recently completed a 36-year ministry.

Images of Wright's strident sermons, and his anger at the treatment of black people in the United States, appear constantly on the Internet and cable television, part of the latest controversy in our political-campaign season. His critics call Wright anti-American. Critics of his critics charge that the clips we hear and see have been taken out of context. But it is not the context of particular sermons that the public needs, as that of Trinity church, and, above all, its pastor.

[.]

In the early 1960s, at a time when many young people were being radicalized by the Vietnam War, Wright left college and volunteered to join the United States Marine Corps. After three years as a marine, he chose to serve three more as a naval medical technician, during which time he received several White House commendations. He came to Chicago to study not long after Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder in 1968, the U.S. bombing campaign in Cambodia in 1969, and the shooting of students at Kent State University in 1970.[.]

    The four S's charged against Wright -- segregation, separatism, sectarianism, and superiority -- don't stand up, as countless visitors can attest. I wish those whose vision has been distorted by sermon clips could have experienced what we and our white guests did when we worshiped there: feeling instantly at home.[.]

    Yes, while Trinity is "unapologetically Christian," as the second clause in its motto affirms, it is also, as the other clause announces, "unashamedly black." From its beginning, the church has made strenuous efforts to help black Christians overcome the shame they had so long been conditioned to experience. That its members and pastor are, in their own term, "Africentric" should not be more offensive than that synagogues should be "Judeocentric" or that Chicago's Irish parishes be "Celtic-centric." Wright and colleagues insist that no hierarchy of races is involved. People do not leave Trinity ready to beat up on white people; they are charged to make peace.[.]

read the full defense of Rev. Wright

btw, Jeremiah Wright's White House commendations include his assisting in President LBJ's heart surgery.

Wright has gotten a bum rap

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

The Clintons not only never know when to quit; they also never realize when they've gone too far--and that has been the Achilles heel that has tripped 'em up every time.
[snip]
When The First Black President begins to complain before the South Carolina primary that race is going to hand the victory to a REAL potential black president--he is warned, not just by Clinton campaign insiders and civil right leaders, but by the old lion himself, Ted Kennedy, to back off.  He says, NEVER!  LET'S FIGHT! and does not back off.

[snip]

Then, when the Kitchen Sink Strategy was cooked up behind closed doors of the Clinton campaign to throw anything and everything they could think of at the charismatic young candidate in order to bring him down; they started with theatrics--whining that "the media" was unfairly attacking her and going easy on him and then turning around and shaking his hand and kissing up all in one night; raging in front of the cameras in a fire-engine red suit about a two-months' old campaign mailout as though it were a brand-new outrage the next day; sarcastically mocking him--and by extension, his supporters--on the next; accusing him of sleazy real estate deals (hmmm) the next; making wild accusations that Obama was "imitating Ken Starr" the next; leaking a scurrilous (though innocent) photo of him in a head turban the next; and unveiling a McCain supporter's purloined YouTube ad the next couple of days before the primaries that was deliberately designed to frighten people in the best tradition of Karl Rove--to "scare up votes" as Obama put it.

Finally, Hillary winds up her happy-warrior week by telling 60 Minutes that, no, Obama was not a Muslim..."as far as I know."

Bull's eye.

And it was working.  This Kitchen Sink Strategy.

Newspaper and network newsies, thus scolded by mama and Saturday Night Live, didn't want to get into trouble again, so they worked to prove how very fair they were by dumping scores of stories designed to cast doubt on Obama, from articles about his Chicago church, to articles about the Rezko real estate deal, to articles examining what he had--and had not--accomplished in state government (even if they did quote mostly Republican colleagues)--and in the U.S. Senate, to more tiresome examinations as to whether or not he really COULD be a Muslim, to whether or not he was tough enough to beat Hillary--let alone answer the red phone at three a.m., to snotty op-eds about all those crazy fainting fans (which never mentioned that those same supporters had probably been standing in line or on their feet at a rally for hours, and that the room gets hot with thousands of people in it, and that they don't sell concessions, so you don't eat until it's all over, but whatever.  We're aaaaallllll "Obamamaniacs.")

[snip]

And then, because she is a Clinton, she had to go too far.  

And she didn't just do it once--she did it three times in a row, in full view of reporters--because she was so sure of herself that, when in fighting mode, you just keep on fighting even when you're winning.  You don't let up until your opponent is not just down, but DEAD.

Problem with that is that, even in bare-knuckled street fighting, there are always at least one or two rules.

And in politics, if there is one rule and one rule only when it comes to the presidential race, it is this:  YOU DON'T GIVE THE OTHER PARTY AMMUNITION TO USE AGAINST YOUR OPPONENT IF THAT OPPONENT HAPPENS TO WIN THE NOMINATION.

Because the bottom line is not personal ambition.  The bottom line is that Democrats wind up in the White House.  Not Republicans.  So you pull up short, for the sake of the party and the nation--if you are anybody but a Clinton.

It's a very simple rule, really.  And even if it didn't exist, most people with any sense of character and honor wouldn't cross over that line anyway.  The stakes are just too high, not just for our party, but for our country.

But when Hillary smells blood in the water, she's going to slice through the water for the kill.

That's only about a third of what's posted.  It's a really good post, but this is the gist.

Blogging While Brown Convention Atlanta, GA July 25-27, 2008