Clinton official: Can’t get over Jeremiah Wright

posted at 6:25 pm on April 9, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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How much do readers want to bet that Lanny Davis gets over the Jeremiah Wright scandal at about the time Hillary Clinton gets out of the race? Me too, but for the moment, we can enjoy the blue-on-blue attacks that presage the general election:

I have tried to get over my unease surrounding Barack Obama’s response to the sermons and writings of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. But the unanswered questions remain.

I am a strong supporter of and a substantial fundraiser for Hillary Clinton for president (though in this column I speak only for myself). I still believe she should and will be the Democratic nominee. But if Sen. Obama wins the nomination, he needs to understand that this issue goes well beyond Clinton partisans. Now is the time to address these questions, not later.

Clearly Mr. Obama does not share the extremist views of Rev. Wright. He is a tolerant and honorable person. But that is not the issue. The questions remain: Why did he stay a member of the congregation? Why didn’t he speak up earlier? And why did he reward Rev. Wright with a campaign position even after knowing of his comments?

Davis isn’t buying the beloved-but-occasionally-loony-uncle excuse, either. He notes that Obama didn’t have to maintain any familial relationship with Wright, but instead chose to remain close to the pastor. He had Wright perform his marriage ceremony and took his daughters to receive religious instruction from Wright. Obama has never even pointed to a time when he objected to Wright’s demagoguery — until everyone else noticed it.

This column serves as a response to Joe Klein, who accused Davis of “spreading the poison” during an appearance on CNN. Davis then explains that he’s not raising the point because he doubts Obama’s motives, but that he needs to prepare for a bruising general election. In Davis’ explanation, he has to discuss it now because the eeeeeevil Republican “attack machine” will bring it up later.

Horse puckey. If it’s “attack machine” fodder, Davis worked for the best of them in the Clinton administration. The Clinton campaign didn’t bring up the Wright Stuff because they wanted to help develop a defense against it for his general-election credibility. They brought it up because his long association with Wright calls into serious question the judgment he claims as an advantage over the experience of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Wright occupied a role in Obama’s campaign, and bacjk when he needed Chicago for his political ambitions, he publicly embraced Wright for his political and spiritual guidance. He demoted Wright to “just a pastor” without explaining the tens of thousands of dollars Obama gave Trinity while Wright served up hate speech at the pulpit.

If this is good enough for the Clinton campaign and its surrogates to discuss on CNN and the pages of the Wall Street Journal, then it hardly amounts to an “attack machine” subject for Republicans. Davis wants to avoid responsibility for tough campaigning while conducting it. It’s an exercise in intellectual and ethical dishonesty.

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