Brooklyn Ron

Jeremiah Wright and Clinton Ally Kiss After Delivering Obama to Angry Crowd, Report Suggests

Where is James Carville now that we need him?

Carville is after all the nation's premier Judas judge. He's, of course, the husband of Dick Cheney adviser Mary Matalin (not to be confused with Mary Magdalene, biblical contemporary of said Judas). He's also the Hillary Clinton hatchet-man who some time back called Bill Richardson a "Judas" after Richardson endorsed Barack Obama.

But now here comes the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, once the pastor of Barack Obama, who is accused of aligning himself with a Hillary Clinton supporter to deliver a fatal political blow to Obama.

If allegations are true, some might call him a Judas.

As Errol Louis of The New York Daily News reported earlier this week, it was one Barbara Reynolds [photo, left, sitting with Wright] who was the point person at the National Press Club, where Rev. Wright on Monday delivered his inflaming (and some say disjointed) discourse that many believe was contrived to seriously embarrass Obama.

Louis raised the possibility that Reynolds and Wright conspired to bring a hammer down on Obama. (read)

And now the Daily News gossip columnists Rush and Molloy, citing their "spy," report that Wright and Reynolds seem to be enjoying the attention.

"Despite the controversy, Reynolds and Wright couldn't have looked chummier on Tuesday night when they met at D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel. 'They shared a hug and a kiss and then huddled in a corner,' says our spy. 'Then they went off to dinner.'" (read)

Meanwhile, the sensitive National Press Club has issued a statement denying there was any plan to hurt Obama or benefit Clinton, saying that Reynolds (a black author, journalist and minister) was merely a member who happened to have ties with Wright and was therefore called upon to be the liaison to him.

Oh yes, as Louis pointed out, she's also a seriously committed backer of Hillary Clinton.

Wright's motive in all this is said to be a combination of factors, the chief one being anger that Obama denounced Wright's allegedly anti-American remarks, and the secondary one being a strong streak of narcissism that is drawing the reverend gleefully to microphones being thrust at him of late by the media.

(Regarding the narcissism, see New York Times article by Alessandra Stanley, "Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length.")

If James Carville were on Obama's side, he would definitely be calling Wright a Judas seeking thirty pieces of silver.

In the form, perhaps, of a huge book contract.

(Half) Black Writer on Jeremiah Wright: This is How Low the Black Church Has Sunk

Writer Kevin McBride, who like Barack Obama is the son of a white mother and black father, offers a stinging commentary on black preaching as reflected in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.

In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, McBride (author of "The Color of Water") says the perhaps (politically) fatal reality of Obama's past was that he came to the black church late in life. He therefore did not fully understand the kind of person-clothed-as-preacher that he was dealing with, McBride says.

Obama "was betrayed by a smooth-talking preacher whose recent behavior is a clear example of how low the black church has sunk in the days after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," McBride wrote in the May 1 issue of The Times."

(For the full five-paragraph letter, click here.)

McBride says that he has an advantage over Obama in that he was raised in the black church. McBride seems to be suggesting that he, unlike Obama, has had a clearer comprehension of the strength and potential fury of the ego that was wrapped in Wright's pastoral robe.

Regarding Wright's ego (much commented upon these past two days for its narcissism), the very last quote today's long front page article about the Obama-Wright affair (by Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor) is especially relevant.

It quotes a deacon of Chicago's Trinity Church, from which Wright recently retired as pastor, as saying about Wright: "It's easy to hurt his feelings . . . He's extremely sensitive."

Not the best attribute for someone preaching the traits of Christianity, understood by many if not most Christians to be based on a certain selflessness. (read that Times article.)

[photo: This is of Jeremiah Wright, taken at the National Press Club for Getty Images by Bill Pugliano.]

Is Jeremiah Wright Crucifying Obama at Behest of Clinton Ally?

Now comes an interesting column linking Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with Hillary Clinton.

Seems far-fetched, viewed from a distance, yes; but in fact Errol Louis, columnist with The New York Daily News, says that Wright's appearance at the National Press Club in Washington was engineered by Barbara Reynolds, a black author and minister who is a vigorous supporter of Clinton.

And he raises the question: With the growing belief that Wright's current tour -- drawing incredible media coverage as he preaches in an inimitable style about race, religion, politics and the rest of life -- is hurting Obama's chances, is it reasonable to suspect he is intentionally sabotaging his former church member?

Louis raises that possibility, given the strong ties of Reynolds [photo below, to left of Wright, at National Press Club] to the Clintons. His column says:

"It . . . 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.'"

A reading of a front page piece in The New York Times suggests that, if indeed Wright intentionally is trying to hurt Obama -- as a kind of payback for Obama having denounced Wright's previous controversial statements -- then it could have something to do with Wright's hubris, of which Stanley and others accuse him of having in great abundance.

Narcissism is a theme woven throughout the Alessandra Stanley article on Wright, based on his performances over the past week. She says of him that he's a "voluble, vain and erudite entertainer."

One thing almost everyone agrees on.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright seems to be having a good time and has acknowledged that he's promoting a book.

[Later in the day, Obama was finally forced to come out and distance himself more than he has to date from Wright. It was clear from Obama's tone and expression that he was in some inner pain.

He said, among other things: “I’m outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle (of Wright's performance in Washington) . . . (Wright’s remarks were) a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth.”]

(read)

Obama's Big Debate Mistake: He Didn't Contrast Rev. Wright, U.S. Marine, With AWOL Bush and Deferment Dick Cheney

This will go down in the campaign as Rev. Jeremiah Wright's week.

It began over the past several days with his appearance on PBS, where he did a friendly interview with Bill Moyers, and it moved on to his very funny (hilarious, really, by turns professorial and mocking) talk Sunday night at a gathering of the Detroit NAACP, where (among many, many other things) he plugged his upcoming book.

We're sure the book will do well, given that it's being pitched with a humongous windup.

One of the interesting things to come out of it all -- though Wright himself has not pushed it (a tribute, perhaps, to a certain self-effacing quality that contrasts with his otherwise grand style) -- has been his military service, two years in the United States Marine Corps and four in the U.S. Navy.

A Chicago Tribune article put it this way:

"While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections." (read full article)

This is something that Obama could have used as a cudgel during the ABC debate that some are characterizing as a huge debacle for Barack. He's been criticized as overly polite and unwilling to slap down when he could have done so, especially when Hillary Clinton and ABC's questionable questioners (George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson) went after Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright, and the latter's supposed anti-American remarks from the pulpit.

Be that as it may, to Obama's betterment or detriment, Rev. Wright is having his own say these days, making the rounds with audiences seemingly all too happy to have him. Only Obama knows how Obama feels about all this deep down inside.

For a transcript of the Wright interview with Moyers, click here.

Stay tuned.