Fresh AyersThe Bill Ayers controversy hasn't died down as yet. See-Dubya at Michelle Malkin's notes that
Eric Rudolph, the abortion clinic bomber, is a better comp for Ayers than Tom Coburn.
Does Obama really believe that Tom Coburn is the moral equivalent of Ayers, or was he just caught unprepared and crammed his foot into his mouth? I hope it’s the latter, because this man might end up as our President and I’d like to think he knows the difference between a bomb-throwing, America-hating terrorist and a pork-slashing Senator from Tulsa.
Tom Maguire:
Obviously, plenty of decent people don't detest Bill Ayers [quite the contrary], and no one is going to convince them that they ought to - Ayers' opposition to the Vietnam War gave him a moral blank check.
Tom links to a piece at OpEd news by
9-11 Truther David Lindorff.
In fact, it's important to remember that while three members of the Weather Underground died at their own hands because of a failed bomb they were constructing, no one else died at their hands. The group scrupulously worked to make sure that their attacks were on property, not people.
So that makes it okay? Look, if you rob a bank and your accomplice gets shot by the cops, you will be tried for murder. And anyway, the bomb that went off was intended for a soldiers' dance at Fort Dix. It was only after they killed some of their own that they decided to pursue their means semi-non-violently.
Lindorff also brings up the defense that Obama used:
Ayers has long since earned the nation's respect, whatever one may think of his youthful radicalism, by devoting his life to the challenge of helping educate those who have a hard time breaking the cycle of poverty and ignorance, which makes it obscene to criticize Obama for sharing a boardroom with him (Obama was 8 when Ayers was in the Weathermen back in 1970).
And Obama was 40 when he served on a board with Ayers. He was 33 when he held a fundraiser in Ayers' home. And
he was 43 when he spoke with Ayers at an event for Rashid Khalidi.
In Chicago, the Khalidis founded the Arab American Action Network, and Mona Khalidi served as its president. A big farewell dinner was held in their honor by AAAN with a commemorative book filled with testimonials from their friends and political allies. These included the left wing anti-war group Not In My Name, the Electronic Intifada, and the ex-Weatherman domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. (There were also testimonials from then-state Senator Barack Obama and the mayor of Chicago.)
Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Ayers
