After weeks of silence, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave his first media interview on the firestorm over his controversial sermons and their impact on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The pastor says those who show inflammatory snippets of his sermons out of context have distorted his message.
“I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ,” he told PBS’ Bill Moyers in an interview that will be aired tonight. “And, ‘by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint?’” he said, referring to Obama.
How did it feel to be portrayed that way? “I felt it was unfair,” he said. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”
Many media pundits are saying that Wright’s interview can only hurt Obama by reviving the controversy.
I disagree. If the excerpts released so far are any indication, many fair-minded people will come away from the interview with a far more sympathetic view of Wright.
The “compromise” plan for building two new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb really isn’t much of one, our editorial today argues. Legislative leaders proposed building two 600-megawatt plants instead of two 700-megawatt ones. But the smaller plants still would produce about 10 million tons in annual carbon dioxide emissions, while the vast majority of the power would still being going out of state. “I don’t see how that materially changes things,” KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby told The Eagle editorial board.
John McCain made a welcome post-Katrina promise to New Orleans and all Americans Thursday, declaring, “Never again, never again, will a disaster of this nature be handled in the disgraceful way it was handled.” He also said that if he’d been president when the hurricane hit, “I would’ve landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally.” His harsh assessment of “the perfect storm” of mismanagement at all levels of government was apt. But for the next president, the real test will be the next real storm.
“Congressional oversight committees have failed miserably to exercise prompt oversight. They’re at the root of the politicization of the intelligence apparatus. I would assert that Sen. Pat Roberts is the root of the problem,” Valerie Plame Wilson, the outed CIA operative, said during a recent visit to the University of Kansas. She blames the inaccurate intelligence that led to the Iraq war on the Bush administration but also on the Kansas Republican senator, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time.
In response, a spokeswoman for Roberts told the Lawrence Journal-World that Wilson “is not a credible source. Valerie Plame is hawking a book and appears willing to say anything to get media attention.”
“Before they devour themselves once more, perhaps the Democrats will take a cue from Dr. Seuss’ ‘Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!’” wrote New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “They could sing: ‘The time has come. The time has come. The time is now. Just go. . . . I don’t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Hillary R. Clinton, will you please go now! You can go on skates. You can go on skis. . . . You can go in an old blue shoe. Just go, go, GO!’”
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, doesn’t appear to be making much progress in persuading Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a native Wichitan, that the Air Force tanker contract needs a pro-Boeing do-over. “All I can say is that I think it would be a real shame if the tanker were to get delayed yet again,” Gates said Monday in Alabama, where the Northrop Grumman-EADS tankers would be assembled. “We’re long past due in terms of getting on with this program.”
Gates added that the Pentagon was required by law only to consider the technology, capability and costs of the bids. “I think that some things unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix, at least on Capitol Hill . . . and that’s a concern,” Gates said.
Kansas claimed sixth place on an unenviable top 10 list this week: drunken driving. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 21.1 percent of Kansas drivers 18 and older said they’d been impaired by liquor at least once in the previous year while driving. That compares with the national average of 15.1 percent. Among Kansas’ neighbors, only Nebraska scored worse, with 22.9 percent. A Kansas Department of Transportation spokesman suggested to the Topeka Capital-Journal that the state’s alcohol numbers are improving, but leaders should seek other ways to drive down this dangerous number.
After weeks of silence, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave his first media interview on the firestorm over his controversial sermons and their impact on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The pastor says those who show inflammatory snippets of his sermons out of context have distorted his message.
