A Waste Of Attack Space

The WSJ has a guest piece by Elizabeth Wurtzel discussing the Obama/Ayers connection.  Karl at Team Protein pans Ms. Wurtzel; Curt at Flopping Aces pans the piece.

And how could a serious commentator be unaware of the bond formed by Obama and Bill Ayers when they were both involved with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in the mid to late 90s?  Honestly.

NOTE TO HENDRIK HERTZBERG:  Your list of "relevant facts" is woefully incomplete; try doing some reporting.  Maybe start by asking the Obama campaign why they are concealing, not revealing the Annenberg Challenge connection in their own Fact Check.  Or was their subtle allusion to the Annenberg FactCheck.org supposed to represent their disclosure?

Comments

[clarice]

Don't pick on Hendrick Hertzberg ,please. Long after the New Yorker had ceased to be much more than a vehicle for good cartoons, his carp in that magazine (along with Sy Hersh's)largely persuaded me to can my decades long subscription and to refuse to reenlist despite many tempting offers of virtually free mags for the rest of my life.

[Paul Zrimsek]

McCarthyism is a term rarely heard since the Cold War ended

LOL.

[ajacksonian]

The fun thing about the figures around Obama is that the local ones form a relatively tight circle, beyond just Ayers and Dhorn. When you throw in Khalidi, Abumnimah, Rezko, Davies and Pfleger, you get Ayers and Obama on the Woods fund channeling money to Abuminah and Davies. Then you get Davies working with Rezko on property Pfleger is involved with via his company. And the old 'coalition of radical terrorists', where there was nothing to be said bad about the PLO by anyone and they reciprocated, along with the various 'Red' groups continues on in that circle around Obama.

You don't even have to add in Auchi's massively interconnected circle of friends to make that local circle noxious...

I put Obama where he was before the campaign started just about where the Clintons were in the mid-80's connection-wise, save that they would go more with Huang, Trie, Lippo Group and then ignore the problems those presented in the way of organized crime, money laundering and terrorism.

Obama gets his ignoring done right up front!

Its a small world where Obama is connected to the man who, with the help of Marc Rich, got Russian weapons to Savimbi for France. But he is, at least, thinking big, as Auchi's connections to the BoNY, Clearstream, Angolagate, OFF and other scandals makes him far better connected than Red Chinese plants via an external banking organization. But he really should have spent a few more seasons in the minors getting some experience with the ropes of international organized crime and transnational terrorism, as he is nowhere near as good at misdirecting on those ties as the Clintons have been.

Not that anyone bothers thinking those things are important in a post-9/11 world.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I don't care. I've had a crush on Elizabeth since she wrote Bitch, and that all there is to it.

[daveinboca]

Wurtzel also mentions that Dohrn worked at the brown-shoe law firm of Sidley Austin with “the two Obamas” and there is speculation that Michelle was “mentored’ by Dohrn when MOmarosaObama interned at SA in the ’80s. Michelle in turn “mentored” Barry Hussein Obama & married up when he joined the firm.

Hertzberg is a bad joke that keeps repeating itself. The creep actually commented on my blog when I used the term "Democrat Party" even though everyone knows the Dems are the most elitist political party in the world [outside Cuba] and there is nothing "democratic" about "superdelegates." The phony Hertzberg never replied when I ribbed him for calling the Kingdom "Saudia Arabia." I think his medications need to be adjusted.

[Danube of Thought]

Good ol' Greta had that Murtagh fellow on last night, reminiscing about his house being bombed by the Weather Underground when he was nine years old. It was nice to see him vent his feelings about Ayers and Dohrn, but unless I'm missing something he overstepped a couple of times in describing Ayers as "still an advisor to Obama."

[Danube of Thought]

Good God. "...like many teenagers tragically lost in the Reagan '80s..." What kind of self-absorbed simpleton thinks like that? I'm gonna puke...

[centralcal]

Well, another great week!

All around the web I find links to JOM regarding Obama-Ayers-Annenberg Challenge connections.

The nutroots are in full temper tantrum meltdown mode because Dems are flocking to Fox News.

Arianna is banned (?) at PMS-NBC.

Yup, another great week!

[vnjagvet]

Let's hope we aren't peaking too early.

Just sayin'

[Danube of Thought]

This fellow Hertzberg certainly is a pompous one, isn't he?

[Semanticleo]

Although the Tower commission was never able to prove Reagan knew what Ollie and Poindexter were trading arms to terrorists for the return of our hostages, by Maguire's logic, it makes
Reagan a terrorist.

Because of the proximity, you see.

[Sue]

Ollie North for president!

[Danube of Thought]

Did Maguire, or anyone else here, suggest that Obama is a terrorist? Maybe I missed something...

I think what is most odious about Wurtzel's infantile piece is her frequent use of "we." She seems to think she is speaking on behalf of some group. What group is that? The teenagers tragically lost in the Reagan '80s? All of us who are capable of thinking with our brains? (I'm trying to figure out just what my brain is telling me about Barack Obama, and at this point I think the message is that the man is slicker than boiled okra, and can easily fool adolescents. Apart from that, the ol' brain isn't transmitting much about the Messiah.)

[Porchlight]

I was a teenager in the '80s and there was a small subset of cynical kids in my high school listening to punk rock and making fun of Reagan. I counted these kids my friends and listened to the punk rock but didn't join in the political stupidity. In fact, I went to see Reagan speak when he swung through town just before Election Day 1984. I had a front row spot and was about 50 feet from him - it was very exciting. To date he's the only President I've seen in person.

[Danube of Thought]

When I was six I saw Harry Truman from a distance of about twenty feet following a football game in Annapolis. His hatband, necktie and pocket handkerchief were identical red polka-dot patterns on a field of dark blue. My aunt instructed me that this was a terribly gauche fashion no-no.

I was one of those grade-schoolers tragically lost in the Truman '40s.

[Sue]

I saw Richard Nixon in Chicago in the early 70s. He was the speaker at a convention of dairy farmers. When I say I saw him, I mean I saw a figure on a stage. They could have put my grandfather up there and told me it was Richard Nixon and I wouldn't have been able to have known the difference. I did hear him speak, and knew it was him, but I don't remember what he said. I was 11 or 12 at the time.

[SteveMG]

Let's see, Senator Obama, as President, wants to go to Iran and negotiate with the regime.

That is, give them something. What are negotiations but quid pro quos of some type?

Using the standard (I guess) posted here by our friend Semanticleo, that makes Obama a terrorist (again, I guess).

This is the "let me throw something out and hope it sticks" method of posting.

[clarice]

If you recall when McArthur was fired, he thought he'd run for office. He returned to his family home Milwaukee for a triumphal parade and I, then living in a working class suburb, went to school on the parade route so we got out of classes to watch him drive by.

As for Presidents--they're a dime a dozen here. One night my husband saw a limo parked in front of our house and he opened the door to see what was up. It was then President CLinton reading in the back, waiting to go down the block to a fundraiser at the home of the owner of B.E.T. network.

[Sue]

Wow. The internet is wonderful. Here is the speech I don't remember. The date was 9/3/1971.

With 40,000 in this hall, I just wonder who is home milking the cows.

My father. We didn't have hired milk hands. We. Were. The. Milk. Hands. Although, the next year, we sprung for a hired hand so my father could go, too.

[Sue]

He missed Nixon, which sorely displeased him. In a world of democrats, my father was a republican. Much to his in-laws chagrin. ::grin::

[Sue]

Freaky.We actually dressed like that. I can assure you, no one in my family made this picture. We were not that close to him.

[Porchlight]

Wow, cool photo, Sue. Can you imagine people being that dressed up at a similar event today? Ladies in dresses, men in suits or collared shirts. I like it.

[Sue]

Porch,

We dressed like that on the airplane ride, too. Sunday best. Times change. Some for the good and some for the not so good.

[Danube of Thought]

Hell, remember the studio audiences at things like You Bet Your Life, Groucho Marx's show? Every man Jack in a coat and tie, and the ladies all in their dresses.

[Sue]

Ruh, roh. I did not know this, and in fact, have never heard it before. Of course, I was very young then and politics didn't fit it into my schedule, but I can't believe I didn't hear my parents and grandparents discussing it. Especially since my grandfather hated Nixon and my father loved him.

One of the items not mentioned in the impeachment charges and never televised in the Senate hearings was the way the government cooperated with the milk industry. In early 197) the Secretary of Agriculture announced the government would not increase its price supports for milk—the regular subsidy to the big milk producers. Then the Associated Milk Producers began giving money to the Nixon campaign, met in the White House with Nixon and the Secretary of Agriculture, gave more money, and the secretary announced that "new analysis" made it necessary to raise milk price supports from $4.66 to $4.93 a hundredweight. More contributions were made, until the total exceeded $400,000. The price increases added $500 million to the profits of dairy farmers (mostly big corporations) at the expense of consumers.

[Sue]

Okay, I'm sorry I hijacked the thread. I'm through. But I am forever linked to Watergate, it would seem. Don't hold the child responsible, 'kay? ::grin::

[Jane]

My only close brush with a candidate was in 1999. I was a devoted McCainiac. McCain was appearing in Boston in Copley Square at 9:00 AM on a Saturday. A friend of mine arrived from Australia Friday and was staying at the Copley Plaza. I went in to see her at about 8:30 AM hoping to also walk across the street to the McCain rally, later. I brought my book (Faith of our Fathers, I think) to see if I could get McCain to sign it.

My friend's room overlooked Copley Plaza where the crowds were growing by the minute. The candidate was late (and apparently staying at the Copley Plaza.) At around 9:00 I walked to the window - it was probably about the 8th floor) and held up my book in solidarity. Someone in the crowd spotted the book and the thousands of people all turned and cheered for me, thinking I was McCain.

It was quite fun. I missed him at the rally and never got my book signed however.

[Porchlight]

Sue,

My parents still dress up for plane rides - they enjoy it and they say it makes for better service.

Times do change. When I was a kid we called all adults Mr. and Mrs. or Miss, even the neighbors we knew well. My kids, with the exception of school teachers I guess, won't have this experience. I suppose many don't agree but I think it's a shame to see such things go.

[Sue]

Porch,

I can remember my father asking us, if we forgot, which was seldom, if our "sir" (insert proper gender identification) was broken. We were not allowed to call anyone by their first name, including aunts and uncles, with the exception of my father's sister, who was the same age as most of us. Change of life baby.

[PeterUK]

"One night my husband saw a limo parked in front of our house and he opened the door to see what was up. It was then President CLinton reading in the back,"

Good job you didn't have the cat then.

[vnjagvet]

I met Nixon in January 1961, on the stairway leading from the House Chamber in the Capitol after he presided in counting the electoral ballots finalizing his own defeat to JFK. (IIRC only Nixon and Al Gore share the unfortunate honor of presiding over their own defeats).

I was with two other Government students, and RN took the time to speak with us for about 1-3 minutes. He was friendly, cordial, gracious and made a point of letting us know that public service was a good career choice when he found out our major.

All three of us had worked for Kennedy in the general election, and were astonished that RN was not behorned, and much nicer than his reputation and stiff image led us to believe he would be.

[Porchlight]

Sue,

My kids are going to be brought up to say "sir" and "ma'am" if it kills me. ;) Luckily here in Texas that's not a rarity. My 4 y o daughter already knows how to sweet talk me when she wants something: "Can I have some _____ please ma'am?"

[Jane]

OT:

Capt ed says Rezko is talking about cutting a deal. (LUN) This will accrue to the detriment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Will it also accrue to the detriment of Obama, or is Pat Fitzgerald not interested in that?

[clarice]

In the summer of 1963 I was a summer intern for a Congressman. There were a lot of us that summer--the very notion had just caught on. One of my friends was a guy from Yale who naturally thought he was really something special. (He worked for Sen Dodd and did so for many years after he graduated .)On the subway under the Capitol one lunch time as we was crossing over from the Senate side to meet me, he sat next to a familiar looking man whose name he couldn't place. After a few minutes, the man reached over and asked,"What's the matter? Do I have egg on my face or something?" My friend said no, but that the man looked familiar . ""Allow me to introduce myself son." he said,"I'm Lyndon Baines Johnson , Vice-President of the United States."

[Porchlight]

It was quite fun. I missed him at the rally and never got my book signed however.

Jane,

You may get your chance yet, by President McCain no less!

[Pat Curley]

Wouldn't Humphrey have presided over the counting of the electoral ballots after the 1968 election?

Wurzel's piece is bizarre, especially the ending.

[Danube of Thought]

Not quite the same, but poor old Dan Quayle had that dubious honor as well.

[Porchlight]

Great stories vnjagvet and Clarice. Having not been around for Watergate, I guess I've always had a soft spot for Nixon. And an Yale-educated intern for Dodd doesn't recognize the Democratic VP? LOL. The modern day equivalent Dodd intern would probably run screaming in fear if he ran into Cheney.

[Pat Curley]

Hertzberg attempts to laugh off Ayers and Dohrn as engaging in "youthful follies", "long ago abandoned". But Ayers and Dohrn have not abandoned their political ideals and the notion that they were youthful is belied by the fact that Ayers was 31 and Dohrn 33 when they participated in the "Underground" documentary where they called for revolution.

[Ann]

Porchlight,

Check out the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) in your area. In is a terrific program that not only teaches your kids how to defend themselves but they make them say No Sir, Yes Ma'am when addressing adults. They also have themes each month that teach kids things like: Perseverance, Respect, Courtesy, Self Control, Honor, Attitude, Loyalty, Integrity, Goals, etc.

My daughter just received her second degree black belt and last weekend won a third place trophy sparring young men older than her. (Of course, she said YES SIR afterwards) :)

[Elroy Jetson]

Tom,
Props to the latest sub-title to your blog.
LOL!

[Porchlight]

Thank you, Ann, I will check it out. It sounds great. We're looking into some kind of martial arts training for our oldest and she's at about the right age.
Congratulations to your daughter!

[pagar]

"but unless I'm missing something he overstepped a couple of times in describing Ayers as "still an advisor to Obama."

Why couldn't he still be an adviser to Obama?

Despite the fact that hardly anyone seems to think he was innocent of his Weatherman actions, he has been wrapped in a cloak of respectability through the action of the Jimmy Carter amnesty fiasco; just like John Kerry.

Instead of being in jail, he is now a vice president of AERA

"Ayers’s influence on what is taught in the nation’s public schools is likely to grow in the future. Last month, he was elected vice president for curriculum of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association (AERA), the nation’s largest organization of education-school professors and researchers. Ayers won the election handily, and there is no doubt that his fellow education professors knew whom they were voting for. In the short biographical statement distributed to prospective voters beforehand, Ayers listed among his scholarly books Fugitive Days, an unapologetic memoir about his ten years in the Weather Underground. The book includes dramatic accounts of how he bombed the Pentagon and other public buildings.

AERA already does a great deal to advance the social-justice teaching agenda in the nation’s schools and has established a Social Justice Division with its own executive director. With Bill Ayers now part of the organization’s national leadership, you can be sure that it will encourage even more funding and support for research on how teachers can promote left-wing ideology in the nation’s classrooms—and correspondingly less support for research on such mundane subjects as the best methods for teaching underprivileged children to read."
==============================
"n Chicago the other day, radio producer Guy Benson discovered video recordings of Ayers and Dohrn speaking at a reunion of antiwar radicals in November 2007. To live in the United States, Dohrn told the group, is to be "inside the heart of the monster" that is such a "purveyor of violence in the world." Ayers denounced America as an imperial warmonger steeped in "jingoistic patriotism, unprecedented and unapologetic military expansion, white supremacy . . . attacks on women and girls, violent attacks, growing surveillance in every sphere of our lives, on and on and on." h/t pm

IMO, the subjects of Wright and Ayers and and any other "distractions" will be placed off limits if Hillary can be knocked out of the race by Obama.

I can not imagine that America has agreed to turn over all control of what is to be taught to our children to Ayers.

IMO, Ayers has much more street smarts and political savvy than Obama. What a coup that would be, to go from planting bombs at the Pentagon to controlling the person that determines who the Pentagon bombs.

[Cecil Turner]

Although the Tower commission was never able to prove Reagan knew what Ollie and Poindexter were trading arms . . .

Nonsense. Reagan signed a finding authorizing precisely that (arms to Iran, though, not terrorists).

Latter-day attempts to pretend the basic policy issue wasn't there is revisionist. One of the few parts of Walsh's report that's worth reading is the commentary wherein he laments Congress's lack of spine in going after Reagan over the policy dispute, and trying to fry subordinates over details. In short: if your problem is with selling arms to Iran, that was perfectly legal, and Reagan's fault. North may have overstepped his bounds in other areas, but not there.

[vnjagvet]

Pat, you are right of course. I didn't recall correctly. Gettin' older is a bitch.

[Ranger]

A funny thought struck me that if Rezko cops a plea and Obama still wins the nomination from shear momentum, then the Libby trial may result in the Republicans winning the White House this cycle. If Fitz hadn't been distracted by the Libby side how, the Rezko trial would have been ready to go last year. Obama's hopie-changie tune would never have rung true. Just one more thing to make the netroots heads explode.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Good God. "...like many teenagers tragically lost in the Reagan '80s..." What kind of self-absorbed simpleton thinks like that? I'm gonna puke...

One who uses ironic hyperbole like other people use declarative sentences.

[Ranger]

In short: if your problem is with selling arms to Iran, that was perfectly legal, and Reagan's fault. North may have overstepped his bounds in other areas, but not there.

Posted by: Cecil Turner | May 03, 2008 at 02:02 PM

Yes, exactly. It is facination what North is accused of doing as opposed to what he actually did.

Appalled accuses him of selling weapons to terrorists. North himself didn't sell the weapons, he simply arranged for obsolete ordinance to be sold to a private citizen who would sell them. Those sales were perfectly legal at the time they took place.

He's also accused of illegally funding the Contras. In fact, since the Iranian money was paid to a private citizen, it wasn't government funds, but private money that was donated.

What North did do was lie under oath (to congress) and obstruct justice (by shreding memo). Funny, but that sounds very similar to what Clinton did, but that was ok, because he was a Democrat.

[Porchlight]

vnjagvet,

I believe you said you met Nixon in January 1961 after he lost to JFK, so your memory of it makes sense. Pat mentioned 1968, so he may have just misread your comment.

[clarice]

Ranger, what an interesting observation.