The Pastor of Disaster

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton happily took the exit ramp marked "Low Road" when she sat down at a table with Richard Mellon Scaife (think Vito Corleone to Rush Limbaugh's Sonny) to put out a hit on Obama by wallowing straight into the Rev. Wright Controversy.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a wide-ranging interview today with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors, said she would have left her church if her pastor made the sort of inflammatory remarks Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor made.

“He would not have been my pastor,” Clinton said. “You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.” […]

The Clinton campaign has refrained from getting involved in the controversy, but Clinton herself, responding to a question, denounced what she said was “hate speech.”

We're past kitchen sink territory, Clinton is now throwing Sub-Zero commericial appliances. After commendably passing on this controversy for over a week, Hillary, faced with a p.r. catastrophe of her own making, got desperate enough to pick open a scab that had just begun to heal.

But since she brought up a hypothetical "not-my-pastor" perhaps it's worth considering the opinion of the man who actually IS Hillary's pastor:

"The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a critical time in America's history as we seek to repent of our racism. No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another's truth," - Dean J. Snyder, Foundry United Methodist Church, March 19, 2008.

Perhaps Hillary should shop for a new church, as hers obviously supports "hate speech" just like Obama.