Just as the dust surrounding Sen. Barack Obama’s long-term association with controversial minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright has begun to settle comes new reports of the democratic presidential hopeful’s connection to another racially divisive public figure—the stridently homophobic Rev. James T. Meeks, an Illinois state senator who also serves as the pastor of Chicago’s 22,000 member strong Salem Baptist Church.

Described in a 2004 Chicago Sun Times article as someone Barack Obama regularly seeks out for “spiritual counsel”, James Meeks, who will serve as an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, is a long-time political ally to the democratic frontrunner.

When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2003, he frequently campaigned at Salem Baptist Church while Rev. Meeks appeared in television ads supporting the Illinois senator’s campaign. Later, according to the same Chicago Sun Times article, on the night after he won the Democratic primary, Sen. Obama attended bible study at Meeks’ church ‘for prayer’ and ‘to say thank you.’

Since that time, not only has Meeks himself served on Obama’s exploratory committee for the presidency and been listed on the Obama's campaign website as one of the senator’s ‘influential black supporters’, but his church choir was called on to raise their voices in praise at a rally the night Obama announced his run for the White House back in 2007.

Interestingly, the Chicago Sun Times has also reported that both Meeks and Obama share a history of substantial campaign contributions from indicted real estate magnate Tony Rezko.

Read the whole thing, but GayWired.com is an adult-themed site.  Key conclusion in the article:

But the question remains: At what point must a candidate for the highest office in the United States be held accountable for the small coterie of individuals who make up his or her inner circle and potentially bear influence on his interpretation of the constitution? And at what point does the benefit of the doubt give way to guilt by association?

Moreover, how can a candidate cultivate a constituency like that of Rev. James Meek, essentially espousing a shared belief in their value system, become an effective and powerful advocate on behalf of issues like LGBT rights that run counter to fundamental agenda of that constituency without experiencing severe repercussions? The answer is he can’t.

Just as Hillary Clinton cannot cherry pick the successes and pitfalls from her husband’s administration that suit her campaign, neither can Barack Obama divorce himself from the implications surrounding the bedfellows he has made over the course of his relatively short political career.

Put even more plainly... Barack Obama can’t have it both ways, which increasingly seems to be his campaign’s modus operandi.

While it is altogether plausible that, in the spirit of bringing hope and unity, a civil rights leader might sit down with members of white supremacist groups to address racial differences, it is another thing entirely to propose that the same civil rights leader could count any of those white supremacists among his closest friends because he finds them to be inspirational people if, you know, you take that pesky race thing out of the equation.

Similarly, while potentially capable of co-existing peacefully in an environment of mutual respect, the homophobe and the LGBT rights advocate aren’t likely to be found cooing at or canoodling with one another in private because they share so many other common interests. Yet these are precisely the kinds of scenarios that Barack Obama asks the American people to accept on faith each and every time unsavory questions arise about the associates with whom he has chosen to surround himself. Ultimately, it is this porous type of reaction that may be Sen. Obama’s undoing. But, then again, perhaps not.  

Do you support state legislation to:

a.  ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?  Yes.
b.  ban assault weapons?  Yes.
c.  mandatory waiting periods and background checks?  Yes.

An interesting scenario has developed in the Oregon Senate race ...  

Until recently, it has been assumed that Jeff Merkley would win the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Gordon Smith.  

But his Democratic opponent Steve Novick -- who proudly displays a metal hook for a left hand -- has come on strong, most recently by winning the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union.

From the AP:

"Novick fills a room the minute he walks into it," said Webb Thomas, a teacher from Beaverton. "That's what you need. Merkley is so out of central casting. If you took all the white, male, Democratic candidates and blended them together, then you'd have Jeff Merkley."

... Merkley is still favored, but appears to be in real danger, as is evidenced by a new NRSC webpage, which attacks Novick as "As tax-happy as Jeff Merkley ... only funnier." 

That's what Barack Obama said this weekend.  Full quote:

Look, I got two daughters -- 9 years old and 6 years old.  I am going to teach them values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.  I don't want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information.

3/31: Strange Bedfellows

The political blogosphere is a weird place these days. First, we have conservative blogger Hugh Hewitt (a John McCain supporter) and liberal blogger Jeralyn Merritt (a Hillary Clinton supporter) promoting the same Clinton press release about "[Barack] Obama's Record of Exaggerations & Misstatements." Next, we have conservative blogger Glenn Reynolds repeatedly linking to anti-Obama blog posts from the liberal blog TalkLeft. Finally, we have various conservative bloggers buzzing about a controversial anti-Obama ad that combines Jeremiah Wright's sermons with graphic images of the 9/11 attacks. The kicker? This ad was disseminated by a pro-Clinton diarist at the liberal blog MyDD.

It's highly unlikely that pro-Clinton bloggers and pro-McCain bloggers are coordinating their attacks on Obama. Still, this phenomenon has to be disconcerting for Obama's netroots supporters, which is probably why so many of them are calling on the uncommitted superdelegates to endorse Obama and end the race.

On MSNBC this morning, Barack Obama said this:

“... It's certainly different from saying that we would have a high level of combat troops inside Iraq for a decade or two decades or as John McCain said, perhaps 100 years. I am just quoting back what he said. Unless you tell me that that's a misquote.”

... to which RNC spokeswoman Liz Mair responded: 

“Barack Obama seems happy to continue twisting John McCain’s words in a way that has been described by non-partisan Politifact.com as ‘false.’  This is despite seeming acknowledgement from Barack Obama today that he is indeed mischaracterizing John McCain’s position with regard to a continued US troop presence in Iraq.   

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that for all his protestations as to representing a ‘new brand of politics,’ when push comes to shove, Barack Obama is worryingly comfortable continually repeating known falsehoods in order to score political points.  Instead, Obama should stop engaging in such blatant distortion and misrepresentation.  He should, in addition, condemn DNC Chairman Howard Dean who has repeatedly used the same inaccurate talking point, and who recently achieved an all-new-low by slandering John McCain as a ‘blatant opportunist’ for highlighting his record of military service." 

Pure irony from Politico:

Among the debts reported this month by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, the $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff stands out.

Clinton, who is being pressured to end her campaign against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, has made her plan for universal health care a centerpiece of her agenda.

He was devoted to the Navy, but in personal comportment, he was anything but regulation.  He was a rumpled, informal man, who wore a crushed cap with the crown removed that the wife of one of his aviators had given him; kept his shoes off when he worked in an office; tobacco leavings were always scattered about him, as he rolled his own with one hand; possessed a mischievous sense of humor, and was unusually close to sailors and junior officers who served under him, and revered him.  They called him, “Popeye;” his family called him, “Sid;” and his fellow officers, “Slew,” for reasons I never learned.