“Ayers has avoided reporters since he became an election talking-point, scratch-pole, and general sensation,” Lynn Sweet reports. “But now he answered the door of his three-story rowhouse, and I came to join the discussion.
“Ayers is sixty-four and has earrings in both ears. He wore jeans and Riley t-shirt – Riley the kid from Doonesbury. The day was fall-bright and 50th Street was filled with fallen gold leaves.Ayers waved to neighbors and kids as they went by on the sidewalk. He was, for the first time in a long time, in an expansive mood, making clear that in all the months his name has been at the forefront of the campaign, he and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn – ex-leaders of the Weather Underground and longtime educators and activists in the community – have been watching a lot of cable television, not least Fox.”
Posted in Presidential Poop, Punditocracy
Tagged Bill Ayers, Doonesbury, Fox News, Lynn Sweet
* Should Barack Obama’s association with Bill Ayers reflect poorly on him? That’s something I’ve been trying to puzzle out ever since Obama was asked about it in the Pennsylvania debate. At first I dismissed the question as hogwash. Bill Ayers? Please. I’d much rather have had that question be about Tony Rezko – who also bothers me about a thousand times more than Jeremiah Wright.
But this piece by Tribune news researcher Brenda Kilianski in the Sunday Trib is challenging and persuasive – to us all.
* At the same time, I’m far more outraged at the lack of attention given to Obama’s far closer relationship with his self-described political mentor, State Senate President Emil Jones, a real hack’s hack who is a walking piece of one-man gridlock and antithetical to everything Obama says he stands for.
The Tribune editorial page has now embarked on a campaign against what it calls The Rod Blagojevich Protection Society, Emil Jones Chapter. It’s beyond me why Obama isn’t asked more about the crucial relationships with the hopeless and change-averse Machine that propelled his rise.
Posted in Fake Pols, Moral Dilemmas
Tagged Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Brenda Kilianski, Emil Jones, Rod Blagojevich
Mark Brown: “Fresh from defending the use of town firefighters to demolish his pool house, a south suburban mayor has some more explaining to do about his home rehab project.
“The State Board of Elections is questioning about $40,000 in campaign expenditures by Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch, most of which Welch originally reported spending to remodel his campaign headquarters.
“It turns out the headquarters in question is inside Welch’s three-car garage, which he is in the process of expanding and equipping with a new kitchen and bathroom to better serve as a party and meeting room.”
John Kass: “The saga of King Rudolph the Great and his quest to build an 8-foot stone wall surrounding his gigantic castle traveled to Chicago’s City Hall on Friday.
“Chicago was once a land of bungalows. But now, more castles are cropping up, and King Rudolph’s is a doozy.”
Steve Chapman: “It’s hard to imagine he would be so indulgent if we learned that John McCain had a long association with a former Klansman who used to terrorize African-Americans. Obama’s conduct exposes a moral blind spot about these onetime terrorists, who get a pass because they a) fall on the left end of the spectrum and b) haven’t planted any bombs lately.”
Dale’s Mailbag: (near bottom) “The larger issue is the loss of faith in the system . . . We will return to documenting Gov. Blagojevich’s attack on Illinois’s outdoors in coming Sundays.”
