'He Probably Wasn’t Listening in Church'

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
By Mark Finkelstein | March 15, 2008 - 10:32 ET

I've enjoyed Tucker Carlson's show and can't let it pass into history, as it did last night, without a mention here. MSNBC has said that Tucker will remain at the network as an at-large commentator, and I have a feeling that, liberated from show-host concerns, he might become even more uninhibited in the expression of his quirkily conservative/libertarian views.

So let's usher Tucker out by focusing on one of our favorite nemeses, Rosa Brooks, the liberal LA Times columnist who appeared on the show's final episode. The unreconstructed Obama apologist offered the lamest excuse yet for his failure to have disassociated himself earlier from the ugly rhetoric of Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Barack simply wasn’t paying attention in the pews.

View video here.

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TUCKER CARLSON: I like Obama, actually, and I like him because he seems the antithesis of Jeremiah Wright. I just have trouble believing that a guy who he himself, Obama, has described as that close, almost a member of the family, baptizer of his child, the man who married them, the person he's given a lot of money to, he had no idea that he had these views? That's hard to believe.

ROSA BROOKS: You know, I think he saw him in the church context, he wasn't seeing him in his other manifestations.

What? It was explicitly in his church context, right up there in the pulpit, that Wright spewed this stuff. But Brooks soldiered on, and a bit later came her clincher . . .

CARLSON: Here's the problem with Barack Obama laying down the law on this, as he did today on the Huffington Post. If he's telling the truth ["the statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation"], and we can't discover otherwise, that's fine and this may work. But you're going to have reporters at this very moment looking, and we know when that [chickens-coming-home-to-roost] speech was, it was the week after 9-11, and they're going to find out if Obama was there. They're going to try to match the --

BROOKS: Probably sitting in church and not listening. I can tell you. I have heard of people who go to church and don't listen.

As you'll see from the screencap, Brooks' defense didn't even meet her own straight-face test. But we'd certainly love to hear Obama try it: "it depends on what the definition of 'there' is." Or perhaps: "I smoked the sermons but didn't inhale."

In any case, thanks for some good memories, Tucker, and see you down the road on MSNBC.

Bonus Coverage: A.B. Sees It Like It Is

In contrast with Brooks' hear-no-evilism, A.B Stoddard of the Hill newspaper offered this realistic take:

I have bought into the fact Barack Obama is one really smart dude. And it's very hard for me to believe that he didn't know this about him in all the times he attended church, and spent time with this man, possibly prayed with the man, this man baptized their daughters and married them, and he gave him a leadership position or a title in his campaign that he didn't know Jeremiah Wright has said things, several repeatedly, that are anti-Israel, anti-white and anti-American. He's kind of run the table.

Michelle Malkin: Glowbama's Losing his Glow

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.

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The Obama Clinton Defense - I Didn't Inhale.

Obama adopted on FOX News a variant of the Clinton "I didn't inhale" defense. To wit: I went to church for twenty years, but I didn't listen. Not very believable, but Brooks has taken up the mantle for her god.

So now we have a serious Presidential cadidate using Three Blind Mice defense. Wonderful.

As for Tucker, perhaps NBC wants to concentrate on its highly rated commentators such as Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. NBC's trip to the left seems to have taken them off a ratings cliff.

As with Brooks, Alan Colmes was at his most obnoxious when he tried to compare Obamas close relationship with this minister to a minister McCain had dealt with.

 

What a stretch, Brooks

To believe Brooks, you must believe the following:

Jeremiah: G** Damn America! G** Damn America! U.S. of KKK A!

Michelle: Barack! Wake up! The pastor is speaking.

Barack: I'm sorry, dear. I was dreaming about how wonderful America has been to us.

Jeremiah: We deserved to get hit on 9/11! We bombed Hiroshima - America SUCKS! SUCKS! SUCKS!!

Michelle: Barack! There you go again. I can tell you're not paying attention.

Jeremiah: America SUCKS! SUCKS! G** Damn it!

Barack: You caught me again, honey. I think I'll go take a walk and think about how fortunate we are to live in this country.

MtheM: LOL -- nicely done!!

MtheM: LOL -- nicely done!!

great paraody material Mica - will Obama nod off at the UN ?

How is he going to pay attention to boring translators if he can't even pay attention to this guy? Will he become addicted to NoDoz?

It was a slow softball

Thanks Mark, Dee.

 

Good point Dee

And now I know why he has missed all those Senate votes -- didn't want to be caught napping in the Senate chambers.

___________________________________ 

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber

I agree......great

I agree......great skit! Ecept his words should have all been in bold caps!

That was my thought. Not listening? No one who saw that video could possibly believe that pastor could be ignored!

And as I said before, anyone with that much bile inside of him doesn't just let fly every five years or so....he had to have done numbers like that many many times in 20 years. No way Obama  missed them all.  No way he was ignorant of that man's rantings.

Wright's  a Dr. Jekyll and

Wright's  a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Question is; which one does Obama really think is Mr Hyde?

By the look on Rosa Brooks'

By the look on Rosa Brooks' face, you can tell the even she doesn't expect anyone to believe that line of B as in B, S as in S.

Her whole demeanor says "grasping at straw...." 

Oh please - going to church and not listening doesn't happen

with this kind of fiery orator. What a joke. Yes the quite style of Catholics, Jews and many other religions can cause many in their congregation to tune out from time to time. As you can see in the tapes, this type of church (like the white pentecostal churches) people don't just sit there with some listening and some daydreaming. They get up and shout and participate. Has she even seen the tapes?

Cut the guy some slack. It's

Cut the guy some slack. It's hard to pay attention to the preacher while stealing from the collection plate.

Lol Roger - good one!

that's the only way someone could not pay attention these type of sermons. They would have to be so worried about getting caught steeling to tune out that type of loud fiery preaching.

Black Crows

There must be black crows flying over MSNBC this morning.

They let Tucker get away.

As for Rosa Brooks, that level of chutzpah was hard to watch.

Rip van Obama

No doubt he slept through every sermon for the last 20 years.  

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

Tucker Carlson asserts:

Tucker Carlson asserts: "But you're going to have reporters at this very moment looking, and we know when that [chickens-coming-home-to-roost] speech was, it was the week after 9-11, and they're going to find out if Obama was there."

I wouldn't bet a penny that any "reporters" will be investigating whether Obama was present for any particular hate fest of the Rev. Wright.  Tucker Carlson is probably dumb enough to "think" that MSDNC's own Norah O'Donnell will "investigate" Obama's presence at Rev. Wright's hate fests.  Norah O'Donnell is the Obama useful idiot who pleaded with one of her guests: "How do we get away from this [Obama/Wright story]?" 

I'm not a churchgoer but I

I'm not a churchgoer but I assume the truly devout, like Barack poses as, do not just go to church on the occasional Sunday but rather go to church activities a few times a week. Yet in 20 years Obama failed to notice that his pastor was a raving looney tunes?

Didn't he every read the weekly newsletter and see what the subject of the sermons were?

Didn't he hobnob with the other parishioners and get the gist of the latest rant?

Or was he a member that only showed up at Xmas, Easter or when news cameras were present?

Did he carry a bible with a big cross on it and then nod off like Bill Clinton?

 Obama says he had a close personal relationship with Rev. Wright. Did Wright just converse rationally with Obama and only went bonkers during full moons or as a result of some Dr. Jekyll transformation?

The clips I've seen of Wright have been consistently batty (and curiously devoid of any references to scripture, Bible passages, or mentions of Jesus). The man is an over-the-top showman and doesn't seem capable of a quiet pastoral message. I doubt any exist.

 

 

Tucker Carlson had a TV show?

Tucker Carlson had a TV show?

 

Pledge to not support RINOs ever again!

Poor, Poor Rosa and all

Poor, Poor Rosa and all her ilk, ....(I posted about this exact story somewhere yesterday right after the broadcast)...she is in complete leftist lemming free fall denial...I loved it... 

 Tucker cracked me up to with his response right after she mentioned Obama may not of heard anything while he was sitting in the pew and more or less asleep at the switch...Tucker said "I can see that happening maybe in a Methodist church...but this?" (referring to Wright's hate preach)...

I also wanted to mention regarding all of this while I really loved AB Stoddard's response, she was great with her line..."He's kind of run the table"...Tucker is right, plus any of us with a brain knows Obama has really trapped himself if they come up with evidence that he was present during any of Wright's hate preach...I noticed which I posted somewhere elsewhere, he used the word recall on his interview I think with Olbie...recall, the favorite word of the leftist politicians... so they can save their own skins if possible.

I heard today on one of the Fox shows with Ron Kessler from Newsmax (who broke a lot of this video I guess, and wrote some articles too)that he is going to be posting/releasing some evidence on Monday, I think he said a video where Obama was present during one of these hate-filled rants of Wright's.

Going to be interesting....

Oh, well, to be fair ...

My Daddy was infamous for not only falling asleep in church ... but snoring. 

Once, during a strolling sermon, the Priest slowly made his way over to Dad and placed his hand on Dad's shoulder ... to which Dad about jumped ten feet out of the pew.

Father smiled at him and gently said, "Hallelujah ... The Lord be with you, Mr. XXXXXX" ... 

And poor Daddy had the wherewithal to respond, "And also with you ..."  in his post-slumber stupor. The church was sprinkled with subdued chuckles.

My sisters and I didn't laugh or find it funny ... as we knew WE were gonna catch hell in the car for NOT nudging him awake in time. But to us we saw it as slowing down after the cop has already spotted you racing down the road ... Father had Daddy dead to rights after the first 20 minutes of snoring ... in the fourth row. Why my parents insisted on sitting so close to the front was beyond me ...

Daddy was also infamous for falling asleep behind the wheel on those long vacation drives ... a la Clark Griswald.  To this day that scene busts my gut.

 

When you men get home and face an anti-war protestor, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend because she knows she’s dating a pussy… ~ Attributed to General Tommy Franks

Hi drill...and LOL

Hi drill...and LOL funny!

What I want to know is could your dad have slept through Wright's screamin' too?

Like you say, I guess some guys can sleep through anything...but I have a hard time imagining being able to sleep through one of his sermons....maybe some people can get used to it.

bt -

My Daddy could sleep through ANYTHING ...

But regarding the Rev. Wright ... Dad would have gotten up and left as he shouted back at the guy.

 

When you men get home and face an anti-war protestor, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend because she knows she’s dating a pussy… ~ Attributed to General Tommy Franks

He probably wasn't listening

 He was probably stoned out on coke and jenkem mentally undressing the female worshippers.

Maybe Obama can play the

Maybe Obama can play the new Sgt. Schultz in Hogans heros.

"I see na-thing!"

Ll... LOL!

Ll...

LOL!

I have done extensive research...

...on this subject by taking more than twenty seconds to scroll down to see if anyone has stolen my thunder. I don't think they have, but I still may not be the first to think of this:

The Liberals/Dems/and MSMs are being somewhat consistent when they report on Obama distancing himself from the message but not necessarily the messenger. Remember, they are the proponents of the, "We support the troops, but we don't support their mission...the reasons for which they fight and die."

So Obama-lama-dinga-donga can, according to his supporters, legitimately state, "I vehemently disagree with his remarks, but..." and going on to say the Ol' Rev is like an aging, borderline-demented uncle who keeps dropping the f-boma during the family Thanksgiving gathering.

Well in a similar vein,

Well in a similar vein, chief, I posted that I coudn't understand how you can be "proud" of someone, as Obama is of his pastor and his church, at the same time that you are denoouncing what he says.

I didn't even think of that while I was wondering about it. Great explanation!! (Must be something they put in the liberal Kool-Aid).