A Thursday afternoon Chicago Tribune story (HTs to Ace and Say Anything) by Rex W. Huppke covers the appearance of a new afterword in a book by former Weather Underground leader William Ayers.
Let's just roll the excerpt:
In a new afterword to his memoir, 1960s radical William Ayers describes himself as a "family friend" of President-elect Barack Obama and writes that the campaign controversy over their relationship was an effort by Obama's political enemies to "deepen a dishonest narrative" about the candidate.
Ayers describes phone threats and hate e-mail he received during the campaign, and he bemoans Obama's guilt by association.
During the campaign, Ayers' friendship with Obama was a favorite subject of conservative bloggers and talk show hosts who insisted the two were closer than the candidate was admitting. Ayers' new description of the relationship seems to contradict Obama's statements.
Obama had dismissed Ayers as "a guy who lives in my neighborhood" and "somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know."
..... (Ayers will) appear Friday on "Good Morning America" to promote the re-issue of his book this week. The Tribune obtained a copy of the updated material.
For someone so opposed to the evils of capitalism, the guy sure is a savvy financial opportunist, isn't he?
A guy whose organization was responsible for dozens of violent acts, including a murderous armed robbery, and who told the New York Times in a September 11, 2001 article that "I don't regret setting bombs," complains about crank phone calls and e-mails, apparently expects sympathy (of course I'm not defending those e-mailers and callers). You can't make this stuff up.
There's more dissembling by Ayers than can be addressed here at the Trib link, but one reportorial oversight demands notice. While citing criticism from John McCain during the presidential campaign, reporter Huppke failed to note that it was Hillary Rodham Clinton who was the first presidential candidate to bring up Ayers (as well as Obama's radical pastor of nearly two decades, Jeremiah Wright), doing so in an April primary debate.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
