William Ayers
There has been a sudden spate of blog items and newspaper articles, mainly in the British press, linking Barack Obama to a former member of the radical Weather Underground Organization that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. The former Weatherman, William Ayers, now holds the position of distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Although never convicted of any crime, he told the New York Times in September 2001, "I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough."
Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001, as reported here. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles.
Is there anything here that raises questions about Obama's judgment or is this just another example of guilt by association?
The Facts
The first article in the mainstream press linking Obama to Ayers appeared in the London Daily Mail on February 2. It was written by Peter Hitchens, the right-wing brother of the left-wing firebrand turned Iraq war supporter, Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens cited the Ayers connection to bolster his argument that Obama is "far more radical than he would like us to know."
The Hitchens piece was followed by a Bloomberg article last week pointing to the Ayers connection as support for Hillary Clinton's contention that Obama might not be able to withstand the "Republican attack machine." Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA and the State Department, predicted that the Republicans would seize on the Ayers case, and other Chicago relationships, to "bludgeon Obama's presidential aspirations into the dust."
The London Sunday Times joined the chorus this weekend by reporting that Republicans were "out to crush Barack by painting him as a leftwinger with dubious support".
The only hard facts that have come out so far are the $200 contribution by Ayers to the Obama re-election fund, and their joint membership of the eight-person Woods Fund Board. Ayers did not respond to e-mails and telephone calls requesting clarification of the relationship. Obama spokesman Bill Burton noted in a statement that Ayers was a professor of education at the University of Illinois and a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and continued:
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
In the short term, the person who has most to gain by speculation about Obama's acquaintance with a former terrorist is Hillary Clinton. The former First Lady likes to present herself as "tested and vetted" after years of exposure to Republican attacks, in contrast to Obama, a relative newcomer to hardscrabble presidential politics. Such arguments resonate with Johnson, the counterterrorism expert, who told me that he is a Clinton supporter, although not involved with the campaign.
But the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one. As Newsday pointed out, Clinton has her own, also tenuous, Weatherman connection. Her husband commuted the sentences of a couple of convicted Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, shortly before leaving office in January 2001. Which is worse: pardoning a convicted terrorist or accepting a campaign contribution from a former Weatherman who was never convicted?
Whatever his past, Ayers is now a respected member of the Chicago intelligentsia, and still a member of the Woods Fund Board. The president of the Woods Fund, Deborah Harrington, said he had been selected for the board because of his solid academic credentials and "passion for social justice."
"This whole connection is a stretch," Harrington told me. "Barack was very well known in Chicago, and a highly respected legislator. It would be difficult to find people round here who never volunteered or contributed money to one of his campaigns."
Comments
Six degrees of separation type connection. I have done community work locally with individuals I barely knew and found out later that they had previous criminal records. Now if I run for office will I be guilty by association? With this kind of logic serving diner at a soup kitchen can be politically damning act.
Posted by: case.boone | February 18, 2008 10:28 PM
Posted by: jonny five | February 18, 2008 11:24 PM
Another false attack perpectuated by conservative and Hillary wingnuts. I suppose being on the same board means you are guilty of offence commited by your board colleague. What a joke? How about Hillary's relationship with wal mat? or McCain relation with defense industry... I can go on and on.
As far as i can tell, this is no story and it is part of politics as usual.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 18, 2008 11:29 PM
So Obama is guilty by association of having been connected to the Weathermen at age 8, and of plagiarizing a close friend's use of quotes.
And exactly how was it that Hillary's subpoenaed billing records turned up on the hall table in the White House the day after the statute of limitations expired on the subpoena?
And whose ethics need vetting?
Posted by: Ethical questioner | February 18, 2008 11:30 PM
Of course this is ridiculous. I hope he has had many conversations with Bill Ayers. Prof Ayers is a leader in school improvement. Read his bio. He is a distinguished professor at a major University and has contributed a lot to the field of education. The Woods Fund is a foundation that supports grassroots change efforts. Its an admirable foundation. This and the plagarism charge demonstrate who is acting like politics as usual. Can it get anymore stupid? I am afraid so.
Posted by: Grateful Dave | February 18, 2008 11:33 PM
Sorry...And, I don't mean to appear dismissive, but honestly, this has neither logical, nor emotional "legs" to it.
You're just pointing out the obvious. Namely, that people who with backgrounds, which may be displeasing, even onerous, may live amongst and work amongst us.
Heck, Communists were part of the American Civil Rights movement - and MLK, Jr. addressed them openly, according to veteran journalist accounts, the mafia [still] tithes to the Vatican, and men of a similar nature contributed to Mother Theresa's work in India and abroad. So what??
Maybe we should begin investigating Bill Clinton...again...because of your research. This is, honestly, not extremely insightful nor is it clever.
You just make Hillary and any of her supporters look like they're/we're grasping at straws and can't beat Obama on the issues alone or "the merits of her case" to become the first woman-, and next, President of the United States of America.
Posted by: Unconvinced | February 18, 2008 11:45 PM
that is not even worth mentioning. If you want to address something factual and of substance, write about the Keating Five.
In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.
This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee's investigation focused on five senators: Alan Cranston (D-CA); Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ); John Glenn (D-OH); John McCain (R-AZ); and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-MI), who became known as the Keating Five.
After months of testimony revealed that all five senators acted improperly to differing degrees, the senators continually said they were following the status quo of campaign funding practices. In August 1991, the committee concluded that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle's conduct constituted substantial interference with the FHLBB's enforcement efforts and that they had done so at the behest of Charles Keating. The committee recommended censure for Cranston and criticized the other four for "questionable conduct."
As it happened, Cranston, who was nearly 80 years of age, had already decided not to run for re-election in 1992. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton in February, 1995 to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.
Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992 and it was anticipated that he would have some difficulty winning a fourth term in the Senate. However, Glenn handily defeated Lieutenant Governor R. Michael DeWine for one more term in the Senate before retiring in 1999.
The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform--spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)--but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002.
The only member of the Keating Five still in the U.S. Senate is John McCain.
Posted by: Jeff | February 19, 2008 12:06 AM
......................................................................
Again DTB this was 30 years ago. Obama was 8 yrs old.
And Ayers was never charged with a crime. And Ayers has been a respectable member of society ever since. :shrug:
Whats the story here ?
Any information on Levi marrying the knocked up daughter of a vetted VP
