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Jeremiah Wright Walks Back "Them Jews" Remark: He Meant To Say "Zionists"
Rev. Jeremiah Wright is now clarifying his controversial remarks from the other day, when he said "them Jews" wouldn't let him anywhere near Barack Obama for the duration of Obama's presidency.
"Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke," said Wright. So what did he mean to say? "Let me just say: Zionists."
"I'm not talking about all Jews, all people of the Jewish faith," he explained. "I'm talking about Zionists."
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Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
He's got a real way with words, that Jeremiah!
June 11, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Wright: STFU.
Hey Media: Focus on things that actually matter, I think we have a few of those going on in the world today.
June 11, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe I'm living a sheltered life, but TPM is the only place I've seen Wright mentioned since last year.
June 11, 2009 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm wondering the same thing. Why exactly do we care about this any more? Even Rush Limbaugh isn't bringing up Jeremiah Wright (although he might start again if this keeps up).
June 11, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Google "Rev. Wright" and "them Jews".
The comment wasn't getting that much attention, but I expect that wingnut nation will seize on them, in the aftermath of yesterday's murder.
"Look! Libruls are anti-Semitic!!@#$!!!!"
June 11, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I Googled and found this interesting Wright/von Brunn connection. The Megan Fox foto lure was far more compelling.
June 11, 2009 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I loathe the headline of that HuffPo piece (not the Megan Fox one). They both "hurled their anti-semitism on the same day" as if what Wright said was the equivalent of walking into the Holocaust Museum and assassinating someone. Nice going, HuffPo.
June 11, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/tappertwitter061109.jpg
June 11, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
and.... MSNBC just picked this up.
June 11, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
There you go!
See? It's not just right wing nuts who hate Jews! Do do black people! And liberals! See? Deranged freakazoid haters are not the exclusive purview of the right!
June 11, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm ashamed that I once had a tiny bit of sympathy for this guy. What a looney-toon asshole.
June 11, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I still do, even if I think he's a bloviating asshole. The quotes from his sermons really were taken out of context (especially "America's chickens have come home to roost" which was merely a quote from a Reagan administration official). And the MSM did a terrible job of providing that context for the country. I had to go to places like DKos and TPM to find out what he really said. He really deserved better, no matter what else we think of him.
And lest we forget, he did serve with distinction in Vietnam, and under his ministry, Trinity United Church of Christ did a lot of good work in Chicago by all accounts. His fatal flaw was that once he got a taste of the spotlight, he wouldn't give it up. So he's an imperfect human, but now that he has no power to harm anybody or the country, I'm happy to just let him be.
June 11, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ditto.
June 11, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why are you selling him short here? Is it because he's right on the issues but when being interviewed on the way to his car he used an "unfortunate" phrasing (which is pretty clearly explained later on in the interview)?
Are we so afraid of being un-PC that we have to trash a man who is dedicated to the truth and what's good??
Listening to the tape of the interview it's not at all clear what he actually said at the beginning of that remark, but it's clear that the transcript leaves out a word.
June 12, 2009 3:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ten to one Howie Kurtz and and Broder will be citing Wright as the absolute equivilent of the loons on the right who've succeeded in whipping up the base into such a white hot rage that, so far, we've five shooting incidents in less than a year. Way to go, bud.
June 11, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've reached the point where I can basically no longer view the word "Zionist" as anything other than a code word.
June 11, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suppose that in the personal sense he's talking about Obama's handlers who just over a year ago got Obama to distance himself from Wright over some questionable comments by Wright. Wright was in effect secularly excommunicated by the Obama campaign.
In the less personal sense, his remark has to do with control of ideas (in contrast to Wright being personally rejected/blocked):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=41571June 11, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wright was in effect secularly excommunicated by the Obama campaign
With, apparently, good reason.
June 11, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. What is wrong with keeping your crazy uncle out of the spotlight? This guy is batshit nutso, and in fact, he was the biggest concern I had about voting for Obama in the first place; the fact that he considered him a major mentor bothered me quite a bit, and it still does. It makes me think he has a vulnerable/irrational side related to his faith that doesn't show up in others of his thought processes.
June 11, 2009 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't we all have vulnerable/irrational sides?
June 11, 2009 9:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, but it's good to have an idea where that vulnerable/irrational area is. Who could have known that Cheney's V/I side was an insatiable desire for power, a sadistic desire to torture people, and a need to betray our country for no good reason? Who could have known that Bush's V/I side was a sick desire to please his VEEP and avenge his daddy, along with a pathological need to exercise rather than to read warnings about impending attacks?
We all have vulnerabilities. Some are serious; some are pathological; some are downright criminal. Some are just human, and don't have implications for blowing up the entire effing planet.
Barack Obama seems to have V/I for his family. I can live with that.
June 11, 2009 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The good reason is that Obama, back then, tried to reason with Wright, but Wright wouldn't have any of it. I think the "God Damn America" thing would have been a bad reason, but the HIV stuff was definitely problematic. That is, from what I saw of the GDA tapes, Wright was right-on if provocative and I had hoped Obama would stand up for the truth on that one.
Using recent events as "good reason" back then would be a fallacy.
re CVD --"the fact that he considered him a major mentor bothered me quite a bit"
Sorry to hear that. I think you're just selling both of them short, esp. since Obama cut off ties. But I agree about "crazy uncle" as a public perception.
June 12, 2009 3:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Walk back," my foot. "Tries To Walk Back..." would have been a more accurate headline. In the context of his initial remark, there is absolutely no valid distinction between "Jews" and "Zionists". Of course, neither makes a lick of sense and both show an obvious hatred of a group of people that he perceives are keeping him away from the President.
His attempted "walk back" is no more effective than if Randall Terry today tried to say that he didn't mean to say that violence is "inevitable", just that it is "bound to happen".
June 12, 2009 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I never had a problem with his sermons or the point of view he was coming from until this remark which clearly showed a side to how Rev. Wright thinks that I don't like. This is an instance where he should have simply apologized for saying something stupid and in an deliberately insulting way.
June 12, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink