The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has resurfaced – and apparently he’s unhappy with his treatment by President Obama.
It has been two years since the controversial Rev. Wright gained notoriety during the 2008 presidential campaign over a series of incendiary sermons he delivered as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. As this week’s news demonstrates, time has not diminished the pastor’s penchant for grabbing headlines.
In a letter written to a fund-raising group, Wright laid bare the rift that exists between him and the president. Wright groused that Obama “threw me under the bus,” adding that the administration viewed him as “toxic” and “radioactive”. His comments contrasted sharply with a rare interview granted this March, in which he defended Obama and faulted the media for what Wright characterized as unfair coverage.
Wright’s self-immolating letter to Africa 6000 International clearly betrays a tone of sour grapes. After enjoying a 20-plus year relationship with a man who eventually rose to become leader of the free world, the former pastor can’t be happy to be abandoned by Obama. And by inserting himself in the news cycle – in a manner that recalls his re-emergence in the thick of the 2008 campaign when a more prudent person would have kept a low profile – Wright illustrated his own hunger for attention.
Yet one wonders how Rev. Wright could find himself surprised by his defenestration. Shortly after his sermons became viral video, Wright became a liability to then candidate Obama’s ambitions, and thus outlived his usefulness. Though he may consider the president “one of [his] kids,” the president clearly thinks otherwise.
Wright’s treatment also bears the hallmarks of what many political observers recognize as one of the president’s most unsavory character traits. The route to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is littered with the bodies former associates who have been ruthlessly dispatched once they’ve outlived their usefulness to President Obama, or become politically inconvenient. News of Rev. Wright’s letter is bitterly ironic, given that it comes virtually on the same day the president appeared to be abandoning yet another erstwhile ally.
Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter is locked in a tough Senate primary fight in Pennsylvania, after voting for the president’s controversial $862 billion stimulus that hasn’t done enough to alleviate joblessness. President Obama once proclaimed his “full support”, only to refuse to campaign with the lawmaker once his primary opponent, Joe Sestak, gained momentum. Political observers have suggested that Obama is still smarting over his ill-fated interventions in high profile elections in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia – all races in which the Democratic candidates fell to Republican challengers.
Bill and Hillary Clinton used to take sharp criticism for heaving troubled associates overboard, but Obama has practically raised it to an art form. Should Senator Specter lose his primary battle, he’ll join Rev. Wright alongside Van Jones and Desiree Rogers in a Rogue’s Gallery of former friends of Obama who fell ignominiously from favor.
After his controversial views surfaced, Rev. Wright retired – but in name only. With all his book releases, continued appearances in various church pulpits and public appearances, he could easily be mistaken for a candidate for office. Given the waves he generates, it may be time for him to find a quiet Caribbean paradise.