The Religious aid to candidates

Plenty is made of Rev. Wright. But what about McCain and Clinton?

The Nation:

There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as "The "Fellowship," also known as The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

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Crooks and Liars:

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Of course the media never critiques the Republicans over their relationship (should I call it a marriage?) to the extreme religious right in the same fashion as they do all Democratic politicians. There’s an incredibly tough double standard in play here. We’ve tried to get them to do it, but they even ignore McCain’s new relationship with Pastor Hagee for the most part. Should we produce commercials about that? McCain’s Media is going to be a force to reckon with in the fall. And Rangel is a Clinton supporter if any of you are concerned with that fact.

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Rangel: Of course not. Of course he’s a candidate. He doesn’t want to take all of you on and I’m probably over the hill but the truth is that you guys know that his beliefs have nothing to do with someone that went to the church, and if we’ve got to get into the Jerry Falwell’s and into the Robertson’s and to the number of people who have what appears to other religions to be bizarre beliefs we’ll never get to the issues that Americans were concerned about. I know that every American is more concerned with who is going to be a better Presidential candidate and a better President more than they are on anything that happens in the church that Senator Obama went to.

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Clinton goes to a conservative prayer service. McCain is trying to align himself with conservative religious leaders he once attacked. And Obama had a pastor who he has become estranged from over the past year, and has finally broken all ties, due to severe disagreements.

Only one of these is remotely worth bothering with. And that is the one with the guy pandering to people he claimed to hold accountable for the faults in his party. And that is the one of these that will no doubt get the least coverage.

Look at Matthews and his cohorts.

Crooks and Liars:

Reality clearly has no place in politics. Because no matter how many times Barack Obama disavows Rev. Wright’s words, the GOP and by extension, their complicit allies in the media (that’s right, Russert, I’m talking about you) will not let it go and will continue to measure Obama by Rev. Wright’s words. The crazy part about it is how for the most part, Wright hasn’t said anything that most Americans–if they ever got to hear the full thing in context–would disagree with. Nor are they any more inflammatory than words spoken by conservative Christians leaders like Hagee, Robertson or Falwell. Yet, despite these facts, as the Meter Question on The Chris Matthews Show prove, the media is not ready to let this one go.

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By the way, despite what the media will have you believe, Rev. Wright doesn’t even rate on top issues for voters. But hey, that would mean doing their job and actually not just play mouthpiece for Republicans.

It is not important, outside of campaign ads and things for the media to discuss.