Guess who has been doing a documentary about Father Michael "persona non grata" Pfleger?  None other than Obama's very own strategist, David Axelrod.  From Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/05/ pfleger_a_headache_for_obama_a.html

Pfleger is the subject of a documentary being made by Chicago-based David Axelrod, Obama's top strategist. On Friday, Axelrod told me in an e-mail that the film project has "been dormant for much of the last two years due to other commitments."

One wonders what is in Axelrod's video and audio file about Pfleger.  For example, does it have the scenes from 2006 when Pfleger criticized a mass resignation of Jewish members on a state of Illinois hate crimes commission:  http://www.nbc5.com/news/7782149/detail. html?rss=chi&psp=news

"Callers to Tuesday's radio show included the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the white pastor of a mostly black Chicago church and a friend of Muhammad's.
Pfleger said "good riddance" to the people who had left the commission. "Leave, go ahead and go on out, we don't need that kind of a spirit or mentality and a narrowness on that kind of commission. I'm glad they're gone," Pfleger said.

The controversy involved a member of the commission, Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad, who is the Nation of Islam's minister of protocol.

[She] "was under the radar until she invited other commissioners to attend a Farrakhan speech last month.  Criticism of Muhammad mounted after the speech, which included references to "Hollywood Jews" promoting homosexuality and "other filth."
The three Jewish commission members who resigned said Muhammad should not be on the commission unless she repudiates Farrakhan's criticism of Jews, gays and other groups. On Tuesday, the Jewish Community Relations Council, which represents 46 Chicago-area groups, passed a resolution supporting the three commission members.
"We're not willing to give credibility to this commission in the face of this appointment," said Alan Solow, the chairman of the council."

Here's the quote from Farrakhan that sparked the brouhaha, from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pag es/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=698094

Farrakhan said, "These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood. It's the wicked Jews, the false Jews that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality," and "Zionists have manipulated Bush and the American government" over the war in Iraq.

What else might be in those files?  Could there be speeches Obama made while in the company of Pfleger?  Appearances by Pfleger or Obama with Minister Farrakhan?  Care to share those files, Mr. Axelrod?  

Obama has said he was not present for the controversial sermons by Wright or Pfleger and condemned both. This week, he said he was "deeply disappointed" by Pfleger's "divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."

Sermons Obama might have heard from Pfleger?  

There's more...

I think that everybody here is completely missing the point, as did the media, of the Pfleger incident. The lunatic priest is not so much the issue as the flock cheering his denunciation of white entitlement and Hillary Clinton. Obama is not responsible for the priest's words but he is, in some measure, responsible for his long-term membership in a "church" that glorifies and exults in such sentiments. I was more taken aback by the earlier moments in the "sermon" about what white people "inherited" from the slavery practiced by their ancestors than the now quotidian misogyny and culture of victimhood.

I don't for a second believe that Obama subscribes to any of this patent nonsense but Republican 527s will make much of this episode. It's not just Wright anymore, it's a pattern. And, as they have little else, they will flog it to death in the fall. I do believe that Obama's denunciation should have been much stronger. It may not have occured to the generally well-educated readers of this blog, but this kind of stuff scares voters like those in West Virginia, Kentucky, southern Pennsylvania and southern Ohio.

Just a bit more on the flip...

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This began as a response in one of the diaries condemning Obama for Father Pfleger. As it got longer, I thought I would put it in a diary instead. As the title says, it is rambling and raw.

Let me start by saying what should be obvious, I condemn hate speech. I condemn prejudicial, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic (Jew and Arab) language.

There's more...

I want to preface this by saying that we should recognize that we're in a bit of a bubble here.  MyDD has as much to do with how ordinary people think about politics as any other political blog- not very much.  For all the fire and brimstone we spout on here, it's important to remember that for many of us (myself included), politics, specifically as they relate to the Democratic party, are one of the most important things in our lives.  That's not how your normal average everyday "I got my news at 3pm from CNN.com before I clicked back to work email" citizen thinks.  So what seems so monumental here on this blog is small potatoes to 90% of folks.  I think that in a few weeks, 95% of people are going to be rallying around our nominee and ready to FIGHT McCain!

But for now, it's still the endgame.  The whole Clinton vs. Obama thing is coming to a close.  Your first choice or not, Obama is going to be our nominee.  While it won't be officially cemented until early next week, it'll be undeniable as of tomorrow afternoon.  

Now, in our bubble, there are still those that don't get it. And today we have some more "gotcha" fun.  We've got a fiery pastor (yet again, since that worked SO well in derailing Obama the first time), and this one said some things regarding Hillary Clinton that admittedly weren't so nice.  These comments were said in a black church, and therefore, as sometimes happens, race was addressed.  And so was entitlement.

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Ya know, I hear all this talk about wanting to bring our party together once our nominee is chosen at the convention in Denver, but when this latest in a long string of incidences of hate-speech crop up, all we get are more of the same half-assed statements ("deeply disappointed") from camp Obama distancing himself from... (fill in the blank).

Pfleager Video

(Credit goes to NoQuarter for first posting this - it's all over the net now and the networks are starting to air it as well)

Howard Wolfson spoke to this issue in a statement yesterday, in which he noted that Obama has yet to condemn this guy...

"Divisive and hateful language like that is totally counterproductive in our efforts to bring our party together and have no place at the pulpit or in our politics.  We are disappointed that Senator Obama didn't specifically reject Father's Pflegler's despicable comments about Senator Clinton, and assume he will do so."

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