Still posted on the website of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ is the much criticized  article on Reverend Louis Farrahkan,  published in the church’s Trumpet Magazine, the publication the brain child of the church’s leader  and Senator Barack Obama’s spiritual advisor and longtime friend Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

Some months ago the Farrahkan article came under scrutiny. Why was the church attended by presidential contender and headed by Barack Obama’s mentor publishing a favorable story on the controversial Reverend Louis Farrahkan in its magazine?

Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam is best known for making disparaging remarks targeting Jews, whites and homosexuals. Farrakhan’s bigoted and anti-Semitic rhetoric has included statements calling whites “blue eyed devils” and Jews “bloodsuckers” that controlled the slave trade, the government, the media and various Black individuals and organizations.

In 2006, Reverend Farrakhan blamed Jews and Israel for the war in Iraq, for controlling Hollywood and for promoting what he considers immorality during his February Saviours' Day address in Chicago.

Here are some quotes from the Trumpet Magazine article: An Empowerment Interview, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakahn. The magazine is published and edited by Reverend Wright’s daughter.

“When Minister Farrahkan speaks Black America listens. Minister Farrakhan will be remembered as one of the 20^th and 21^st century giants of the African American religion experience. His integrity and honesty have secured him a place in history.” – Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

“His leadership (Farrahkan) has evolved, and I believe the coming days will see him as a unifying force, calling real Christians, real Jews and real Muslims to come together on principles of truth and justice.”
– Father Michael L. Pfleger of St. Albans Church in Chicago

What are “real Christians, real Jews and real Muslims?” And who is Father Michael Pfleger? He is another longtime friend and mentor of Barack Obama and he is the activist Catholic priest from Chicago’s St. Sabina’s Church who joined with Jesse Jackson and his organization Operation Push in a rally in front of Chuck’s Gun shop, May 29, 2007, and exhorted the crowd to "drag" shop owner, John Riggio, from his shop "like a rat" and "snuff" him. The Reverend  Pfleger went on to tell the crowd that legislators that vote against gun control legislation should be "snuffed" as well.  

Would those legislators who should be “snuffed” include Rev. Pfleger’s good friend Barack Obama? Obama, in his recent remarks following the massacre of the students in North Illinois University said that he believes in the Second Amendment, but that there is plenty of room for added gun regulations. "There is an individual right to bear arms, but it's subject to commonsense regulation," Obama said, hardly a statement advocating strong gun control legislation.

But back to the Trumpet Magazine piece on Farrakhan, and Obama’s other good friend and mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. Reverend Wright has long been the subject of controversy.  Obama was questioned about the article and his association with Reverend Wright following its publication. Obama issued the following statement:

"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree."

Like Obama’s now well-known “present” votes in the Illinois Senate, his statement by-passed a definitive reaction. Obama denounced Farrakhan, but he clearly refused to extricate himself from his association with Reverend Wright who is responsible for more gems such as:

Zionism has an element of "white racism" and the attacks on 9/11 were a consequence of violent American policies and proved that "people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just 'disappeared' as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns."

Or this bit of history and innuendo: When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli to visit Colonel Ghadafi with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell."

On the subject of the presidential candidate’s continued relationship with Reverend Wright, Obama’s top campaign aide, David Axelrod, pointed out that Obama often has said that he and his minister sometimes disagree. Farrakhan, Axelrod said, is one of those instances.

But is Mr. Axelrod’s answer adequate? Would it be acceptable for Senator Obama to continue his association with a friend whose good buddy is a rapist, or a serial killer? Why a self-described bigot?

Senator Obama’s website prominently features both Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. and Father Michael Pfleger and their testimonials for Senator Obama.

There are others in Barack Obama’s coterie of questionable associates They include indicted slumlord Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the  Obama campaign contributor whose fraud trial begins March 3, 2008, which may shed some light on the shady real estate deal involving Mr. and Mrs. Rezko and Senator and Mrs. Obama house and adjoining land purchase, and who knows what else. 

Equally intriguing is Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, purported friends, also unapologetic former leaders of the 1960’s Weather Underground, America’s first homegrown left-wing terrorist group that planted bombs in the Capitol and the Pentagon in the 1970s.  According to news reports, Obama has been to Ayers home and accepted a $200 contribution to his campaign.

Rashid Khalidi, the PLO activist who is the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University and head of that school's Middle East Institute, is another Obama friend. In 2000, according to Ali Abunimah, a Hyde Park Palestinian-American activist, Professor Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian-American advocate for a two-state solution and harsh critic of Israel, held a fundraiser in his home for Obama, who at the time was in the midst of what would prove an unsuccessful bid for the House of Representatives.

"He [Obama] came with his wife," Abunimah said. "That's where I had a chance to really talk to him. It was an intimate setting. He convinced me he was very aware of the issues [and] critical of U.S. bias toward Israel and lack of sensitivity to Arabs. ... He was very supportive of U.S. pressure on Israel."

Khalidi has been called a “blame-throwing Palestinian hack,” and has referred to Israel as the “occupiers” and calls AIPAC “the Zionist lobby.” He is also responsible for this assessment on Israel as a U.S. ally. According to Khalidi Israel is not a democratic ally but an “apartheid system in creation” and a destructive “racist” state. He has further accused Israel’s army of having “awful weapons of mass destruction - some supplied by the U.S. - that it has used in cities, villages and refugee camps.”

And of course there’s Senator Obama’s deep connection to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley of that illustrious Chicago dynasty who continues the legacy of his political family as boss of Chicago.

Alone, these associations might not seem as astonishing as they are when viewed collectively. But  Senator Obama has based his entire campaign on the fact that he’s a new kind of politician. Making alliances with unsavory characters that are politically suitable to attain a politician’s goal is anything but new, and in these instances appear downright smarmy and certainly point to a lack of foresight and good judgment.

From a political standpoint, should Senator Obama secure the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination he is certain to find that his questionable alliances will leave him extremely vulnerable to the Republican slime machine who will find Obama, if nothing else, guilty by association. And with the Republican's, that's enough to end the hope of any Democratic candidate's chances to make it to the White House. Just ask John Kerry.