Murderers Can Fundraise, Too!
Mona Charen writes for NRO:
If you were running the Illinois Humanities Council and a famous terrorist offered to help in your fundraising drive, what would you do? If you said "slam down the phone," or something to that effect, it just shows how remote you are from the sensibilities of the Obama age. Because, in fact, when Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers offered to auction "dinner for six" at their house, the IHC cheerfully accepted.Ayers and Dohrn were members of the Weather Underground in the 1960s and early '70s. They set off bombs at the New York police headquarters, the U.S. Capitol building, and the Pentagon. In 1970, the group blew up the Park police station in San Francisco, killing Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell, a 45-year-old father of two, and wounding eight others. The San Francisco Police Association has claimed, as recently as 2009, that "there are irrefutable and compelling reasons to believe that Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn are largely responsible for the bombing of Park Police Station."
In a New York Times interview, published (ironically) on Sept. 11, 2001, Bill Ayers was asked whether he had repented. He said, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Even now, he continued, he finds a "certain eloquence to bombs, a poetry and a pattern from a safe distance."
...Neither Dohrn nor Ayers served a day in prison for their crimes, though Dohrn was featured on the FBI's Most Wanted List for three years. That's the way it often goes in the American justice system. Evidence is thrown out. Statutes of limitations toll (though, even in California, there is no statute of limitations for murder). They got away with it.
That Sergeant McDonnell and his fellow victims never got justice is bad enough. But more inexplicable is the smooth segue of two unrepentant criminals into members in good standing of the liberal intelligentsia. Bill Ayers became a professor at the University of Illinois and Dohrn taught at Northwestern Law School. The pair were very friendly with fellow left-wing academic Barack Obama -- but it was considered very bad taste to mention that during the 2008 campaign. They and Rev. Jeremiah Wright could have burned the Constitution on the Capitol steps in 2008 and gotten scarcely a mention.
via @WalterOlson
What does Obama have to do with the lax standards of today? If anyone else had been President, do you think Ayers and Dohrn would be received differently? As repulsive as Obama is, he's not the cause or the reason this nation is sliding as if on ice.
Patrick at January 6, 2012 12:04 PM
They're the most horrible people in the world. Even their former underground colleagues thought so. I really hope they both develop dementia soon, and linger for a good long while, drooling and shitting themselves.
KateC at January 6, 2012 2:43 PM
In stark contrast, southern racist terrorists from the 1950s and 1960s will be hunted down and prosecuted decades after their offenses. Even if they had already been tried and acquitted of murder, the Feds will prosecute them for the crime of violating their victim's civil rights Double Standard?
Bill O Rights at January 6, 2012 2:47 PM
"What does Obama have to do with the lax standards of today?"
Excuse me, but it appears you haven't been paying attention. Our sitting President was benefited by this laxity, as every mention of his association with Dohrn, Ayers and Wright was instantly swept under the rug by a complacent media.
Nothing must be allowed to stain Teh Anointed Wun.
Radwaste at January 6, 2012 3:22 PM
"If anyone else had been President, do you think Ayers and Dohrn would be received differently? "
Would you associate with those two? Obama counts them among his mentors and closest friends. Shows terrible judgment to me.
Cousin Dave at January 6, 2012 3:54 PM
Really? I feel like I heard nothing but how Obama was best friends with them, but then it turns out they were acquaintances who sat on a board together.
Anyhow. If a Weatherman, Klansman,unibomber, hijacker, Nazi, Mosque shooter, Abortion clinic bomber would bring in a lot of money to a good cause, then probably I would accept their help. Might put them on the path to redemption. Don't we WANT bad guys to turn themselves around?
NicoleK at January 6, 2012 6:38 PM
Obama counts them among his mentors and closest friends.
NicoleK is correct. There's no evidence Obama and Ayers were or are close.
Obama is a mediocrity for plenty of reasons, but this isn't one of them.
Christopher at January 6, 2012 8:37 PM
There's no evidence Obama and Ayers were or are close.
Yeah, other than Obama simply launching his political career from Ayer's living room ...
jimg at January 6, 2012 11:01 PM
The American Thinker has a post up demonstrating that Ayers likely ghost-wrote at least some of Dreams From My Father. The story that Obama never had a relationship with Ayers is as credible as the story that Obama was never influenced by Jeremiah Wright.
Cousin Dave at January 7, 2012 8:42 AM
Who is the guy, anyway?
Radwaste at January 7, 2012 2:44 PM
Don't know the particular details about Obama and the living room, but I DO know that fundraisers often happen in living rooms regardless of whether or not the owners know the candidate personally. Move On organizes a lot of living room fundraisers or phone-a-thons or other events. My parents have hosted events for various political candidates at their home, only one of which they were personally acquainted with (a friend of a friend, overlapping social circles but hardly their best buddy).
It's like buying a table at a charity dinner. Sure, if it's your friend's charity they might nag you into buying a table, but you also might buy one if it is a cause you support or an event you want to be seen at or an event all your friends are going to and you want to hang out with them. It doesn't mean you're best buds with the president.
NicoleK at January 8, 2012 1:54 PM
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