Posted on 12/18/2013 10:51:03 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
John Podesta, the former Clinton chief of staff who was recently named a special adviser to President Obama, apologized Wednesday for comparing the Republican Party to the cult at Jonestown in an interview earlier this year.
_________________
Tweet:
John Podesta @johnpodesta
In an old interview, my snark got in front of my judgment. I apologize to Speaker Boehner, whom I have always respected. 10:04 AM - 18 Dec 2013
_________________
Podesta made the comment while arguing that the White House needed to embrace executive action because of intransigence among House Republicans.
"They need to focus on executive action given that they are facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress,” Podesta told Politico Magazine.
The comment drew immediate rebuke from Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
“For those who’ve forgotten, a Democratic member of Congress was murdered in Jonestown and a current one, Rep. Jackie Speier, was shot five times during the same incident,” Buck said. “If this is the attitude of the new White House, it’s hard to see how the president gets anything done again,” he continued.
More than 900 people died at the Jonestown settlement in 1978, primarily from a cocktail of cyanide and other drugs mixed with a flavored drink. Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones ordered the event — which he termed "revolutionary suicide" — after an attack on a congressional delegation attempting to help individuals flee the colony.
Other Republicans also criticized Podesta's comment. Rory Cooper, a spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), tweeted that the comment was "appalling" and showed the congressional victims of the cult "no honor."
"He clearly thought he did (need to make an apology) since he issued one very quickly," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday.
Reiterating Podesta's apology, Carney said it was a case of "snark getting ahead of his judgment."
"That reflects Mr. Podesta's view," he said.
The appalling part is that he made this comment while arguing that everyone needs to blindly follow a charismatic leader.
For such a scrawny little fascist, Podesta sure talks tough.
He’s always respected Boehner...that tells you something.
“In an old interview, my snark got in front of my judgment. I apologize to Speaker Boehner, whom I have always respected.”
LOL! C’mon John! No need to apologize to your lap-dog, John Boehner. I mean he’s demonstrated just this week that he’s really on your side.
Podesta forgets that Democrats loved Jim Jones and the whole Peoples Temple/Jonestown thing.
.........
First Lady-to be Rosalynn Carter and her husband’s running mate Walter Mondale held private meetings with Jim Jones. California Gov. (then and now) Jerry Brown spoke at the Peoples Temple. California Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dymally thought Jones “one of the finest human beings” and a visit to his Guyanese colony left the Golden State’s highest-ranking African-American officeholder “tremendously impressed.” Radical lawyer Charles Garry, himself barely escaping Jonestown alive, had once exclaimed of it: “I have seen paradise.”
What effect did legitimizing the cult and its leader have on Jones’ sycophants in the Democratic Party, the press, and academia?
Willie Brown proclaimed that he believed Jim Jones was part Martin Luther King, part Albert Einstein, part Angela Davis, part Mao Zedong. “When somebody like Jim Jones comes on the scene,” Brown ironically gushed, “that absolutely scares the hell out of most everybody occupying positions of power in the system.” Liberals subsequently elected Brown as the longest-serving speaker of the California state assembly and then mayor of San Francisco for two terms.
Dianne Feinstein along with her colleagues on San Francisco’s board of supervisors awarded a “Certificate of Honor” to Jim Jones. Liberals subsequently elected Feinstein mayor of San Francisco and then U.S. Senator from California.
Angela Davis contributed to Jonestown’s paranoia by telephonically informing the inhabitants over the concentration camp’s loudspeakers that “there is a conspiracy — a very profound conspiracy designed to destroy the contributions which you have made to the struggle. And this is why I must tell you that we feel that we are under attack as well.”
Liberals subsequently awarded tenure to Davis at the University of California-Santa Cruz, bestowed upon her the UC system’s highest academic award, and paid her thousands to speak at Harvard, Stanford and Princeton.
San Francisco Chronicle writer Herb Caen maintained that Jones was “doing the work of the Lord” in South America and awarded him the cloak of victimhood by portraying him as the “target of a ceaseless media barrage.” Liberals subsequently awarded Caen a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his “extraordinary and continuing contribution as a voice and a conscience of his city,” proclaimed a “Herb Caen Day” in San Francisco, and ordered the city’s flags at half-mast when he died.
Harvey Milk lobbied President Jimmy Carter not to intervene in an international custody battle between Jones, “a man of the highest character,” and two former cultists whom Milk portrayed as blackmailers. He characterized the accusations that Jones had kidnapped a small boy from his parents as “bold-faced lies.” Carter didn’t intervene, and the 6-year-old whom Milk pleaded to be left with his kidnapper was murdered at Jonestown with more than 900 others. Liberals subsequently produced the hagiographic, Oscar-winning biopic Milk and established a California state holiday in the San Francisco city supervisor’s honor.
http://www.humanevents.com/2011/01/19/blood-liberals/
Puts the administration back on track to prove they are not incompetent?
Screwed up day 1.
Another great Obama pick.
“For such a scrawny little fascist, Podesta sure talks tough.”
For a seasoned political operative he sure stumbled out of the gate, didn’t he?
Maybe it is a by product of the Demorats following the devil worshiping Saul Alinsky. Alinsky did dedicate a book too Lucifer, after all.
Jonestown was a bunch of socialist. It’s leftists who are cultish, Obama is their messiah
Maybe Milk had a different type of “interest” in the 6 year old boy.
The left lionized Jones like National Review lionized Nelson Mandela
three days in and he already needs to apologize. liberals are the eighth wonder of the world.
Considering the fact that he was basically saying that Obama should just ignore conservatives and rule by decree, the Jonestown comment was the least offensive thing he said.
Jim Jones was a bisexual Democrat linked to Democrat Congressmen, Mrs. Carter, and Harvey Milk.
Nice try Rats. He’s YOUR posterboy for blind allegiance to Socialist Utopias.
apology NOT ACCEPTED...
PODESTA IS JUST ANOTHER CLINTON CRACK HEAD.
bump
Barbara Walter even said “we” (leftists, elite, msm) thought Obama was a new messiah.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.