The William Ayers I Know [TRN]

The New Republic ^ | 10/4/08 | Richard Stern

[mathprof]

The political word today is that the Republicans will return to personal attacks on Obama and Biden to draw attention away from McCain's erratic performance during the days before the passage of the Great Rescue/Bailout/U.S.-as-Sweden bill. We are supposedly to hear again about the Reverend Wright, the unreverend Tony Lezko, and William Ayers, the unrepentent Weatherman.

Of these three Chicagoans, I know only the last. I've been to three or four small dinner parties with Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, once hailed as the Weathermen's fiery, beautiful muse. (Incidentally, I never heard the word "Weatherwoman.") Dohrn is still attractive, while Ayers maintains an adolescent fizzle in his sexagenarian bones. Dohrn is more subdued than Ayers, uninterested in fame. She told me that her husband wanted to pursue movie interest in their story, but that she wasn't interested. "They only care about the sex and violence." Once, Ayers was about to tell the four other people at dinner how they'd gotten Eldridge Cleaver from a California prison to a Moroccan haven, but Dohrn skillfully buttoned his lip.

I did not know them back in the late sixties and early seventies. The excitement at the University of Chicago centered around the refusal to grant tenure to Marlene Dixon. Angry students occupied the Administration Building, formed
improvisatory theater groups, passed out material about such professors as Daniel Boorstin and held rallies. I attended
one of these and believe I learned more about revolution there than I'd learned from Carlyle or Barnaby Rudge. The radicals were led by Weatherman Howie Machtinger. He conducted the meeting masterfully, a young Lenin or, to take an example I'd witnessed in the French parliament, the Communist leader Jacques Duclos. My own contribution to the U. of Chicago uprising was a series of satiric poems published in the student newspaper--site of the warring opinions--which earned a denunciation in which Machtinger called me a [expletive deleted by Mod].

At dinner, thirty-eight years later, Ayers and Dohrn did not seem to hold the poems against me, and I didn't hold their fiery and criminally violent behavior against them. As in Chekhov's wonderful story "Old Age," time had planed down the sharp edges and brought one-time antagonists into each others' arms. As far as I know, Ayers and Dohrn are loyal to the selves
which led both of them to jail (though not for long), but they were busy doing other things, useful things, Ayers as educator, Dohrn as a legal counselor. They'd raised the child of a weatherman who'd been jailed, they were taking care of Bernadine's ill mother, they were doing many things educated community activists were doing. Apparently one of these things brought at least Ayers into contact with another, much younger community activist, Barak Obama. (I had met him once, when he visited our block party the year he was running against--and losing to--our congressman, Bobby Rush. I didn't get his name, but delighted in the charm and intelligence of the young man who sat with a few of us for twenty or thirty minutes.) Hyde Park is a splendid, rather intimate community, and such contacts are no small part of what makes it splendid.

If Democrats want to deal in an ugly way with McCain, they can talk about the jail sentence served by Cindy McCain's uncle and the suspended sentence her father "served," in connection with illegal activities in their beer distribution business. They can revive the stories of his wildness, his adulterous relationship with Cindy when his first wife (mother of some of his children) was disfigured in an auto accident, his inappropriate senatorial activity on behalf of Charles Keating, and perhaps his not very glorious, pre-prison record in the naval air force. Let's hope that this doesn't happen,and let's hope we've
heard the last of William Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Jeremiah Wright.

[Jeff Head]

...let's hope we've heard the last of William Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Jeremiah Wright.

Not a chance.

McCain has indicated that his treatment of his former wife is one thing in his life he is least proud of and would change.

Ayers said that he was not sorry for what he did so long ago and only wished he had done more. That was relatively recently. He is, to this day, unrepentant. An unrepentant domestic terrorist who declared war on this nation and then went about carrying it out violently with bombs. He and Obama were tight on that board, giving money to numerous far left organizations. Obama started his campaign, kicked it off at Ayers house. That history, which is recent, with a man so virulently anti-American will not wash with most Americans, and the libs and left know it, so of course they hope they will not hear of him again.

Jeremiah Wright's "God Damn America", "America's chickens coming home to roost" about 911, and "the American government created aids to oppress blacks", will not wash with the American people since Obama chose him as his preacher and spiritual counselor for over 20 years...and the libs and left know it, so of course they hope they will not hear of him again.

Tony Rezko is going to prison for a long time, and his corruption , getting money from Obama as a board member and then a State Senator, and then getting a sweetheart deal on property from this corrupt, convicted felon, financier, will not wash with most American people and the libs and left know it, so of course they hope they will not hear of him again, either.

Sorry...but the libs and leftists and all of America are going to hear about it.

These are the people that have defined this Obamanation and the American people have a right to know about it.

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACXK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

[GBA]

"Let's hope that this doesn't happen,and let's hope we've heard the last of William Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Jeremiah Wright."

Let's hope we've not heard the last about them. In fact, let's learn all we can about them. If all of McCain's history and that of his father or grandfather or the family dog will come out too, then so be it. Let the chips fall where they may. Personally, I've far more offended by vicious attacks against Sarah Palin and her family, by Ayers and the fact he isn't in a cell, by Rezko and his not being in a cell and last but not least the racist, supremist Wright and don't want any of them within a 1,000 miles of the White House.

Give 'em Hell, John! If they go after your family, bury them out with the saguaros and jumpin' chollas. That's the Arizona way.

[Unam Sanctam]

I didn't hold their fiery and criminally violent behavior against them

And this is precisely why you, Obama and their liberal friends have surrendered any moral credibility whatsoever. And notice how this guy belittles the fact that Ayers and Dohrn are UNREPENTANT!

[Deetes]

zeronigobma should be down in flames just from his weather-twit connection , but there is more much more , and this so called attack is way way way over due .

[ari-freedom]

what are the democrats going to do? claim sarah’s baby is really her daughter’s?

oh wait. they already did that

[Thane_Banquo]

Wouldn’t be surprised if McCain camp has some more dirt on the Ayers-0bama relationship that isn’t known at this point, perhaps a video of Zero praising Ayers like the one of him praising Kwame Kilpatrick.

[AliVeritas]

Oh that’s nothing, there’s much worse... trust me.

I even have a hood or two connected to Obama and Biden.

[svcw]

did not seem to hold the poems against me, and I didn't hold their fiery and criminally violent behavior against them

This sentence alone is the most idiotic and stupid line I have ever read. He actually compares bombing the Pentagon to poetry. What a moron.

[lonestar]

I’m happy to say that I don’t know anybody who’s been to a small dinner party with people who bombed the Pentagon.

[Unam Sanctam]

Admittedly I'm a little burned out on Wright at this point

There can never be enough Wright in my view, since the public needs to see and understand this seminal figure in the One's life journey. Unfortunately, I don't see anything about the book Wright was going to release in October. Somebody probably bought him off or convinced him to hold off till after the election. More's the pity, since the American voter seems to have a limited attention span.

[SaintDismas]

Really, never been to tea with a terrorist? Wow, you are so uncool.

[teletech]

Wouldn’t be surprised if McCain camp has some more dirt on the Ayers-0bama relationship that isn’t known at this point, perhaps a video of Zero praising Ayers like the one of him praising Kwame Kilpatrick.

Nor would I. I also think the FBI investigation is going to implicate Obama. I think Rezko sang like a birdie.

[Interesting Times]

Hey Stern. Take your cheap threats and stick ‘em.

[SaintDismas]

They have shot their wad on Sarah and Mac. What possibly could be next? Oh, I forgot, OMG in heaven, I forgot she sent state business e-mails from her private e-mail account. On second thought, she should be hung with a new rope/s

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

Exactly, i agree with you....I don’t think Cindy McCain delivered bombs on Americans, I don’t think Cindy killed Americans with bombs

[tiredoflaundry]

The problem with those arguments are , they were not hidden.

We already knew about most of it., whereas, B Hussein has bent over backwards trying to “hide” his relationships with Ayers etc.

[ken21]

i’m sure if you invited fidel castro over for dinner,

he’d be personable too.

might even bring some state-purchased wine and flowers

and give the hostess a peck on the cheek.

[Aliska]

That could be that he won’t release the book, but I’ve personally seen all I care to of him. I know others may not have heard as much about him.

[tiredoflaundry]

The difference between Ayers and Timothy McVeigh is, McVeigh is dead!

[snarkytart]

Most of that stuff about McCain and Cindy is personal from years ago...not political.
Ayers is a POLITICAL connection to Obama as well as a personak friend.
They have sent a few dozen people to Alaska to dig up dirt on Palin, even going to liquor stores to see how many times Sarah and/or Todd have been there to buy alcohol. Yet Ayers is off limits or else?
Yea..in their dreams.