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| Where's Your Card? | The U.S. Supreme Court this week ruled that it is constitutional to card voters, not for legal age but for personal identification; namely, that you are who you say you are. The decision was six to three.
Now Indiana's critical primary is coming up Tuesday, and Indiana's voter identification law is one of the strictest in the nation -- no ID, no ballot. The Supreme Court has now said that the Indiana ID requirement is perfectly legal. The GOP loves that decision of the high court, and the Democrats condemn it.
HOWARD DEAN (chairman, Democratic National Committee): (From videotape.) They upheld the right of the Republican Party to restrict the rights of people to vote. I think that was a terrible mistake. And frankly, it was an affront to American democracy.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Democrats argue that the Supreme Court's ruling is bad, that it will disenfranchise the poor, the elderly, the minorities. These citizens are the citizens who are all less likely to have adequate ID and, by the way, most likely to vote Democratic.
Question -- Is this ruling a major blow, a minor blow, or no blow for Democrats this fall? I ask you, Pat. You must be rejoicing, you Republicans. I mean, the constituency there is largely Democratic.
| | Democrats argue that the Supreme Court's ruling is bad, that it will disenfranchise the poor, the elderly, the minorities. These citizens are the citizens who are all less likely to have adequate ID and, by the way, most likely to vote Democratic. | -John McLaughlin | 
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| Wright On | Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor, delivered a defiant address this week in Washington at the National Press Club. Reverend Wright was asked about this assertion he made shortly after 9/11.
REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT: (From videotape.) We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost. MR. MCLAUGHLIN: In response this week, Dr. Wright did not back off. In fact, he said that his statements were based on the Bible.
REV. WRIGHT: (From videotape.) You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Pastor Wright was also asked about his previous charge that the U.S. government invented the HIV virus as a form of genocide against African-Americans. Again, Wright this week did not back down.
REV. WRIGHT: (From videotape.) Based on the Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Question -- Is Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, deliberately trying to torpedo Obama's campaign? Pat Buchanan.
MR. BUCHANAN: No. What the pastor is trying to do, John, is rehabilitate himself, and he doesn't care if it damages Obama. What he did was a selfish and shameful thing, very damaging to Obama. He then went out and said, "Obama is just basically divorcing himself from me because he's a politician, so he's got to do it, wink, wink."
And I think this thing has been very hurtful to Obama in this sense. It has drawn him out of the middle of "He's one of us, a regular guy" over onto the left, where he's got a wacko preacher. He's got this Weatherman bomber friend of his. His wife has never known America to be something to be proud of. And I think it's been overall the most damaging thing to happen to Obama this entire campaign.
| | And I think this thing has been very hurtful to Obama in this sense. It has drawn him out of the middle of "He's one of us, a regular guy" over onto the left, where he's got a wacko preacher. He's got this Weatherman bomber friend of his. His wife has never known America to be something to be proud of. And I think it's been overall the most damaging thing to happen to Obama this entire campaign. | -Pat Buchanan |
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| The Rubik's Cube | Okay, does this put the Rubik's cube together? Less than a year ago, Obama and Wright attended a big conference at Hampton University in Virginia. Eight thousand people were in attendance, most of them Christian ministers, observant ones. And Obama said this from the podium. Wright may be closer to the truth. Obama's own earlier words may validate Wright.
SEN. OBAMA: (From videotape.) I've got to give a special shout out to my pastor, the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He's a friend and a great leader.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Exit question -- Taken by itself, the Jeremiah Wright storm is not enough to derail Obama's nomination. I think we all agree. But there is the trifecta. We have Wrightgate. We have Rezkogate. MR. PAGE: Which has not bubbled up into anything, I point out.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: But Rezko's on trial this week and he's going to testify this week.
MR. PAGE: (Inaudible.
)
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: And we have Bittergate, the Pennsylvania fiasco.
MR. BUCHANAN: And you've got --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Does the trifecta have the power to derail Obama's nomination?
MR. BUCHANAN: The answer, I believe, is no. But you've got William Ayers. What has happened, however, is that Obama has been driven out of the center of politics, and we're going to see in Indiana and North Carolina whether he can sustain it or whether the bottom is about to drop out.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Did you hear his description of his relationship in that clip with Wright?
MR. BUCHANAN: That proves he is --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: He was counseled by Wright.
MR. BUCHANAN: Yes, we saw it. That proves --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: He's a friend of Wright.
MR. BUCHANAN: We saw it, John. That proves he is either non- credible or clueless.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Wright comforts Michelle when she's sorrowing.
MR. BUCHANAN: Sure.
MS. CROWLEY: Over him.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Now, does that satisfy you that they have --
MS. CLIFT: He is the man that brought him to Jesus, which he writes about at great length.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Well, whose side are you on? MS. CLIFT: He is a man --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You are decrying his --
MS. CLIFT: There's more than one side, John. He is a man who served honorably in the U.S. military, which a lot of his critics have not. He was so highly regarded, he became a medical corpsman. He was in the detail that took care of President Lyndon John after he left office. He's won all kinds of awards. He's erudite.
He lost it in that Press Club appearance because he's in a battle. He's leaving the stage. It's a generational tug of war. He's seeing his apostle making money with his book, stealing the title from him.
| | There's more than one side, John. He is a man who served honorably in the U.S. military, which a lot of his critics have not. He was so highly regarded, he became a medical corpsman. He was in the detail that took care of President Lyndon John after he left office. He's won all kinds of awards. He's erudite. | -Eleanor Clift |
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| Shield Us | REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN): (From videotape.) The longer I serve in Congress, the more firmly I believe in the wisdom of our founders, especially as it pertains to the First Amendment and freedom of the press.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Right on, Mike. But Thomas Jefferson said this. "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost," unquote." So is the press free today, really free? Journalists argue not quite. Why? Because, if ordered by a court, journalists can be forced to reveal anonymous sources. So reporters have argued in court for a federal shield law for years now, a law that would protect the media from being coerced into disclosing confidential sources, sources that are willing to provide sensitive information only if those sources are not identified.
Some state laws provide journalists such protection, but there is no federal law, mostly because of national security concerns. But times are changing, especially for Republicans. GOP nominee John McCain has announced his support for a national shield law for journalists. But he does so cautiously, because disclosure of certain classified information could threaten national security.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ, Republican presidential candidate): (From videotape.) I must confess there have been times when I worry that the press's interest in getting a scoop occasionally conflicts with other important priorities -- priorities, even the first concern of every American, the security of our nation.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: But the Arizona senator still comes down on the side of a shield for journalists.
SEN. MCCAIN: (From videotape.) But it's also a license to do good, to disclose injustice and unlawfulness and inequities, and to encourage their swift correction. Despite concerns I have about the legislation, I have narrowly decided to support it.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: This is a heavy burden, isn't it, Eleanor?
MS. CLIFT: Heavy burden? Well, first of all, John McCain is going to welcome any opportunity he can find to separate himself from the White House, because the White House is opposed to a shield law.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Right.
MS. CLIFT: And he now shares this position with the two Democrats that are running, which is where he wants to be, because he's fishing for the same pool of Democrats and independents. But it's also the right position to take, and I think it's one of the reasons that John McCain is admired in the journalistic community. He's a straight talker.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Did you notice that Jefferson put no limits on that? He said --
MS. CROWLEY: I saw that. John McCain -- he thinks he's being smart here, but this is beyond dumb for him, for two reasons. First of all, this is such a typical mistake conservatives make, especially when they're running for high office. They think that if they can do something to placate the press, the press will be nice to them, be on their side; never happens, no way. McCain has schmoozed the press for a long time -- back in the plane and on the bus, taking bites out of their donuts -- but they still write negative stories about him.
Number two, he is running as the national security candidate in this race. You have had -- over the past couple of years you've had The New York Times, The Washington Post, other big newspapers splash the NSA wiretap story on the front page, data mining, the swift financial tracking of terrorists. You've had all these other stories, national security --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: What's the point?
MS. CLIFT: Monica is not a journalist.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: What's the point?
MS. CROWLEY: There is a balance to be made under journalistic responsibility not to splash state secrets on the front page, especially --
MR. BUCHANAN: All right, John, let me get into this.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You're against the shield law.
MS. CROWLEY: I am against the shield law.
MS. CLIFT: But she's not a journalist.
MR. BUCHANAN: John, I am a journalist. Look, the press is not above the law. As a presidential assistant, I had to testify to the grand jury about what the president said. As a journalist I don't? That's preposterous.
MS. CLIFT: We have an administration that shouldn't be above the law. And every one of the instances that Monica cited there, just about, are areas where --
MR. BUCHANAN: Neither should you be above the law.
MS. CLIFT: -- are areas where the American people, represented by the press --
MR. BUCHANAN: Who elected you to represent the American people?
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Clarence.
MR. PAGE: We're talking about writing the law.
MS. CLIFT: The press is an important part of the democracy, Pat.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Eleanor, let Clarence in.
MR. BUCHANAN: But you're not elected by anybody. MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Pat, let Clarence in.
MR. PAGE: I'm enjoying this, really.
MS. CLIFT: The media is not elected, but they are part of the democracy. And there have been many --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Eleanor, will you let Clarence in? Go ahead.
MR. PAGE: That's why we have lawmakers to write the law. And the fact is, those were good stories you mentioned.
There are others we could talk about as well, because a free press is supposed to be a check on government. That was what Jefferson was talking about.
| | That's why we have lawmakers to write the law. And the fact is, those were good stories you mentioned.
There are others we could talk about as well, because a free press is supposed to be a check on government. That was what Jefferson was talking about.
| -Clarence Page |
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| Obama's Dangerous Gambit | SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL, Democratic presidential candidate): (From videotape.) I've known Reverend Wright for almost 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person I met 20 years ago. He was never my spiritual mentor. He was my pastor. And so, to some extent, how the press characterized in the past that relationship, I think, wasn't accurate.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Question -- So Obama is saying that Wright is a master of concealment over those 20 years, a gifted chameleon. He has hidden his true colors for two decades from Obama. Can voters trust a man who doesn't know his own pastor's beliefs when, as president, he must make lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, appointments to his Cabinet? Would he misjudge foreign leaders and adversaries? Would voters think that Obama is just too inexperienced to be the most powerful man in the world?
MS. CROWLEY: All good questions, John, and all questions that have percolated up in light of this Jeremiah Wright stuff. I mean, this pastor (ambition tour ?) has been wholly destructive to the Obama campaign. Look, Reverend Wright, in those clips over the past weekend, his whole theme was "A change is coming. I can feel it." Barack Obama's theme, his slogan for his campaign, is "A change we can believe in."
We know what Jeremiah Wright's version of change is -- black liberation theology that casts America as a villain, a destructive force in the world rather than a force for moral good. The question for Barack Obama, which he has failed to address, is how much of Jeremiah Wright's version of change for America and the world is similar to yours? Where do you agree with him? Where do you disagree with him, and why? This was a call for specificity from Barack Obama, which he has not yet given
| | We know what Jeremiah Wright's version of change is -- black liberation theology that casts America as a villain, a destructive force in the world rather than a force for moral good. The question for Barack Obama, which he has failed to address, is how much of Jeremiah Wright's version of change for America and the world is similar to yours? Where do you agree with him? Where do you disagree with him, and why? This was a call for specificity from Barack Obama, which he has not yet given. | -Monica Crowley |
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