So, how come the widely revered Billy Graham never got the heat Jeremiah Wright’s getting?

10 comments May 2nd, 2008

 

In 1972, Richard Nixon’s infamous White House taping system captured the voice of the Rev. Billy Graham saying this:

“A lot of the Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me…But they don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country.”

That remark came in a conversation Graham had with Nixon about supposed Jewish control of the media.

Graham said the Jewish “stranglehold (on the media) has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.”

Replied Nixon: “You believe that?”

“Yes, sir,” said Graham.

“Oh, boy,” responded Nixon. “I can’t ever say that, but I believe it.”

“No, but if you get elected a second time,” suggested Graham, “then we might be able to do something.”

Graham apologized for these comments when the tape of them was made public in 2002. The ensuing scandal didn’t amount to much and quickly faded.

Graham has never been subjected to the reprobation the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has faced in recent weeks and months for his controversial statements. Nor were any of Graham’s close friends and admirers said to be guilty by association with him.

I raise this issue because it came up last night on “The Daily Show,” as we see HERE.

Whoa! This is pretty low

2 comments February 1st, 2008

 

Man, is there anything more brutal than one Republican attacking another Republican by likening him to — get ready — Richard Nixon?

Republicans don’t like to talk about Nixon, a shrewd inclination to be sure. So, when one of them calls another a Nixon type…well, you better ask the children to leave the room.

Mitt Romney, offended by some unfair crap thrown at him by John McCain, is ACCUSING  Mr. Straight Talk of conducting a campaign “reminiscent of the Nixon era.”

Nixon.  What a fun guy he was. The self-proclaimed spokesman for the Great Silent Majority.  The Republican Party’s answer to hippies. The president who ended up talking to the statues and paintings in the corridors of the White House.

Nixon.

McCain’s gotta be really steamed about this.

Talk about your partisan rhetoric

Add comment January 6th, 2008

People who don’t much care for bare-knuckle politics are fond of remembering the days of yore when the rhetoric was more restrained and politicians didn’t say bad things about one another.

Yeah, those were the days.  Why, I can almost see and hear John F. Kennedy making nothing but dignified references to his arch-rival Richard Nixon: