Another Problem Preacher for Obama

By Rick Moran

Barack Obama may have put the Jeremiah Wright controversy behind him for the most part. But the "preacher problem" for Obama continues.

One of Obama's most prominent supporters in California gave what can only be called an anti-Semetic harangue at a ceremony honoring an Israeli-American citizen for community service.

Daphna Ziman received the Tom Bradley Award at an event attended by dozens of prominent Los Angelinos including the mayor, city councilmen, and leaders from the African American business and legal community.

Also in attendance - and scheduled to deliver a speech congratulating Ziman for her work - was the Reverend Eric Lee who is head of the local LA chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

What transpired next is best seen on a video interview with Roger Simon, CEO of Pajamas Media. Reverend Lee gave one of the most nauseatingly anti-Jewish rants imaginable:

After Ziman received her award, Reverend Lee, who is the President/CEO of the Los Angeles branch of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, began his keynote speech. In the midst of this, after praising Malcolm X, he started staring directly at Ziman, according to an email she sent.

Ziman’s email states “[Lee] started talking about the African American children who are suffering because of the Jews that have featured them as rapists and murderers. He spoke of a Jewish Rabbi, and then corrected himself to say ‘What other kind of Rabbis are there, but Jews.’ He told how this Rabbi came to him to say that he would like to bring the AA [African-American] community and the Jewish community together. ‘NO, NO, NO!!!!’ he shouted into the crowd, ‘we are not going to come together. The Jews have made money on us in the music business and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us.’”

The diatribe against Jews got so bad the Ziman got up and walked out in tears. But the Reverend Lee's shocking public display of anti-Semitism raises a troubling question; since the Reverend Wright controversy has faded into the background with apparently little damage to the candidate, has this been a liberating factor in giving African American preachers carte blanche to spout their hateful rhetoric with little concern that they would face any consequences for their vile speech?

Perhaps this is Obama's idea of racial dialogue. If so, it seems to me to be a one way conversation.