On the So-Called Reverend's Comment

Cal Thomas | Syndicated Columnist | Updated: Jul 11, 2008

On the So-Called Reverend's Comment


July 11, 2008

By now you must have heard about the crude and insensitive remarks by the so-called Reverend Jesse Jackson. I say “so-called” because he doesn’t have a church and never has and is a man unaccountable to any congregation or ecclesiastical authority.

Jackson thought his microphone was off when he leaned over to another guest as they were about to appear on a FOX News channel program and accused Barack Obama of “talking down” to black people. He then suggested Obama should be castrated. The uglier term cannot be said on a family radio station.

This isn’t the first time Jackson has been revealed as something other than his public persona. Some years ago he was overheard by reporters referring to New York City as “hymietown,” an anti-Semitic reference to Jews.

But with liberal Democrats it almost never matters. The fact that Jackson is black and his grandstanding on civil rights over many years assures that the mainstream media will make this a one-day story. But if the offender had been white – and especially if he had been a Republican conservative – the reaction would have been quite different.


Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.

On the So-Called Reverend's Comment