Inside Politics

Wright albatross

The issue of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. will not leave Sen. Barack Obama, taking up the first 15 minutes of the latter’s appearance yesterday on “Meet the Press,” reports Christina Bellantoni of The Washington Times.

The Democratic presidential front-runner defended his continued membership in the church in the hourlong interview with NBC’s Tim Russert, saying he is “proud” of its work in living out the social gospel of helping the homeless.

“I think that the American people understand that, when I joined Trinity United Church of Christ, I was committing not to Pastor Wright, I was committing to a church, and I was committing to Christ,” he said.

Mr. Obama repeated his frustration by the pastor’s media tour last week, saying instead of explaining his anti-American sermons or apologizing, Mr. Wright seemed to “double down” on his past inflammatory statements and “put gasoline on the fire.”

“What he said did not bring the country together; it divided the country. It fed into all of the racial antagonisms and divisions that have haunted this country for so long,” he said.

Mr. Obama said he disagrees with Mr. Wright’s views that America is a racist country. “I’m somebody who is born to a white mother and an African father. It’s in my DNA to believe that we can bring this country together and that the people are the same under the skin, and that’s what I’ve been fighting for all my life,” he said.

Wait until fall

North Carolina Gov. Michael F. Easley says that while Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., will not be an issue in tomorrow’s primary, he will be in November.

“It’s not going to be an issue in North Carolina in the primary,” Mr. Easley said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

He added: “We know the Republicans down here. Maybe you don’t know that Republicans are running ads on that already and trying to — some are trying to tie it to our Democrats running for governor to replace me. But it will be an issue in the fall if he’s the nominee. But it’s not going to be in this primary. And Senator Clinton has not tried to make any political gain out of it. I admire her character for that.”

Lesson for Ohio

“Former Ohio Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, who died in March at age 90, was an ultraliberal as a politician but also a savvy and very rich businessman. Before going to Washington in 1976, he had made a fortune on parking lots,” the Wall Street Journal notes in an editorial.

“As a three-term Democrat, he made his reputation in Washington by attacking big business and fighting anything that even hinted of deregulation. …

“But we come today not to judge the late senator, only to praise him for one last act of personal financial acumen. Though a lifelong Ohioan, the senator moved to Florida in 2002, according to a declaration of domicile filed with the Broward County Clerk’s office in 2003. In doing so, he avoided paying his home state’s income tax (top rate: 6.55 percent).

“More important as he neared the end of his life, the former senator also saved his family from paying Ohio’s death tax, which features one of the highest state rates (7 percent) and lowest asset thresholds — $338,333 — in the country. Florida famously has no income or estate tax, which is one reason other than the climate that it is home to so many Northern-born retirees,” the newspaper said.

“Howard Metzenbaum thus denied the state in which he lived most of his life a parting financial gift. But he has at least provided the rest of us with a teaching moment in tax policy. If a liberal lion like Metzenbaum is willing to relocate late in life to avoid his state’s death tax, maybe living politicians in Ohio will better understand how their confiscatory tax laws are driving its citizens to warmer climes.”

The tax issue

“Americans aren’t too smart when sizing up our personal tax burden, but we know we don’t want more,” Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column of U.S. News & World Report.

“A new poll from the Winston Group finds that most of us think we pay just 27 percent of our income in taxes, think we should pay just 18 percent, and want the rich to cough up 27 percent. Fact is, says David Winston, when you add up all your federal, state, local, phone, gas, sales and other taxes and fees, the typical bill is higher, over 30 percent.

“But one thing the poll found is that we’re dead set against new taxes, especially during the downturn. By a 71-to-27 percent margin, Americans say now is not the time to raise taxes. A larger majority feels that if Congress doesn’t rush to extend the 2001 tax cuts, taxes will surge. ’They are looking at their overall costs, gas, phone, food, and they’re getting infuriated,’ says Winston, who polls for the GOP. His advice to the party: Pledge to hold the line on taxes — and mean it.”

Return to Fox

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean showed up on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday, the first time in almost 19 months that he had appeared on the network that liberals love to hate. Host Chris Wallace asked Mr. Dean to explain why he and Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton all did interviews on Fox in the past week.

“Well, first of all your audience is important to us,” Mr. Dean said. “A lot of your audience are working-class Democrats. The kind of people who will vote either way, and we’d like them to vote Democrat. And second of all, you gave us a fair opportunity to talk about Sen. [John] McCain’s record. …

“We need to communicate with people who are going to vote in the Democratic Party; hundreds of thousands of Republicans have turned their back on their own party to vote in the Democratic primaries in the last six months.

“We owe it to all the American people to reach out to those folks. This is not about Fox News; that’s not why I am here today. I am out because I want to talk to your viewers directly about why this election is important and [what] we can offer the American people.”

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes .com.