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September 14, 2008
Richard Milhouse Obama?
There is a secret group in the Obama-Biden campaign tasked with shutting off any leaks from the record that links Barack Obama to his longtime adviser and mentor Bill Ayers, professor of education at the University of Illinois and unrepentant Weatherman terrorist and fugitive from the 1970s.This surprising fact has been developed by Chicago-born and Ralph Nader-supporting Professor Steve Diamond of Santa Clara University Law School, who maintains the Global Labor and Politics blog and has pieced together over many months the unusual surreptitious activity around the public records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) grant now housed at the University of Illinois and Brown University.
Since the spring, Diamond has led the investigation into the intimate working relationship between Obama and Ayers that dates back at least to the beginning of 1995 and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Grants. Diamond believes this group is not harmless. "It's a 'Plumbers' unit. You know, we are old enough to recall the Plumbers in Richard Nixon's White House. This is like that. The job is to stop anyone trying to use the (Chicago) Annenberg (Challenge) papers to figure out how Ayers and Obama worked together on education."
Of course, the Obama-sotted MSM will have nothing of "interrogating" Barry. That Palin, as a new administrator, got rid of the political appointees of the previous administration and brought in her own team is scandal, SCANDAL, I tell you! That.is.just.not.done. Hharrumph. Hharrumph.
Posted by Darleen at September 14, 2008 11:06 AM
Comments
There is no basis in my work to conclude that there is a plumbers unit or even a suspicion of one. I turned down an interview with the author of this piece and the quotes he uses are either made up or pulled together from bits and pieces on my blog. My blog is licensed and unless you meet its terms you cannot reproduce material from it as you have done here. I would appreciate the removal of this story.
Here is the letter I sent to the editors of Human Events about this issue:
MY REPLY TO HUMAN EVENTS:
Dear Mr. Babbin:
The story in Human Events that relies on alleged quotes from me is wrong.
I have no knowledge of any “plumbers unit” inside the Obama campaign.
I was not interviewed by Human Events for this story. In fact, I explicitly declined an interview with the author, John Batchelor, when asked, in writing.
I did tell Mr. Batchelor that he was free, as is anyone else, to quote directly from the blog. However, the article does not do that, instead it makes up quotes that do not appear on the blog and that I did not say.
My blog Global Labor has a well established track record for relying on what I know to be true and providing the documentation for what I write there, only occasionally speculating on what the known facts add up to. I did make tongue in cheek references to plumbers-like activity (which I have now removed) but based on what I know I cannot even theorize the existence of a “plumbers unit” - a reference to a group hired by the Nixon campaign to engage in break ins and other shenanigans – inside the Obama campaign.
All I know, and as far as I know all anyone in the public arena knows, is that
Ken Rolling, the former Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge called the University of Illinois at Chicago on August 11 in response to what Rolling says were reports on the web about records of the CAC.
He told the University that they could not release the records they held of the Challenge, which were donated to the University for public access and research in 2002.
The University initially complied with his request and two weeks later concluded that Mr. Rolling was wrong and that the records could be once again opened to the public.
Stanley Kurtz of the National Review called the University that same day, August 11, and was told that he could have access to the CAC records.
The next day, August 12, Dr. Kurtz was told that, in fact, the records were closed.
Separately, earlier in the summer I asked the Annenberg Institute at Brown University for copies of certain CAC records which they readily provided.
After I posted a blog on what those records contained I followed up my request for some additional information.
Brown never replied to those requests.
If Human Events or John Batchelor wants to spin those facts into an allegation that there is, in fact, a real Plumbers Unit inside the Obama campaign they are, of course, free to do so. They cannot, however, rely on me to do so.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
Posted by: Steve Diamond at September 14, 2008 12:08 PM
Thank you, Mr. Diamond, for responding.
I will say, however, scrubbing your blog of your comments (ie “disappearing them”) is not good form. I will take you at your word that you have done it innocently, but such actions rather than a public correction/clarification next to the still standing quotes does nothing for the credibility of anyone that engages in such “disappearing.”
I’ll add a question mark to my post, but I’ll let it stand. The circumstances swirling around the CAC do not speak to the kind of transparency expected of Universities, nor does the Obama camp’s scurrilous, slanderous attacks on Kurtz engender any confidence in their openness to inquiry.
PS Spamming your letter with it's wrongheadded attempt to limit "fair use" also does not speak well of you.
Posted by: Darleen at September 14, 2008 12:26 PM
Tsk tsk, Steve.
And Darleen, the phrase "down the memory hole" is more appropriate, and well known (DU, DKos) -- and will stick better with bloggers than your Argentinesque reference.
Posted by: 4 Borders Pundit at September 14, 2008 05:01 PM
4 borders
I stand corrected ... "down the memory hole" it shall be from now on.
:-)
Posted by: Darleen at September 14, 2008 06:08 PM