Not to keep flogging this horse, but here's Rachel Maddow and Katha Pollitt with a bit more on the selection of Rick Warren to participate in the inauguration ceremony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwk845iMXY
I love Rachel; she's been a major agitator on this issue and I say more power to her. Now I wanna see her jump on the Springsteen/WalMart story (which i haven't seen getting much mainstream press coverage).
I also like Rachel a lot, and am eager to see how this all plays out. While I think it's clear that Rick is a blowhard male chauvinist egomaniac, I think the fact that the Saddleback web site changed its language, if not its reality, is a sign that there is perhaps some influence going in Warren's direction. Hard to say, I think people like him are pretty incorrigible.
I am inetersted now in the parallels between Wright & Warren.
Each got some pub from associating with Obama, each got called out for grievous statmenets in their past, each received a minimum of support from Obama - but likewise no specific condemnation, and then each went out and very publicly & unilaterally made themselves look like even bigger idiots.
I have to wonder if this isn't some nefarious talent that Obama has perfected, of giving people enough rope so that they hang themselves before he has to stoop to doing anything about it himself.
Either way the net result is to move public opinion away from sympathy from the extreme sides of both the Black Urban Church & the White Suburban Mega-Church. Brilliant!
