With Barack Obama's campaign moving up to full throttle, some of the issues that remain unresolved from the 2008 campaign undoubtedly will be revived, possibly including his relationship with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.
But White House press secretary Jay Carney today avoided scrutiny by not allowing Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, to ask a question during the daily news briefing.
Kinsolving had wanted to ask how Obama feels about Portugal's refusal to extradite George Wright, wanted in the United States since he escaped from prison in 1970. Wright was serving a sentence for robbery and shooting dead a store operator.
After escaping, he hijacked an airliner to Algeria and eventually ended up in Portugal, where he's been living for decades. He was arrested by Portuguese authorities last September.
Kinsolving had wanted to ask: "National Review reports that prison-escaped murderer and airline hijacker George Wright now is in [Portugal]. How does the president feel about [Portugal's] refusal to extradite him."
Kinsolving also wanted to know, "Why isn't his apprehension a new job for the SEALs?"
His reference was to the Navy SEALs mission a year ago that killed Osama bin Laden.
It was Jay Nordlinger in the National Review who raised questions about Wright, as well as Ayers.
Under the headline "Aren't They Cute?" he wrote about celebrity criminals who have yet to face the music. Highlighted was the case of Wright, who, Nordlinger said, "is entertaining book and movie deals."
"He's a star, practically – yet another glam criminal out of reach of the law. Safe abroad, smirking at justice, holding forth on the iniquities of America. … He has an exciting story to tell, it's true. It has been all too exciting for those on the wrong end of his guns. In 1962, the day after Thanksgiving, he and some buddies went on a crime spree. This was at home in New Jersey. One of the people they robbed was Walter Patterson, a gas-station owner. With panty hose shoved over their faces, they shot him dead. Off they went with $70," he reported.
Nordlinger said the issue is that many "liberals" are "so tender" to such terrorists.
"Is it because liberals, some of them, 'hold their manhoods cheap' for not being part of the 'struggle' themselves? Do they feel guilt over 'preserving their viability within the system? (to paraphrase Clinton)? Do they regard The Family as 'liberals in a hurry'?" he wrote.
During the 2008 campaign, names linked to Obama included Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, founders of the Weather Underground organization that was blamed for multiple bombings in the U.S. Ayers and Dohrn were fugitives and eventually turned themselves in to authorities.
Ayers did not face any prison time, apparently because of mishandling of the case by prosecutors.
"Discussion of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn was essentially out of bounds during the 2008 presidential campaign. Question Obama's friendship with them, and you were slammed as uncouth, at best. Ayers and Dohrn are considered almost quaint figures now – living mementos of a colorful past, of 'crazy times,'" Nordlinger wrote.
"Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the Cuban-American politician, has said he doesn't know how Castro can seem cute after decades of torturing people. To many, Ayers and Dohrn seem cute, too," Nordlinger wrote. "Ayers once summed up his situation to David Horowitz in a memorable way: 'Guilty as hell, free as a bird – America is a great country.'"
Continued Nordlinger: "It is, yes. But not because of the Weather Underground or the Black Liberation Army. More because of people such as their victims."