Jamie Gorelick

Earlier, I wrote about Obama’s possible appointment of Charles Ogletree, who believes that America is a racist country that is to blame for 9/11, to be assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division.

Some commentators, like the award-winning journalist A. Barton Hinkle, wondered whether I wasn’t overstating Ogletree’s links to Obama (by calling him Obama’s “top adviser” on race), given his out-of-the-mainstream views.

Actually, it seems that I understated Ogletree’s links to Obama and possible role in the Obama Administration. As legal commentator Walter Olson notes, Ogletree is now being described as a possible Attorney General — not just Assistant Attorney General — by CBS News and Newsweek.

Moreover, Newsweek describes Ogletree as Obama’s “top criminal-justice adviser,” not just his adviser on race issues. (Neither CBS nor Newsweek discusses Ogletree’s well-documented controversial positions, such as claiming that Obama’s election was only possible because he is part white, and his long-time advocacy of race-based reparations. Among liberal journalists, unlike the general public, these positions may not seem out-of-the-ordinary. But Ogletree’s left-wing positions have attracted a great deal of criticism on talk radio, from broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh, which might help to explain why liberal lawmakers want to shut down talk radio using the misleadingly-named “Fairness Doctrine“).

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