Velma Berger – 3/28/08

This page was last updated on March 28, 2008.

Too many unknowns; Velma Berger; Beaver County Times; March 28, 2008.

Ms. Berger is taking a break from her normal topic. You’ll recall Ms. Berger has a series of at least 23 Bush and Iraqi-bashing letters dating back to February 2005. In one letter, Ms. Berger told us she was proud of John Murtha. In another letter, Ms. Berger actually claimed she has “a clock ticking down to Bush’s last day in office” and that she “carr[ies] it on [her] purse everywhere [she] go[es].”

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“We recently learned about the church that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has attended and supported for the past 20 years.”

[RWC] As a reminder, Ms. Berger declared her support for Hillary Clinton two weeks ago.

“It was shocking and unbelievable that such hated and foul language could be preached in any church. I don’t believe this was the only time the Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke like this because in different clips he was wearing different robes and clothing.

“Obama says he is his mentor and is like an old uncle. If this is where he gets his spiritual values, I think we have a lot to fear.

“I don’t believe you can sit in church for more than 20 years and have a close relationship with this pastor and not know what his views are.

“I attend church regularly, and what my pastor preaches has an effect on my daily living. Most people choose to belong to a church that meets their spiritual needs.”

[RWC] I covered the Obama/Wright issue in my critique of “Our true genius.”

“As to the saying ‘you are know by the company you keep,’ Obama’s close friends are this hate-filled pastor and Tony Reszco, a shady operator and a large contributor to Obama’s campaigns.

“When this became news, Obama returned the money.”

[RWC] Note how Ms. Berger ignores the “shady operators” associated with Mrs. Clinton. Norman Hsu, one of Mrs. Clinton’s large fundraisers, is a convicted felon (fraud) and was on the run the whole time he was raising campaign contributions for Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Hsu is currently in prison.

Has Ms. Berger forgotten about the Whitewater scandal, in which at least 12 individuals were convicted for various felonies, including the Clintons’ business partners and the governor of Arkansas for fraud? Bill Clinton pardoned one of those business partners (Susan McDougal) on his last day in office.

“We don’t know enough about Obama to make him the leader of the free world.”

[RWC] True, but we also know Mrs. Clinton is a serial liar. Here’s an incomplete list.

· Multiple times Mrs. Clinton claimed she and her daughter flew into the Balkans under fire in 1996. Mrs. Clinton stopped telling the lie only when CBS videotapes and interviews with people who traveled with her proved she was lying.

· Mrs. Clinton claimed she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, the first known climber to make it to the top of Mt. Everest. The problem is, Mrs. Clinton was born in 1947, nearly six years before Sir Edmund became famous for making this climb (1953). You can find a lot of detail on this at Snopes.com.

· Mrs. Clinton claimed she was responsible for SCHIP. She was not and everyone associated with the program has acknowledged this.

· Mrs. Clinton claimed she was “instrumental” in the Northern Ireland peace process. The former Northern Ireland First Minister, Lord William Trimble, was quoted by the Daily Telegraph (UK) as saying, “I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around … being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player.” Lord Trimble should know; he shared a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

· Mrs. Clinton claimed daughter Chelsea was jogging in the vicinity of the World Trade Center and had just ducked into a coffee shop at the time of the 9/11 attacks. By Chelsea’s own account, she was in her apartment 12 blocks away and learned of the attack when her roommate called from work.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t believe there’s a penny’s worth of difference between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.