Clinton criticizes Obama over his pastor's inflammatory words

While campaigning in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton compared the pastor's remarks to the "hate speech" of Don Imus. (CHARLES DHARAPAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Hillary Clinton had stayed out of the fray over the inflammatory remarks made by Barack Obama's long-time pastor.

But yesterday she told reporters and editors at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she would have left her church if her pastor had said the kinds of things about the US government and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. did.

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

Clinton also compared Wright's remarks to the "hate speech" of talk-show host Don Imus, who was fired from CBS last year for racially insensitive comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

After making similar comments to reporters in Greensburg, Pa., Clinton declined to say whether the Wright issue should be considered by superdelegates, the elected officials and party leaders who will probably decide the Democratic nominee.

Obama's campaign accused Clinton of playing political games to divert attention over the controversy about her claims of ducking sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia. "It's disappointing to see Hillary Clinton's campaign sink to this low," spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.

Burton also cited Obama's speech on race relations last week in which he rejected Wright's remarks, but also sought to explain why he stayed at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and the history behind Wright's anger at the government. Obama said he could no more disown Wright than he could the black community or his white grandmother.

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Clinton calls recollection of peril in Bosnia 'a mistake'
Hillary Clinton's concession that she "made a mistake" when she gave a vivid description of landing under sniper fire in Bosnia prompted another round yesterday of accusations with Barack Obama's campaign that both candidates are misrepresenting their biographies.

Commenting for the first time on the controversy over her account of the 1996 landing in Tuzla, Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania: "I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I'm human, which, you know, for some people is a revelation."

But Obama's campaign characterized her exaggeration as part of a pattern of deception. It sent reporters an item, posted on the ABC News political blog, casting doubt on an anecdote Clinton told in 1994 that she went to a Marine recruiting office in 1975, just after the Vietnam War ended.

"You're too old. You can't see. And you're a woman," the recruiter told her, according to Clinton's account. The ABC item says that rejection seems odd because pregnant Marines were allowed to serve and says the timing seems strange because Clinton was about to get married.

Clinton's camp fired back with an entire memo of what it describes as Obama's embellishments of his resume, including claiming to be a full law professor when he was only a lecturer. "Senator Obama's campaign is based on words - not a record of deeds - and if those words aren't backed up by facts, there's not much else left," Clinton's memo says.

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Gilded branches found on candidates' family trees
Barack Obama likes to joke that he and Vice President Dick Cheney are distant cousins.

It turns out that he and the other major presidential contenders share lineage with several other famous historical figures and current celebrities, the New England Historic Genealogical Society said yesterday.

Obama, whose mother was born in Kansas, has at least six presidents as distant cousins, including President Bush and his father; Gerald Ford; Lyndon Johnson; Harry Truman; and James Madison.

Hillary Clinton has common ancestors with actress Angelina Jolie and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles. Because Clinton's family has French-Canadian heritage, she is also distantly related to "On the Road" author Jack Kerouac and pop stars Madonna, Celine Dion, and Alanis Morissette.

John McCain is a sixth cousin of Laura Bush, the genealogical society said. The fact that most of his ancestry is Southern makes "notable connections somewhat harder to trace because of challenges to genealogists in that region," genealogist Christopher Child said.

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