Obama's ex-pastor hems schedule as controversy around his remarks stews

DALLAS - The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, yesterday canceled plans to receive an award at a summit on black churches.

The Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth announced on its website that Wright will not attend the State of the Black Church Summit and awards banquet Saturday.

Citing safety concerns, Wright has also canceled plans to speak at three services in a Houston church on Sunday. He called off plans to speak at a church in Tampa on Tuesday after it raised security questions.

Videos of remarks Wright made, circulating widely on the Web and news programs, include him excoriating the country for its treatment of minorities, asserting that the US government invented AIDS to destroy "people of color," and suggesting that US policies in the Middle East and elsewhere were partly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In a speech on race relations last week, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks and the preacher's refusal to acknowledge progress in race relations, but did not repudiate his spiritual mentor.

Clinton directly addressed the controversy for the first time on Tuesday, saying she would have left her church if her pastor had made similar remarks.

Yesterday, Obama told voters in Greensboro, N.C., not to be distracted by the controversy, which he said stems from the replaying of a few sound clips from hundreds of sermons over three decades.

"We cannot solve the problems of America if every time somebody somewhere does something stupid, everybody gets up in arms and forgets about the war in Iraq and we forget about the economy," he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

INDIANAPOLIS - The college student who got a stinging brushback from Chelsea Clinton when he asked about the Monica Lewinsky scandal said yesterday he's a Clinton supporter who was trying to get her to show "what makes Hillary so strong."

Evan Strange, a Butler University student who works on the school's newspaper, The Butler Collegian, said he asked the question because his friends "always bring up that scandal. It's not something I asked to cause trouble but to show those people what makes Hillary so strong."

The former president's daughter responded: "Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know, maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business."

Strange said that by brushing him off, Chelsea Clinton missed an opportunity to show her mother's strength.

"I was very surprised" at the rebuke, Strange said on "The Early Show" on CBS. "I can see where she'd get a little defensive because of the question and hearing Lewinsky over and over again, but I would like to hear her say something about Hillary rather than dismissing the question."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Despite all the acrimony in the Democratic presidential race, leading fund-raisers for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton joined forces last night for a dinner in Boston to benefit the national party.

Steve Grossman, who is supporting Clinton, and Alan Solomont, who is backing Obama, co-hosted the event at KO Prime steakhouse in Boston. Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean was the featured guest.

Grossman, a former national party chairman, and Solomont, a former national fund-raising chairman, are close friends but this is not the first time they are on opposing sides in a primary campaign. In 2004, Grossman was national co-chairman of Dean's campaign for president, while Solomont raised millions for Senator John F. Kerry.

Meanwhile, about 10 blocks away at the Westin Copley Place hotel, Bill Clinton headlined a $500-a-person fund-raiser for his wife's campaign.

BRIAN C. MOONEY

WASHINGTON - Mike Gravel told supporters yesterday he is leaving the Democratic Party to join the Libertarian Party, and plans to seek the Libertarian presidential nomination at its convention in late May.

Gravel, a former Alaska senator, said in an e-mail that the Democratic Party "no longer represents my vision for our great country."

"It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism - all of which I find anathema to my views," he said in the e-mail that also asked supporters for campaign donations.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Correction: Because of an error by the Associated Press, an item in Thursday's Campaign Notebook incorrectly described a Butler University student who asked Chelsea Clinton about the Monica Lewinsky controversy. The student, Evan Strange, is not affiliated with Butler's student newspaper.