The Woods Fund Board: Dastardly Communist Terrorists!

(Cross-posted at MyDD.)

As some folks know, Larry Johnson and his pal, susanhu (SusanUnPC) at the foul NoQuarter blog have been peddling this William Ayers garbage for months. And months. And more months. It was nice to see that they finally succeeded in getting someone in the media -- besides Hannity, Limbaugh or O'Reilly -- to ask "the tough questions" on Obama's relationship to `60's radical, Ayers.

Obama and Ayers served together on the board of The Woods Fund of Chicago from 1998 until 2001. Ayers was, and continues to be, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and remains on the Fund's board. The Board of Trustees consists of 10 people, most of whom are academics or business leaders.

The foundation, for those who don't know, has a long history of doing great things for the underprivileged in Chicago, dating back to the Fund's founding in 1941.

(more)

From their Mission page:

The foundation works primarily as a funding partner with nonprofit organizations. Woods supports nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community and common ground.

Sounds radical, doesn't it?

The Fund's current Board is headed by Laura Washington, the Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor at DePaul University in Chicago and a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times:

Laura S. Washington, Board Chair*
Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor and Fellow of the DePaul Humanities Center

Jesus G. Garcia, Vice Chair*
Executive Director, Little Village Community Development Corporation

William C. Ayers
Distinguished Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago

Lee Bey
Director of Media and Governmental Affairs, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill LLP

Doris Salomon Chagin
Category Manager - Ethnic Markets, BP Products North America

Beth E. Richie
Professor and Head of the Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

Patrick M. Sheahan
Executive Director, Public Affairs, UBS Investment Bank

Charles N. Wheatley
President, Sahara Enterprises, Inc.

Lucia Woods Lindley
Board Member Emeritus

Kristin Patton*
Secretary

Here are the criteria for the kinds of programs they fund:

• Helping to engage residents in civic life
• Addressing the causes of poverty
• Promoting more effective public policies
• Reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity
• Promoting employment opportunities
• Building a sense of community and common ground

And here is one of the organizations they are currently funding:

Center for Tax and Budget Accountability:

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability is a bi-partisan 501(C)(3) non-profit research and advocacy think tank that promotes fair, efficient and progressive tax, spending and economic policies.

Dastardly Communist terrorists!

I have a few questions for our weak and feeble media, lil' Georgie Stephanopoulos, Larry Johnson, susanhu and the rest of the "soon-to-be-joining-the-Swiftboaters" crew:

• Did Obama put Ayers on the board of the Woods Fund? Or did they just happen to be two of 10 board members?
• Ayers donated a whopping $200 to Obama's Senate campaign and may have had a "meet-and-greet" for neighbors at his home during the Senate run (one of, literally, hundreds of such functions that candidates attend), according to reports. Does this mean that any politician who attends a meet-and-greet in their honor, including Hillary Clinton, agrees with every position -- past and present -- of the host?
• Has Hillary ever attended a meet-and-greet at the home of someone who may have had something nefarious in his/her distant past? Ever?
• Why did Bill Clinton commute the sentences of two Weather Underground members who were actually responsible for killing people, as today's New York Times reports:
  

  After Mrs. Clinton criticized Mr. Obama for not severing all Ayers ties, Mr. Obama said, "By Senator Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she would make it, since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground."

  That referred to commutations by Mr. Clinton in January 2001, shortly before leaving office, for Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg. Ms. Evans had been convicted of weapons and explosives charges connected with eight bombings in the mid-'80s and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Ms. Rosenberg had been charged in connection with a 1981 armed robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed, and was serving 58 years after being convicted of weapons charges in a 1984 case.

• Does being a board member of a foundation along with nine other people mean that you, as a board member, agree with the politics and opinions of everyone else on that board?
• Did any of the other board members hold a meet-and-greet for Obama? Did any of them donate to Obama's Senate campaign?

These are just a few questions that enterprising reporters should be pondering and researching.

God knows the hacks from the Clinton camp won't.

As for Larry Johnson, susanhu and their cohorts, I suspect they'll soon be joining ranks with the Swiftboaters (if they haven't already) for the general election match-up between Obama and McCain.

I don't think the folks spewing these McCarthy-ite tactics can be considered Democrats. They are Rovian Swiftboaters.

And if one wants to see "unelectable," one need only read yesterday's Washington Post...

Clinton is viewed as "honest and trustworthy" by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.

... or look at Hillary's 56% unfavorable rating in the Rasmussen tracking polls and you have something very close to an unelectable candidate.

Please, Hillary, condemn the Woods Fund and its board members. Those dastardly radicals are conspiring to deliver better lives to the poor! Stop them before they do more good!

Addenda:
Here is a long piece on William Ayers from The Chicago Tribune's "Swamp" blog today.

And Chicago Mayor Richard Daley takes Hillary Clinton and her campaign to task explaining that Bill Ayers is one of the architects of Chicago's highly successful school reform plan.