Obama's foes ( Tinfoil Hat Wearers ) gather mud to sling

The Everett Herald

Here are some things we can look forward to learning about Barack Obama:

That he was mentored in high school by a member of the Soviet-controlled Communist Party.

That he launched his Illinois state Senate campaign in the home of a terrorist and a killer.

That while serving as a state senator, he was a member of a socialist front group.

That his affiliations are so dodgy that he would have trouble getting a government security clearance.

That there is reason to doubt his "loyalty to the United States."

These and many other implausible accusations were offered by a group of conservatives last week -- including a living relic from the House Committee on Un-American Activities -- in a Capitol Hill basement. The charges ranged from the absurd to the merely questionable, but anybody who watched the Swift Boat campaign of 2004 make John Kerry look like a war criminal knows that's not the point.

The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy took a blow with Hillary Clinton's exit. But it is regrouping, and finding plenty of sinister things to say about Obama -- even if he didn't trade cattle futures.

The group, assembled by something called America's Survival Inc., gathered in the basement of the Ebenezer Coffee House in Washington. They shared the stage with a big drum set, and posters documenting items they would seek to tie to Obama: an Students for a Democratic Society newsletter from 1969 (when he was 7), and a police killing from 1970 (when he was 8).

"We believe that any public figure with links to foreign and hostile interests should be asked to explain those associations,"....





President of America's Survival Inc.