Rev. Wright fires back, hits Cheney.

Jeremiah Wright (behind the I.V. pole) as a Navy Corpsman Tending to Pres Lyndon B. Johnson. Bill Moyers was the President's Press Secretary at the time, and is behind Wright. Click on the pic. White House gave Wright a commendation letter for his service.

On patriotism, former Marine asks: 'How many years did Cheney serve?'

Rev. Jeremiah Wright did two things at the National Press Club this morning.

The man who for decades was Sen. Barack Obama's pastor first offered a learned lecture on the black experience in America and on the African-American faith tradition, an attempt to put into context the controversial sermon snippets that have been airing in recent weeks.

Then, following his speech, the recently retired senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago engaged in a question-and-answer period in which he mocked some of the queries, at times browbeat the moderator and generated a string of new sound bites that immediately began making their way into the political realm. (Here's a transcript of his remarks.)

Wright's contempt for the media and his other critics at times seemed downright palpable. His edgy, defiant performance today, which at times verged on arrogance and swaggering, is bound to raise more questions in the minds of many voters who will wonder more about Obama's long association with the preacher.

Wright said he wasn't political and seemed determined to prove it by demonstrating a demeanor likely will put off many voters, particularly, but not only, the white working class Americans Obama must attract in greater numbers than he's been able to if he is to have any chance of winning the presidency should he become the Democratic nominee.

Reminded that some critics have said his sermons are "unpatriotic," Wright told the audience that he is a former service member. He served six years in the Marine Corps and Navy.

"Does that make me patriotic?" he asked. "How many years did Cheney serve?"
Wright objected to criticisms of his relationship with Minister Louis Farrakhan.

"Everyone wants to paint me as if I'm anti-Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said twenty years ago," Wright said. Just as Michelle and Barack Obama and he and his wife don't agree on everything, Wright said, "Louis and I don't agree on everything.

Farrakhan is one of the most important voices of the recent past, he said, objecting to the suggestion that someone else might tell him who his friends and who his enemies are.

"Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy," he said. "He did not put me in chains. He did not put me in slavery. He did not make me this color."

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/rev_wright_stands_his_ground.html