Bill Clinton: "Dear Reverend Wright, please forgive me for I have seeeeyund!"

[Oilwellian]

Clinton Faces Test
At Prayer Breakfast

When President Clinton steps before an audience of 125 religious leaders at his prayer breakfast this morning, he will be addressing a group of ministers conflicted about how to respond to a White House sex scandal and under intense pressure from their own peers to uphold strict moral standards.

Many of those invited to the annual event expect Clinton, who takes comfort in spiritual settings, to make his most humble apology yet. And they were anticipating brief remarks, followed by a discussion that would feel something like a Bible study, where the errant parishioner and his room full of pastors hash out the very human questions of fallen nature, confession, and forgiveness.

Among the invitees at the prayer breakfast are a core group of supporters who are prepared to accept the president's apology and forgive him, and who believe it is not their place to judge him further. But the supporters are also feeling pressure from some fellow ministers and in some cases members of their own congregations, who believe it is the religious community's responsibility to openly condemn the president for setting a bad example for the nation. By going to the breakfast and remaining silent, say the critics, the president's religious allies are providing moral cover for his failings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/prayer091198.htm

Clinton's Prayer Breakfast Speech


(snip)
It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the sorrow I feel is genuine: first and most important, my family; also my friends, my staff, my Cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the American people. I have asked all for their forgiveness.

But I believe that to be forgiven, more than sorrow is required – at least two more things. First, genuine repentance – a determination to change and to repair breaches of my own making. I have repented. Second, what my bible calls a "broken spirit"; an understanding that I must have God's help to be the person that I want to be; a willingness to give the very forgiveness I seek; a renunciation of the pride and the anger which cloud judgment, lead people to excuse and compare and to blame and complain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/clintontext091198.htm

Prayer Breakfast Sways Ministers

With tearing eyes and a trembling voice, President Clinton succeeded yesterday in convincing a room full of religious leaders that he was genuinely sorry about his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and embarrassed about the way he handled it. One after another, ministers, rabbis and imams left the White House prayer breakfast saying they were moved by the sight of the most powerful man in the world humbling himself so thoroughly before them.

Dozens of those who spoke afterward said they were confident that the speech marked a turning point on Clinton's road to personal salvation. Even many who had once been reluctant to forgive the president set aside any concerns they had about being used to provide moral cover and conveyed their approval.

(snip)

Many of the 106 religious leaders in attendance said they were won over by the president's deference to religious touchstones, by his repeated references to the fact that he had "sinned," that he had reached "rock bottom," that he had a "broken spirit." Just as important, he named all those he had wronged – his staff, his family and especially Monica Lewinsky – a crucial step, many of them said, on the road to healing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/ministers091298.htm

This is ugly and not going away. The Clintons have the gall to use Reverend Wright to save their own political hides and then turn on him in this campaign and paint him as an angry black militant preacher as a means to gain super delegate votes. Can they be any more vile?

[EFerrari]

1. I hope they can't but, they're very good at vile. n/t

[Bake]

3. Eight years of peace and prosperity during the Clinton administration

Thank God THAT is over!!

Bake

[Catherina]

2. Few people are more vile than the Clintons right now

"Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty." - Jeremiah Wright

Word.