Marathon Pundit: Bill Ayers finally getting the attention he so richly deserves

In conjunction with the 2006 publication of David Horowitz' The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez interviewed the book's author:

Lopez: Who should be a household name but isn't?

Horowitz: Professors Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, leaders of the Weather Underground; convicted torturer and inventor of Kwanzaa, Professor Malauna Karenga; and oh so many others.

Well, Horowitz got his wish. As for why they weren't household names, or at least notorious ones, the Chicago Tribune's Brenda Kilianski adds some insight:

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Actually, what doesn't make much sense is how an intelligent man such as Barack Obama might not see how a relationship with Bill Ayers does in fact reflect on him and his values. Especially when Ayers' response to his "detestable acts" is simply, "I feel we didn't do enough."

Oh, really?

Of course, one can't blame Obama for being so surprised or offended by a question he probably wasn't expecting. For too long, the media have been complicit in polishing the images of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Kathy Boudin and the rest of their radical, violent ilk.

My own paper has been equally guilty. The Tribune ran a cover story on Bill Ayers in the Sunday magazine section (coincidentally, the Sunday after 9/11), an article that served as free publicity for his book "Fugitive Days." Later, we profiled Ayers' adopted son Chesa Boudin, Rhodes scholar, social activist and terror apologist. That soft, glowing piece glossed over the reasons Boudin's biological parents, radical activists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were incarcerated.

I agree with Kilianski up to a point. Obama, who of course is so smart, admits in The Audacity of Hope to being "fascinated" with the "up for grabs quality of the era," should have been able to see these people as toxic--that is, if he wasn't a denizen of the left-wing of the American political landscape.

Let's take a closer look at Horowitz' "Professors" book. Here's a portion of what the conservative sage wrote about the radical academic:

To summarize the academic career of Professor Ayers: An ex-commander of the terrorist Weather Underground was hired, out of all possible candidates, for a faculty position in the Department of Education at the University of Illinois. This required a vote of the entire department. Ayers was then promoted to Associate Professor, a tenured position, and then to full Professor, each requiring a vote of the entire department. Finally, he was made "Distinguished Professor and Senior University Scholar," and appointment reflecting the endorsement of the University's central administration, and an honor not widely shared. This occurred at a time when, as he made it clear to the New York Times, Professor Ayers was unrepentant about his former terrorist activities and wished he had planted more bombs.

What did Horowitz have to say about Ayers' equaully unrepentant wife, Bernardine Dohrn, who is now a law professor--without a law license?

One cannot help wondering how Bernardine Dohrn of all people was chosen over other candidates, presumably in a national search, to get this prestigious job at Northwestern Univeristy Law School. Was there no one else available but an ex-terrorist? Since Professor Dohrn was hired specifically in law as it relates to family and children, did the search committee not realize that in the 1970s she had engaged she had engaged in stealing credit card numbers at a children's store where she worked to help finance Weather Underground terrorist activities? This wasn't held against her in seeking a job as a professor of law, and especially family and childhood law?

Horowitz missed one important item. Dohrn's father-in-law, Thomas Ayers, was a long time member of Northwestern University's Board of Trustees, and was named a Life Trustee in 1987.

Related posts:

Broadway Baby and the Weather Underground

The Daley family, the Ayers family, and the Land of Coincidences

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