Father Pfleger's follies

Father Michael Pfleger is a media gadfly familiar to anyone who watches Chicago's local television news broadcasts. He often has the Reverend Jesse Jackson at his side--with TV cameras close behind.

Pfleger has been the pastor at Chicago's St. Sabina Church since the late 1980s, typically priests serve terms of six years at a church--Pfleger is serving term number four. Cardinal Francis George tried to get him transferred six years ago, and Pfleger, whose parish school is filled with students, has some bargaining power in addition to his media acumen. Catholic schools, particularly in minority neighborhoods, close or consolidate regularly in Chicago.

But at some point, you have to wonder how much of Pfleger's grandstanding, including his cruel attack on Hillary Clinton that his making the rounds of the internet and cable news broadcasts, is about himself rather than promoting the Catholic faith.

Two years ago, a political firestorm developed after Sister Claudette Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam, brought members of the Illinois hate crimes panel two a speech by Louis Farrakhan. As is often the case with Farrakhan, hate speech was uttered by him. This led to the resignation of several members of that panel and calls for Muhammad's dismissal from the panel. Pfleger sided with Muhammad, as AP reported at the time:

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the white pastor of a mostly black Chicago church and a friend of Muhammad, said Blagojevich would generate enormous anger if he removed Muhammad from the commission.

"If you are not willing to stand up in difficult times, don't pretend to be a supporter of black issues, of the black community," Pfleger said. "Now is a test for him."

A few minutes ago, Cardinal George issued a statement that Pfleger's statements "are both partisan and amount to a personal attack."

Until a few weeks ago, Pfleger was a member of the Catholics for Obama Committee.

UPDATE 5:40pm Fellow Chicago area blogger Jill Stanek has more on Pfleger, including his taunt directed at Cardinal George, the only American even remotely considered papabile to "have the balls to fire me."

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