Seems like the Bush Administration has some serious holes in its vetting process.
First, there were the embarassing revelations about Bernard Kerik.
Now, the President’s aides have egg on their faces once again in the person of Willie Dunn, former felon, who was honored at the State of the Union for his recent anti-gang work.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers, “who has close ties with Bush” per today’s Boston Herald, is among the people who the White House consulted about Dunn.
Rivers is evidently one of those clergyfolk who believe in speaking for others on the subjects of redemption and forgiveness.
In a breathtaking display of pure gall, a little after 7 PM on the night of the State of the Union, Rivers left a letter – a LETTER, mind you – to a woman whose only child was murdered 14 years ago by a gun registered to Dunn.
In the letter, Rivers sanctimoniously preached about Will Dunn’s “redemption” and his “wonderful” family, referring to his recognition by the Prez and the First Lady as “good news”.
Don’t you love it when some clergyperson with connections in high places sets himself up as spokesman for the rest of us? And lies to the President, no less, about how the victims’ families wouldn’t object to the placement in the Presidential box of a “punk” who “sat down with the other two killers…and ate pizza…while my boy died in my arms” (Boston Herald, 2/3/2005, p. 4).
As for Will Dunn: in the 14 years since the murders, he has never asked for forgiveness from the two families whose kids, ages 11 and 15, were killed.
Some redemption.
Some hypocrisy.
Some people will do anything to curry favor with the high and mighty – even unto spitting on the graves of the innocent and rending the hearts of their grieving families.
I hope Eugene Rivers is thoroughly ashamed of himself this morning, although I suppose that would be altogether too much to ask of someone who evidently lacks a conscience – and a heart.