Jeremiah Wright, if nothing else STUCK ON STUPID to appear at National Press Club

WASHINGTON--The controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- Sen. Barack Obama's pastor -- is speaking Monday at the National Press Club as part of a divinity conference of black church leaders. Wright's decision to headline an event at the Press Club -- open to all media -- risks giving Obama's critics more fodder, as if they don't have enough already.

Meanwhile, PBS is touting an interview with Wright to be broadcast Friday on "Bill Moyers' Journal." Fresh material from Wright -- no matter how well-intended -- is not what Obama needs.

Wright's Press Club talk is supposed to be about offering perspective on black churches -- theology, history and politics, and the torrent of coverage stemming from Obama's presidential bid.

Wright's relationship with Obama triggered an uproar when video of Wright's inflammatory sermons surfaced. Faced with a crisis, Obama delivered a highly regarded speech in March about race and why he would not "disown" Wright, the senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side.

But the speech, good as it was, did not push Wright out of the picture.

I actually didn't think much of that speech, which was lauded even by his opponents. It's my belief that by not ostracizing Wright from all influence Obama laid the groundwork for his own perpetual sandblasting. But of course, having been in that pew for 17-20 years, he couldn't. could he, and that's the point....ONE POINT in the friends of Barack movie he has made beginning with the Powers-Rice-Zbig-Malley stupidites, to Wright to McPeak to Ayers and Dorhn. One continuum, one gestalt, one unfortunately coherent Dorian Gray in the attic.