Toxic Farrakhan Video Surfaces

As we take stock of Obama's standing following the Clinton's relentless two-month Pennsylvania campaign to portray him as an unelectable Black Radical, the Washington Post's Colbert King delivers a bit of bad news:

Among all of the top Democrats intimately involved in the Pennsylvania primary, which would you say has had the coziest relationship with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam?

King continues:

It's not Barack Obama.

The individual who has shared a podium with Farrakhan and has publicly praised the Nation of Islam the loudest is the person most responsible for organizing, mobilizing and delivering the Pennsylvania vote to Hillary Clinton: her close friend and trusted political counselor Ed Rendell.

Yup, Ed Rendell. That Ed Rendell. Hillary Clinton's chief Pennsylvania water-carrier. The same Hillary Clinton who, in the Ohio debate, demanded that Barack Obama both reject and denounce Farrakhan's unsolicted endorsement.

See Rendell standing at the lectern with Farrakhan seated near him.

Listen to the applause from a packed audience, many men in dark suits and bow ties, as Rendell tells Farrakhan how his respect for Philadelphia's Nation of Islam minister Rodney Muhammad "has grown" and how much he respects Muhammad "for the intensity of his beliefs, for the decency of his soul, and for the strength of his courage."

Observe Farrakhan nodding in approval as Rendell says, "I'd like to thank the Nation of Islam here in Philadelphia . . . for what you stand for and . . . for all the good it does for so many people in Philadelphia."

Cheer (or boo) along with the audience as Rendell lauds the Nation of Islam as "a faith that doesn't just talk about family values, it lives family values."

One is tempted to call this just another in a long and growing line of examples of the Clinton campaign's utter hypocrisy. Critical readers might even suggest that her behavior increasingly mirrors that of the current occupant of the White House-- one set of rules for her allies and another, entirely different set for everyone else.

I'm sure we're wrong, though. I'm certain that Mrs. Clinton will use this opportunity to show her personal integrity and make a beeline to the nearest microphone to both reject and denounce Ed Rendell. To do otherwise might suggest that her previous statements and demands vis-a-vis Farrakhan were little more than a way to dishonestly draw a false connection between  Farrakhan and Obama when, clearly, it was a matter of core principle for her.