Rev.Wright told to keep quite until after 2012 election

Byron York:

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose "God damn America" sermon set off a firestorm during the 2008 campaign, agreed not to publish an account of the episode until after President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, according to an interview Wright conducted with the author of a new book on Obama.  Wright said he made the decision at the urging of a friend and mentor, the prominent University of Chicago emeritus professor Martin Marty.

In the interview, Wright told Ed Klein, author of The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House, that he keeps a cardboard box of documents and notes detailing his experiences beginning in March 2008, when the controversy over his sermons began.  "It's a painful box to look at," Wright said.

"Marty had me over to his home for dinner in January [2010]," Wright told Klein. "He said to me, 'Are you keeping notes on what's happened to you in this Obama campaign?'  I said, 'Yes, sir, I am.'  He said, 'Don't publish it until after the next election.  They'll think it's sour grapes.  Wait until after 2012.'"

It was at that point, Wright told Klein, that he decided to leave the box untouched, at least for now. "I don't look at the box," Wright said.  "I haven't looked at it since I've been to Marty's house."

...

Marty, reached by phone at his Chicago home Saturday, said Wright's recollections were accurate.  Marty, a legend in the field of the history of religion, declined to make any other comment.

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When Klein asked more about the box, Wright revealed that in 2008 Eric Whitaker, a close friend of President Obama's, offered him a substantial sum of money to stay quiet about his relationship with Obama until after the '08 election.

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There is more.

Wright has a copy of an email with the offer of $150,000.  Obama also approached him and asked him to keep quite, although he did not make a direct offer of money.  I suspect that Wright can get a book offer for a description of the events.

In the meantime, Klein's book is probably going to draw a lot of interest.  He has released a tape contianing his lengthy interview with Wright.