By Jeff Mason
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) -
The controversial pastor
who roiled Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign this
week shook hands with former President Bill Clinton at the
White House nearly 10 years ago, according to a photo published
on The New York Times' Web site.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose controversial comments spurred
Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, to give an
emotional speech about race in America on Tuesday, attended a
prayer breakfast at the White House in 1998, the photo shows.
New York Sen. and former first lady Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign accused the Obama team of circulating the
picture for political purposes.
"Less than 48 hours after calling for a high-minded
conversation on race, the Obama campaign is peddling photos of
an occasion when President Clinton shook hands with Rev.
Wright," a Clinton campaign spokesman said.
"To be clear, President Clinton took tens of thousands of
photos during his eight years as president."
The Obama campaign shot back, accusing the Clinton team of
pushing the Wright story to knock Obama's lead in the race to
become the Democratic presidential nominee.
"After their top surrogates pushed this storyline, and
Senator Clinton's campaign outlined this as a central strategy
in her plan to overturn the will of Democratic voters, I can
see why they wouldn't want a photo out there that shows the
kind of hypocrisy we've all come to expect from their
campaign," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail.
He confirmed that the campaign had circulated the picture.
Clinton and her advisers have deflected questions about
Obama's relationship with Wright all week. Clinton said on
Thursday that Obama's speech on race had been important.
"I commend him for making the speech. I thought it was a
very important speech," she told reporters.
Obama sought to quell a political firestorm with his
address after news outlets called attention to sermons by
Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, which the
Illinois senator attended for two decades.
Wright, who retired recently, has railed that the September
11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy, called the
government the source of the AIDS virus and expressed anger
over what he called racist America.
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