Roland Martin has an opinion piece up over at CNN.com titled “All could be in hot water over associates”

His basic premise is that all political candidates come into contact with unsavory people. Sometimes unsavory people donate money to the candidates. Sometimes the candidates think an unsavory person has something good to say.

Because of this, we should not beat them up over who they may have met with years ago or who may have donated $1,000 to a campaign. It’s all part of being a politician.

Well, yeah, I can agree with that. I hate it when Right and Left wing blogs take swipes at a particular candidate because some crook donated money or they had their picture taken with a guy who later turned out to be dirty as hell. I imagine politicians meet thousands of people, some of whom will not be the best people in the world.

BUT….

Mr. Martin uses this premise to dismiss criticism of Obama about this former pastor.

Its been an interesting week watching folks analyze the outcry over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial comments, especially when they try to link them to Sen. Barack Obama.

Try to link them?

His whole article is nothing more than the sort of relativism which we have come to expect from the media. Because Mr. Obama is a Leftist, he gets a pass. As a member of an officially sanctioned victim group, Rev. Wright gets a pass on his beliefs.

BUT…

There’s that little but again. There is a huge difference and it’s that difference that makes Mr. Martin’s entire article pure crap:

Rev. Wright was Obama’s pastor for 20 years.

20
Years

This was not a passing meeting or random donation. This was 20 years of attending church while Rev. Wright spewed his hate filled sermons.

20 years.

But you see, it’s all ok because while Rev. Wright may say some off the wall things from time to time, he’s just expressing real feelings felt by the African-American community and because of that, it’s ok.

And Obama sat in the pews for 20 years.

20 years.

I’ll end with this: “Barack Obama Donated $22,500 To Rev. Wright’s Church”

A significant donation to a church organization that regularly preaches that 9/11 was America’s fault and that HIV was developed in a plot by “whitey” to kill off blacks.

But this won’t be an issue for Obama. Of course, if John McCain had given tens of thousands of dollars to the Westboro Baptist Church (which preaches that 9/11 was America’s fault and that HIV is God’s punishment for homosexuals) it’d be enough of a controversy to drive him out of the race.

If you can’t see the double standard. I can’t help you.