pastor

Obama's most recent pastor difficulties won't be easy to shake.  There's a longstanding relationship between Obama and Pfleger (who could best be described as the Vanilla Ice of black liberation theology) which features at least one sizeable transfer of taxpayer funds to the benefit of Pfleger's programs at his church, St. Sabina.

One of those long-time supporters was Rev. Michael Pfleger, the politically active leader of St. Sabina Church. He gave Obama's campaign $1,500 between 1995 and 2001, including $200 in April 2001, about three months after Obama announced $225,000 in grants to St. Sabina programs.

What one has to wonder is just how Pfleger manages to maintain tax exempt status in spite of the fact that he makes absolutely no bones about being politically active, and has in fact expressed a high degree of pride in the fact.  Add to that the fact that his church has benefited from taxpayer funds, secured by Barack Obama as a state senator, after he personally donated money to Obama's political campaigns.

This could be a case where Pfleger is within the letter of the law while being far outside the spirit.  But, if nothing else, the relationship between him and the likely Democratic presidential nominee warrants close examination by the press, if not federal authorities.

UPDATE:  You have to wonder if Pfleger intentionally set out to undemine Obama with his comments on Sunday, especially after reading this passage from the Christian Science Monitor in light of Obama's disassociation Jeremiah Wright following his performance at the National Press Club and NAACP meeting:

The night before he announced his candidacy for president in February, Obama withdrew an invitation to Wright to give the public invocation, a decision that did not sit well with some other Chicago pastors. Pfleger said Obama told him that he didn't want criticism of Wright to detract from the big day. "I told him I thought it was the wrong decision," Pfleger said in an interview.