The Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, a local print and radio journalist and activist for diversity in media, said any assertions that she organized the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright's speaking engagement at the National Press Club yesterday to help Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is absolutely false.

New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis yesterday characterized Mrs. Reynolds in his column as an "enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter."

The column also questioned if Mrs. Reynolds' intent in organizing the event was to hurt Mrs. Clinton's opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama.

"I've heard everything now," Mrs. Reynolds said.

"They've said I work for Obama and now they say I work for Hillary and in fact I don't even think the Clintons know who I am. I suspect they are scratching their heads and wondering who is Barbara Reynolds," she told The Washington Times.

"The fact is I don't support the Clintons, and right now I am not even crazy about Barack. I just want one of them to win so we can go out and beat McCain. I am not a surrogate. I am a supporter of principles. Whoever will stop the war, bring down unemployment and get health care to 43 million people, that's who I'm for."

Mrs. Reynolds, who has been a media professional for more than 30 years, said her involvement in organizing the event was standard procedure for the National Press Club and had nothing to do with politics.

"The club invites a guest, then they assign a person to organize the event based on the context and their contacts," she said.

She said the club's speaking committee picked her to be the organizer because of her extensive experience working with the black church and organizing other conferences as an elder at the Greater Mount Calvary Church, and as a professor of prophetic ministry at Howard University School of Divinity.

"You know what really hurts is after all these years I have worked to open up these avenues for women and minorities, latino and black people, to be smeared by a black columnist who doesn't even know me and what I am about, that really upsets me," Mrs. Reynolds said.

The club's president Sylvia Smith, Washington bureau chief for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, said, "All invitations to National Press Club speakers come from the president."

She said the speakers committee meets monthly, and called Mrs. Reynold's "a very valued member."

"Two years ago, before she was a member, she made a suggestion that the committee consider Rev. Wright and at the time he wasn't a household name and didn't meet our requirements for a newsmaker," Ms. Smith said.

"At our meeting for the spring session in October someone mentioned Rev. Wright — I don't even think it was her — and we agreed that since Barbara had mentioned him before and we thought may have good contact information for him, we decided that she would be the best person to do it."

He was accepted this time as a speaker because of his relationship to Obama and the many articles written about his church during the past year, she said.

"As to the issue the Daily News person brought up whether Barbara is a Hillary Clinton person or an Obama person, that had nothing to do with the event and even if that were the case, Rev. Wright is clearly a newsmaker and made news yesterday," Ms. Smith said.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in his speech at the National Press Club today answered questions at the end and one of his answers has been getting a lot of attention.

Mr. Wright was asked about his association with the Minister Louis Farrakhan's. Mr. Wright said that Mr. Farrakhan is a powerful voice in the black community and that he has been treated unfairly by the media.

"Minister Farrakhan said that Zionism not Judaism was a gutter religion, by the way," Mr. Wright said.

A lot of people have asked whether Wright was correct so I decided to ask Jerry Seper, our esteemed Justice reporter and 30-year veteran journalist who spoke to Mr. Farrakhan about this in 1990, and here is what he sent. This doesn't clear up the Zionism vs. Judaism quandary, but it does give a clearer understanding of his point of view.

Seper: "Brian: This came up during a Feb. 28, 1990, luncheon meeting with editors and reporters at TWT. I wrote:"

Mr. Farrakhan was critical of the media in its reporting of his remarks, saying, for example, that he was misquoted upon his return from the Middle East when he was reported to have called Judaism a "gutter religion."

"I said that the state of Israel has not had peace and will not have peace because there can be no peace structured on injustice, lying, thievery, murder and using God's name as a shield for your dirty religion," Mr. Farrakhan said yesterday.

"But don't call me anti-Semitic, as though I have some plan in my heart to kill Jewish babies and put them in ovens like Hitler did," he said. "Not only have Jews practiced unclean religion, but [so have] Moslems and Christians."

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. rallied black ministers against what he called an attack on the black church surrounding the negative criticism and media attention of small segments of his sermons.

"I stand before you this morning to open this two-day symposium with the hope that the most recent attack on the Black Church — it is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright, it is an attack on the Black Church — just might mean that the reality of the African American Church will no longer be invisible,” Mr. Wright said.

The embattled pastor emeritus of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ said for centuries blacks have worshipped in secret by force through the Black Codes and later by either tradition or purpose became an "invisible" aspect of American society.

But he said that from the storm surrounding him can come a calming of understanding.

"Maybe now, an honest dialogue about race in this country will begin — a dialogue which was commendably called for by Sen. Obama," Mr. Wright said.

"Just maybe this dialogue on race — an honest dialogue that does not engage in denial or superficial platitudes — can move the people of faith in this country from various stages of alienation and marginalization to the exciting possibility of reconciliation," he said.

Ministers have rallied to Mr. Wright as he has faced criticism from political analysts and hosts of talk radio and television and even from the presidential candidates running against his friend and former parishioner for 20 years, Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat.

Mr. Wright entered the room to a standing ovation from the crowd of ministers from all denominations.

The core of Mr. Wright's speech was an introduction into Liberation Theology, it's origins and teachings, Transformation Theology and the Theology of Reconciliation.

He spoke at length about all three subjects, their meanings and how his teachings and sermons have been shaped by them.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Sen. Barack Obama has been hit over the head for days about remarks he gave at a San Francisco fundraiser when asked why his message has not resonated with blue-collar workers in small towns and states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Mr. Obama went on to expound on what he said during a stop in Muncie, Ind.

"I didn't say it as well as I should have. When you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people — they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us."

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain and a host of pundits strategists called the remarks "elitist" and "out of touch."

At a time when the U.S. economy may be in a recession come June, 26 million people will be on food stamps this year, almost 15 million Americans are either in foreclosure or soon will be, there is a world food shortage because corn growers are making $3.60 gasoline instead of cornmeal and flour, hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost last quarter and millions are out of work "it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

How insulting.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

The District's chances of getting a full voting representative in the House are getting slimmer by the day, and Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss said, "time is running out" for the bill.

"If we don't get this done this year, I think it could die. We might be able to get it next year, but by then you are a year away from the Census and Congress may decide to just wait until it's over and then we may have to wait until 2011 or 2012," Mr. Strauss said.

The bill would basically grant the District a full-voting member — basically changing District Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton to Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton — and also grant the state of Utah a new seat in the House. The idea is to reach a zero sum with the District having a Democrat member and Utah likely getting a Republican member.

In an effort to bring awareness to the issue, the D.C. Statehood delegation has drafted actress Hayden Panettiere, who plays a cheerleader with a remarkable ability to heal from all wounds on NBC's show "Heroes," to do a guest spot advocating for the city.

The spot asks that as people file their taxes they "Think Inside the Box," that is check the box donating a portion of their return to the D.C. Statehood Delegation to help the city promote this bill for voting rights.

Take a look.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Change to Win, a group of six partnering labor unions, is charging the Clinton campaign with playing both sides on free trade in reference to chief campaign strategist Mark Penn's meeting Monday with Colombia's ambassador regarding the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Change to Win executive director Greg Tarpinian had this to say: "It's time for Senator Hillary Clinton to send her vaunted 'chief strategist' Mark Penn packing — back to his job consulting for union-busting corporations and anti-labor governments for good."

"We have questioned Penn's role in the Clinton campaign in the past for his representation of union-busting employers like Cintas. At that time, Penn said there was a wall between him and his firm's representation of union busters. The latest revelation that Penn — whose firm represents the Colombian government in its effort to secure passage of a so-called free trade agreement — is actively involved in securing its passage in the middle of Senator Clinton's presidential campaign is outrageous. It also suggests that he has been playing a double role — advising the Senator on what to say to curry Democratic voters and advising the Colombian government on what to say to curry a majority of votes in Congress.

"Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for union members, where more than 2,200 workers have been murdered since the 1980s by Colombian death squads for trying to form unions while the government has done nothing to effectively stop the murders. It is time for Penn to go."

Revelations that Sen. Obama's economic advisor Austan Goolsbee spoke to the Canadian consular from Chicago about NAFTA cost Mr. Obama dearly in Ohio.

This is Mrs. Clinton's second strike in as many weeks; first, the story about arriving in Bosnia under sniper fire, which turned out not to be true, and now this. There are barely three weeks to go to Pennsylvania.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times

The 2008 presidential election poses a unique problem for black lawmakers who are supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Namely, can they keep their congressional seats.

All but 16 of the 42 House members of the Congressional Black Caucus are from majority black districts, many by as much as 60 percent or more. Not going with Sen. Barack Obama has already proved costly to one member, Rep. Albert R. Wynn, Maryland Democrat.

Already in the sights of liberal bloggers in 2006, Mr. Wynn narrowly defeated Donna Edwards based on the argument that he was too conservative for his district, which comprises parts of Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

A laughable argument given his voting record, but coupled with his endorsement of Sen. John Edwards over Mr. Obama and the momentum Mrs. Edwards got in 2006, she defeated him in the Feb. 12 primary.

And Mr. Wynn, who switched his support to Mr. Obama just before the primary admitted to The Washington Times that it hurt him.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, was recently booed in her district in Houston, by her own constituents, for her support of Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Obama. Her district went heavily for Mr. Obama, 90 percent.

And just a few days ago, Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, Missouri Democrat, said that he had taken heat from his black constituents in Kansas City for supporting Mrs. Clinton. He went on to say that "white people" would vote for Mr. Obama out of a sense that it would once and for all put race issues in the past in addition to some other troubling comments.

Former CBC Foundation Executive Director Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, now a political consultant, warned me on March 4 that this was going to get worse, and now we see that not only is it worse it could mean that Illinois Democrat Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was right all along when he told the CBC that not supporting Obama could be the end of their political futures.

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times