HuffPost’s John Aravosis has posted an allegedly leaked conversation (sic) between President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. Dianne Feinstein in which the president-elect decided to to choose conservative evangelical Christian leader Rick Warren to handle the invocation at Obama’s inaugural.
Yes, the piece notes — the same Rick Warren “who wants to ban all abortions, has compared gay marriage to pedophilia and incest, helped lead the fight for Prop. 8 in California, has said he agrees with far-right wingnut James Dobson on pretty much everything, and who’s devoted his entire life to destroying everything Obama stands for and believes in.”
Feinstein’s rationale to Obama, according to the transcript, is that the Warren decision will convey that he’s “so post-partisan that [he’s] willing to embrace and promote someone who loathes you, didn’t vote for you, and will do everything in his power to destroy your presidency. It’s like the Lieberman thing, but even bigger!”
To which Obama responds, “So you mean, by promoting a guy who represents none of my goals, ideals or hopes that the majority of the country voted for, and by devastating my own [pro-choice and gay] supporters on what was supposed to be a day of celebration and national rebirth, I’m actually promoting ‘change’ by publicly undermining it?”