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  Giuliani, Hannity and the Accused Molester

Lone Star Times
December 10, 2007

http://lonestartimes.com/2007/12/10/giuliani-hannity-and-the-accused-molester/

A funny thing happened on the way home Friday. I left early and tuned in to hear Sean Hannity interview Mike Huckabee. The interview dealt with Huckabee's role in the parole of Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist. It seemed odd that Huckabee would attempt to defend his role on Hannity's show, given that Hannity is pushing Rudy Giuliani's candidacy very strongly.

Sure enough, it was nothing more than a Hannity setup, a blatant attempt to stop Huckabee's momentum. Perhaps it works, perhaps it doesn't but that wasn't the real story. The real story, at least for me, came when a female caller came on the air.


She proceeded to rip Huckabee, saying he never met a tax he didn't like, that he was "soft" on illegals and criminals and had no foreign policy experience, i.e., the usual distortions. Hannity was eating it up, telling her that he had serious questions in his mind about these issues in regards to Huckabee. So he was feeling pretty chipper.

He then asked the caller which of the other candidates she was for. She proceeded to tell him anyone but Rudy. On no! Hannity went ballistic, carrying on about how he's the best on crime, talked about his handling of 9/11, etc. The caller interrupted him and told him that she could never vote for Giuliani because he has an alleged child molester on his staff.

Again Hannity exploded, telling her that he knew the priest was innocent. This got my attention. Yes, he "knows" the priest is innocent because….the priest, Fr. Alan Placa, was once his teacher.

So. Sean Hannity was a student under the priest and vouches for his veracity. Isn't that special? Let's revisit the grand jury testimony for a bit:

    At one point, two victims complained to the schools' rector, a priest, about Priest F. The complaint resulted from one boy's suspicions, later confirmed to be correct, that Priest F was abusing another younger boy. The pair thought a complaint by two of them would have to be believed. It wasn't.

    Ironically, Priest F would later become instrumental in the development of Diocesan policy in response to allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.

It has been repeatedly reported in the media that Priest F is Fr. Alan Placa. But Sean says he "knows" he didn't do it. Because he was his teacher.

It is rarely discussed but not only is Hannity playing up Giuliani on his TV and radio shows, he also headlined a fundraiser for him.

    In a little noticed event this month, Hannity - co-host of Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" and host of a popular WABC radio show - introduced the Republican front-runner at a closed-door, $250-per-head fund-raiser Aug. 9 in Cincinnati, campaign officials acknowledge.

    In so doing, some believe that Hannity - while clearly a commentator paid to express his opinions - crossed the line from punditry into financial rainmaking for a presidential candidate whose bottom line is now better for it.

But Fox says, hey, no problem, Hannity isn't a journalist, he's just a conservative commenter.

    "Sean is not a journalist - Sean is a conservative commentator," said Bill Shine, Fox's senior vice president of programming. "Sean doesn't hide, and never has hidden, his beliefs from anyone."

Perhaps he doesn't hide it but he surely didn't mention it when he interviewed Rudy in October, two months after the fundraiser.

The question is, will Republicans begin to resist the political establishment's and main stream media's foisting of a candidate upon us that we don't want? Or should we consider Hannity as just another Oprah, campaigning for her man?

  
 
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