I can understand why an anthropologist back then might hem and haw and not give the simple answer to the simple question, especially to a big donor but the fact that he was uneasy with the apparent disparity shows more intelligence than I had expected. (I’m no fan of either Bush, H or W, but Bush pere was never an abject idiot or poltroon.)

Show me where, in the above postings, I made any defense of Ayers.

Then keep making your indefensible comments without factual support – since facts don’t matter to you.

“We know he stuck with those companies after it was known what they were doing”

We also know his employer and owner of those companies was special envoy to Europe for the FDR administration, and was involved in various high level WWII related diplomatic missions. Clearly Roosevelt did not think financial dealings with financial dealings with companies associated with Bank voor Handel was an indication of Nazi sympathies or a moral transgression. But you know better.

Ayers stated in a New York Times interview that he had no regrets and wished he done more. The dishonesty of his subsequent backtracking is obvious to anyone familiar with what the Weathermen actually did. On the one hand you want impossible levels of proof Prescott was not a something, on the other hand you accept at face value the excuses of a terrorist.

Clearly you don’t, since what you say contradicts the record.

I quoted it as a test: Here we have two situations: In Prescott’s case he did (there is no doubt, he did) work for companies and with people who aided the Nazis. We have nothing that says he was an active sympathizer, nothing that says he wasn’t. We know he stuck with those companies after it was known what they were doing. That seems to be the entire basis for your contention that, without any doubt, he should not be completely without taint. I think (and have said) that it is likely he is, but without proof we cannot say so with certainty. If we had statements from him that would have to be considered proof, as I am sure you would agree.

You also made a claim that Ayers bragged about setting bombs, and wished he’d done more. We have repeated statements in which he clarifies what he meant. Not surprisingly (this is why I posted it) you ignore it out of hand.

It seems that you are willing to take vague evidence as proof – even make up your own evidence, and dismiss first-hand comments out of hand because you don’t like the source.

Your lack of integrity is astonishing.

Why do you quote Ayers dishonest, self serving justification of his terrorism?

You really can’t read, can you? Or are you simply dishonest?

“The one thing I don’t regret is opposing the war in Vietnam with every ounce of my being…. When I say, ‘We didn’t do enough,’ a lot of people rush to think, ‘That must mean, “We didn’t bomb enough shit.”‘ But that’s not the point at all. It’s not a tactical statement, it’s an obvious political and ethical statement. In this context, ‘we’ means ‘everyone.'”.
The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices…. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.

Prescott Bush may never have liked the Nazis, but his having defenders as ignorant as you isn’t making me grow into a fan of his.