On the Spot. (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) 20-year friendship with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a legitimate campaign issue that will carry into the November election should Obama get the Democratic Party nomination, said several Republican senators who spoke with Cybercast News Service this week.

Several Senate Democrats disagreed, however, and said Americans should know that a vote for Obama is not a vote for Wright.

"Sen. Obama himself has said this is a legitimate issue in the campaign," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Cybercast News Service . "In every campaign the veracity and truthfulness of the candidate is a key character trait. I think the American people have a right to evaluate this."

In reference to Obama's long-time attendance at Rev. Wright's church, Trinity United in Chicago, Cornyn further said: "Whether he [Obama] can say, 'I have sat there for 20 years and I never heard him say anything like this,' well that's a little strange incredulity[sic]."

Wright has made numerous controversial statements, including remarks that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were America's foreign policy "chickens coming home to roost," and that the U.S. government may have manufactured HIV/AIDS as a means to commit genocide against blacks.

Asked whether he believes Obama's claim that he never heard Wright make such inflammatory remarks, Cornyn said: "I think it's unlikely. If somebody says something one time, the chances are they have said it before. I think Rev. Wright is establishing an unfortunate trend. I think he has probably said these things before in other contexts."

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) told Cybercast News Service that the issue will probably remain important as the campaign race goes on. "I think people will continue to have questions because people are just getting to know Senator Obama," he said. "It is Obama and not Wright who is running for president. Nonetheless, it's his minister who said these things."

But Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) told Cybercast News Service that he doesn't think the Obama-Wright relationship will be an issue going into the November election should Obama earn the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

"There is one person on the ballot and that's Barack Obama," said Kennedy. "I think people are focusing on the things that are bothering them such as gas prices and the economy."

Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.) told Cybercast News Service that he agrees with Kennedy.

"This is a campaign for the presidency between candidates in the Republican and Democratic Parties," said Dorgan. "It has nothing to do with my judgment of someone's minister or barber or plumber. The association is insignificant to me and I hope it is to most Americans."

"We have the economy in trouble and a war and we are talking about a candidate's minister?" said Dorgan. "It's unbelievable."

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) suggested to Cybercast News Service that the Republican Party will continue to raise the Obama-Wright issue as the presidential campaigns go on. "Do you think the Republicans won't focus on the issue?" Craig said. "But is it fair? In the political world a politician's relationship with anyone else has some value. Right now, if Pastor Wright continues to talk, the value simply goes up."



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