I continue to support Barack Obama, but what's right is right. Much as it pains me to defend a woman who repeatedly has manipulated sympathies of gender and race throughout this campaign, basic intellectual honesty compels me to side with her on this one.

Father Pfleger's now-famous remarks in a guest sermon at Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ were out of line. (You look them up. I'm too tired.) Pfleger spoke in terms that were racist, sexist and ignorant. He acted every bit as much the fool as Rev. Wright did before the National Press Club. What's worse, Pfleger's point was purely political, purely without redeeming merit and purely designed to play to the house, those faithful who have endured Hillary's own style of insult, months of media caricaturizations and anonymous death threats. They were ripe for a little anger, and Pfleger happily, blithely, unthinkingly supplied the bread and circuses of division that have become the staple of this primary campaign.

No candidate deserves a public roasting, especially at the hands of a daft and earnest clergyman. Hillary didn't deserve it. If anything (and church is not the place), she deserves only a fair critique. She deserves credit for being human and having run a helluva campaign.

Hilary wasn't the only one who got the short end of Pfleger's sharp stick. Trinity didn't deserve to have its pencil-sketch caricature made into a perverse Norman Rockwell painting, but the image may endure just as indelibly, now that another pastor has washed that congregation in the pastels of fury and resentment.

Obama didn't deserve it. His ability to take the high road, more often than not anyway, should have been an inspiration and example for those he knows personally. It should not have been an excuse to counter-attack Clinton in a low and despicable use of mockery and oversimplification.

If we Obama supporters are to believe that our cause is just, that our candidate is superior and that our vision of the future is deserved, we have to stop making excuses for those who tarnish all that we and Obama say we stand for. We cannot suffer fools in our midst to erode the basis of our claims. Just as Wright before him, Pfleger has hurt Obama's chances to fully unify the party and to fully earn the trust of the total American electorate. Pfleger doesn't add to Obama's Wright problem; he compounds it.

It is Pfleger — not Obama — who owes Hillary an apology. But Obama might want to think about apologizing, as well — if not for the vicious remarks, then for his propensity for keeping poor company.