Even after President Obama invited both men to come and have a beer in the White House, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge police officer who arrested the prominent Harvard black-studies professor in his own house last week continued to be the focus of columnists and commenters.
Mr. Gates, after a week of public silence, said Friday in a Web posting that he had accepted Mr. Obama's invitation during a phone conversation and had apologized for distracting attention from the president's efforts to get health-care legislation passed. Mr. Gates said that he was pleased that the president was "eager to use my experience as a teaching moment," and that if meeting the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, "for a beer with the president will further that end, I would be happy to oblige." Mr. Gates also said he thought it was time to move on.
Sergeant Crowley, having presented his side of the story in numerous interviews, was surprised to get a call from Mr. Obama while having lunch in one of Boston's Irish pubs. Mr. Obama said he regretted having described the officer's actions as stupid, and later asked what he was drinking with lunch. Mr. Crowley said he was having a Blue Moon—a beer Mr. Obama said he was partial to as well.
No date for the get-together has been announced yet. Whether the controversy will die down before the three men lift their glasses remains to be seen.
Comments
1. bayotte - July 27, 2009 at 07:47 pm
Professor Gates did not "[distract] attention from the president's efforts to get health-care legistation passed." The president himself opined upon the situation without full knowledge of the facts of the case (per his own admission) and set a very poor precedent. Why is he spending so much time on Television, anyway. The work is done away from the cameras. Perhaps he is not working hard enough.