Thanksgiving Costumes or Racist Stereotypes?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Talking Turkey

A traditional Thanksgiving meal between two elementary schools in Claremont, California, has parents in an uproar over costumes.
The kindergarteners have long celebrated the holiday by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and taking turns visiting the other school to share in a holiday feast, but parents this year are divided over what the costumes represent and whether they should be allowed at all.

Michelle Raheja, whose daughter is a kindergarten student, wrote to her teacher, "It's demeaning. I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis) or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history... There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype."

The Los Angeles Times reports after a school board meeting last week, officials decided to hold the meal without costumes. That decision angered the parents who supported the original event.
Mother Dena Murphy said of Raheja, "She's not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear. We're tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It's not right."

He's Baaaack

Reverend Jeremiah Wright has seldom been heard from since Barack Obama broke ties with the fiery pastor back in May, but in an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Wright says he will be on Mr. Obama's case.

Wright said, "I've already told Obama, on November 5, I'm coming after you. It's not you the person… it's the policies of this country. And as long as you are presiding over policies that grind God's people into the earth, I'm coming after you."

Wright says he and his family found escape from what he called "salivated" media hordes by keeping a sense of humor, saying he laughed when his granddaughter showed him a New York Times column that labeled him a "wackadoodle."

Cruel Summer

Larry Summers lost his job as Harvard president back in 2006 when the feminist left became infuriated after Summers suggested men and women might be genetically different when it comes to math and sciences. But now that President-elect Obama has chosen Summers to be the director of his National Economic Council, many women have stayed quiet on the subject.

National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy said she has "mixed feelings" regarding Summers. Nancy Snow writes on the Huffington Post that since Summers' new position does not require a lengthy Senate confirmation process, "It falls back on the rest of us to give this Obama administration official the hot spotlight of public scrutiny."

Squeeze Play

During these tough financial times many consumers are forced to cut back on holiday gifts for loved ones and that seems to be particularly true of rich men and their mistresses.

London's Times Online reports a survey of American millionaires by a Connecticut wealth consultant indicates 80 percent of them are planning to curtail Christmas presents to their extramarital lovers and 12 percent plan to dump their mistresses altogether primarily for economic reasons.

— FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.