Andrew McCarthy offers this fantasy discussion as a frame of reverence by which to judge Barack Obama’s lack of candor regarding his relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and his terrorist wife, Bernadine Dohrn.

Who is El Sayyid Nosair?

Well, I know him. I spent an awful lot of time around him. I know all about his background. So what if, upon being asked that question, I told you, “Oh, Sayyid — yeah, he’s an engineering student from Egypt who became a mechanic for the New York State courts.”

You might respond, “Wait a second. Wasn’t he the guy who murdered Meir Kahane (founder of the Jewish Defense League) in front of a room full of people at some hotel in Manhattan?”

“Oh, that. Yeah, well — but that was nearly 20 years ago.”

“And didn’t he, like, shoot a 70-year-old man who tried to block him from getting away?”

“I suppose.”

“… And then shoot it out on the street with a cop while about a thousand people buzzed around?”

“Technically speaking, it was a postal police officer, but I take your point.”

“Wasn’t Nosair pals with that big red-headed Egyptian guy whose picture they used to show on TV all the time?”

“Sure, Mahmud Abouhalima. He was a cabdriver from Brooklyn.”

“A cabdriver from Brooklyn? Wait a second. I remember this now. This Mahmud guy was here on some immigration scam, right?”

“Well, ‘scam’ is such a divisive term. He was legally in our country: he had a work permit under the Agricultural Workers Program.”

“Agricultural worker? In Brooklyn?”

“Er, yes, okay, but that just underscores that we have to do something to bring these people out of the shadows — ”

“Hold on. Didn’t Mahmud end up bombing the World Trade Center? Didn’t he work for that blind sheikh who kept telling everyone to kill all the Americans?”

“You mean Omar Abdel Rahman. Well, actually, he was a doctor of Islamic jurisprudence graduated from one of the world’s great universities — became a professor and a renowned expert in Muslim law. I don’t know why you keep dwelling on ancient history that distracts us from the real issues …”

Such inanity is not far from last week’s Philadelphia debate, when ABC’s George Stephanopoulos displayed the audacity of hope that Barack Obama might try to explain his friendly relationship with Bill Ayers, a terrorist.

Now let’s be really honest here. No one would accept such a line of argument regarding Muslim terrorists like this motley cast of murderers discussed above. No politician would dare to attempt such an argument. And yet Barack Obama has the audacity to make such an attempt to do so in order to defend a long chain of personal, professional, and political associations with the “respected English professor who lives in my neighborhood.” It ought to be sufficient for any decent person to declare Obama unfit – after all, it isn’t like Ayers’ was living underground under an assumed name – he openly bragged about his terrorist acts, and the only contrition he showed was his regret that he failed to set off more bombs and do more damage. Obama is therefore incapable of arguing that Ayers was a changed man, the way that one can look at Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson and see a change of heart and break with past misdeeds.

And then there is these little details – ones which have nagged me from the back of my mind for some time now, and which I have resisted writing out of a desire not to engage in what some would call harsh, extremist rhetoric.

Ayers bombed the Capitol, Pentagon, and NYC Police headquarters. He was involved in a plan to bomb Fort Dix, seeking to blow up the officer’s club during a dance for officers and their wives – one that was averted when some of his co-conspirators accidentally detonated the nail-packed bomb (designed to inflict maximum human casualties) before it could be planted.

What was his motivation? Primarily, it was opposition to the Vietnam War and a desire to bring about its end by undermining the US war effort.

When one considers these facts, they add up to something much bigger than terrorism. Indeed, they add up to a singular offense, the only crime defined as such by the US Constitution itself.

Article III Section 3 Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and the rest of their Weather Underground colleagues were engaged in nothing less than treason against the United States of America. Their acts cannot be defined as anything other than levying war against the United States in an attempt to give aid and comfort to America’s enemies in Vietnam. That isn’t me making some sort of half-assed leap to tar a political opponent – that is the only legitimate interpretation of the words and deeds of Ayers, Dohrn, and the rest of the Weather Underground.

Which again takes us back to the question of judgment on the part of the junior Senator from Illinois -- having maintained a long cordial relationship with an unrepentant avowed terrorist who he knew (or should have known) committed treason against the United States, is Barack Obama fit to be President of the United States and Commander-in Chief of the Armed Forces?

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