I had been trying to come up with a similar (hypothetical) situation in my own life to Obama's "relationship" with Ayers, and arrived at the name David Greenglass. For those whose memory doesn't immediately give them Greenglass' life story, he was convicted spy Julius Rosenberg's brother-in-law, also a confessed Soviet spy, whose perjured testimony sent Rosenberg's wife (who was Greenglass' sister) to the chair. The link between Greenglass and Ayers is that the Rosenbergs' trial (and Greenglass' very active part in it) were happening when I was eight years old, the same age as Obama was when Ayers and the Weather Underground were in the news.

Twenty-five years ago, when I was first involved in community organizations, if someone had invited me to chair an important committee, and introduced me to David Greenglass as a committee member, I wouldn't have had a clue to who he was, the name wouldn't have rung even the faintest of bells, and I would have seen no reason at all to investigate him further. Why would I? Why would anyone expect that Obama would have been any more aware of who Ayers had been, years before? Hell, even in the late '60s, "William Ayers" was hardly a household word. All of the charges against him were later dropped (because of FBI misconduct), while Greenglass got 17 years in jail.