The 35th anniversary of the deaths of the People Temple cult, led by preacher Jim Jones, passed uneventfully on November 18th.  The mass suicide of 909 cult members took place at the cult compound in Jonestown, Guyana at Jones’ direction.

President Obama’s controversial new White House counselor, John Podesta, reminded everyone of the episode earlier this month when he characterized the conservative members of the House of Representatives as “a cult worthy of Jonestown”, an excess which impelled him later to apoligize to Speaker John Boehner.

John Fund was moved to write this on National Review Online:

I was living in San Francisco during the period when Jim Jones was a Democratic power broker, known for his ability to deliver thousands of votes.  I recall that in 1976, Assemblyman Willie Brown, later the longtime speaker of that body, compared Jones to Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Chairman Mao in an introduction.

[snip]

Jones basked in the glow of praise his People’s Temple garnered from gullible politicians, and San Francisco mayor George Moscone, later tragically assassinated in 1978, even appointed him to San Francisco’s housing commission.  Jones had been responsible for an incredible vote-harvesting operation that may have made the difference in Moscone’s narrow 4,000-vote victory over conservative John Barbagelata in 1975.

As many readers may remember, Mayor Moscone was shot to death by Dan White, along with “community organizer” Harvey Milk.

The full article is HERE.