Speaking of non-controversial people…

As noted below, the WaPo described President Obama’s candidates for the Presidential Medal of Freedom as not “particularly controversial”. Aside from the points MK raised about Ted Kennedy, it’s worth noting that Desmond Tutu isn’t exactly a stranger to controversy either.

Wikipedia reports that Tutu has persistently compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, called on Jews to forgive the Nazis, and suggested in 2002 that “the Jewish lobby” suppresses justified criticism of Israel. As Tutu memorably put it,

People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful – very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God’s world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust.

Sounds to me like someone who deserves America’s highest honor.