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-snip- McCain knows perfectly well that Obama is more likely to be targeted by a nutty assassin than a white candidate would be. That’s the reason Homeland Security ordered Secret Service protection for Obama in May 2007, the earliest any candidate has been given a security detail. So why would McCain stoke the fires of resentment and risk igniting a homicidal maniac? That’s why he was criticized by Congressman Lewis, who never said McCain was a segregationist, like Wallace. Lewis did, however, say that the inflammatory rhetoric McCain and, especially, Palin have used reminded him of the “atmosphere of hate”...

Throughout this campaign, we have heard the steady cries of racism ... people say that the only reason the most liberal Senator ever to run for president – a leftist Senator with a penchant for Marxist ideology – could possibly lose this election is because he is black and people are racist. As we get closer to the election, these stories have exploded into the media. Let's go down the list of the few we got just over the weekend! We have foreign leaders (technically a former leader) like Fidel Castro saying that the only reason million of people will...

The nastiness of the 2006 campaign season has largely died away, forgotten amid the swearing-in ceremonies and gavel transfers of a new political landscape. But in this normally resilient city, one 30-second radio advertisement for a relatively obscure county race has lingered uncomfortably in people’s minds. In the advertisement, Atlanta’s three most prominent black leaders, Mayor Shirley Franklin, Representative John Lewis and Andrew Young, the politician and civil rights leader, evoked the police dogs and water hoses of the civil rights movement to urge voters not to support a Republican candidate for the Fulton County Commission. Though the candidate was...

ARLINGTON, Virginia (AFP) — Republicans Sunday pushed back against charges that John McCain's campaign had been sowing "hatred" against Barack Obama, as they struggled to put their White House bid back on track. Just over three weeks until the November 4 elections, Republican presidential nominee McCain reacted furiously at the accusations leveled against him by 1960s civil rights icon John Lewis. The latest political turbulence came as Obama, 47, builds a steady lead over McCain, 72, on the national level, and on the state-by-state electoral map. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, on CBS television's "Face the Nation," said: "The idea that...

Georgia Rep. John Lewis said Saturday that controversial remarks he made comparing the feeling at recent Republican rallies to those of segregationist George Wallace were misinterpreted. The civil rights icon issued a statement Saturday evening which said a "careful review" of his remarks made earlier in the day "would reveal that I did not compare Sen. John McCain or Gov. Sarah Palin to George Wallace." McCain said Lewis' earlier statement was "a brazen and baseless attack" and called on Sen. Barack Obama to repudiate it. Lewis had said earlier that he was "deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the...

Georgia Rep. John Lewis said Saturday that controversial remarks he made comparing the feeling at recent Republican rallies to those of segregationist George Wallace were misinterpreted. The civil rights icon issued a statement Saturday evening which said a "careful review" of his remarks made earlier in the day "would reveal that I did not compare Sen. John McCain or Gov. Sarah Palin to George Wallace." McCain said Lewis' earlier statement was "a brazen and baseless attack" and called on Sen. Barack Obama to repudiate it. Lewis had said earlier that he was "deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the...

In the first presidential campaign involving an African American nominee of a major party, both candidates have agreed on this much: They would rather not dwell on the subject of race. But their allies have other ideas. Yesterday, civil rights leader John Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia, became the latest advocate to excite the racial debate, condemning Sen. John McCain for "sowing the seeds of hatred and division" and accusing the Republican nominee of potentially inciting violence. In a provocative twist, Lewis drew a rhetorical line connecting McCain to the segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace, and through Wallace to...

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights."

Civil rights icon John Lewis compared Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to George Wallace in a posting to Politico's forum "The Arena," accusing McCain of fostering “an atmosphere of hate” and “hostility” like the one that led to white supremacists’ 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala.  Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia who has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), pointed in his posting to “the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign,” and said the senator and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, “are sowing the seeds of hatred and division.” McCain, in a book he wrote with aide Mark Salter...

In a statement, Obama-Biden spokesman Bill Burton writes that, while Obama does not agree with the comparison of McCain's campaign to those of segregation advocate George Wallace, he does believe that Rep. John Lewis is justified in his condemnation of "the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night," as well as Palin's assertion that the candidate "pals around with terrorists." Here's the full statement: “Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies. But John Lewis was right to condemn some...

CNN) — John McCain – who has often praised civil rights icon John Lewis – called a statement by the Georgia congressman Saturday comparing the outbursts at recent Republican rallies to the rhetoric of segregationist George Wallace “a brazen and baseless attack” that is “shocking and beyond the pale.” Lewis issued his statement after several days of headline-grabbing anger directed at Democratic nominee Barack Obama by some attendees at McCain campaign rallies.

Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis is accusing John McCain and Sarah Palin of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at Republican campaign events to those featuring George Wallace, the segregationist former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate. "What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement issued today.  "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse." Lewis didn't accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities. "George Wallace...

McCain Offended by Lewis' Comments; Calls On Obama to Condemn October 11, 2008 3:12 PM Clearly wounded by the remarks of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., condemning the tone at his rallies, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., issued this statement a few minutes ago. "Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale," McCain said. "The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign."...

In 1985, Barack Obama traveled halfway across the country to take a job that he didn't fully understand. But, while he knew little about his new vocation--community organizer--it still had a romantic ring, at least to his 24-year-old ears. With his old classmates from Columbia, he had talked frequently about political change. Now, he was moving to Chicago to put that talk into action. His 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, recounts his idealistic effusions: "Change won't come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots. That's what I'll do. I'll organize black folks....

The latest Democrat lie of the day is about McCain listing Rep. John Lewis as one of his advisors in response to this question at Saddleback:Who were the three wisest people that you know that you would rely on heavily in an administration? McCain said: "John Lewis was at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, had his skull fractured; continued to serve, continues to have the most optimistic outlook about America. He can teach us all a lot about the meanings of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest."The left is out today with numerous stories saying that McCain lied,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Civil rights hero and Democratic Party elder John Lewis Wednesday defected from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama, in a hugely symbolic blow to the former first lady's White House campaign. Lewis made his decision after a period of public agonizing, but said he wanted to be on the side of history. "John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the civil rights movement, and I am deeply honored to have his support," Obama said in a statement. The veteran Georgia congressman is also a superdelegate, one of the 795 party luminaries and lawmakers who can...

A story in Friday's New York Times that said U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was going to back Barack Obama for president is inaccurate, a spokeswoman for the former civil rights leader told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning. Lewis press secretary Brenda Jones did not elaborate and has not yet responded to a request for clarification. The Times' story, which was carried in Friday's AJC, said Lewis was planning to drop his long-time support for Hillary Clinton and vote for Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in August. Lewis is one of 13 so-called superdelegates from...

One of the most influential superdelegates in the Democratic Party has indicated he will likely vote for Barack Obama -- even though he endorsed Hillary Clinton four months ago. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia began his career marching for civil rights in Georgia, and now he says that he has to represent his Georgia constituents rather than his personal feelings at the convention. Note, however, some of the rationalizations he offers for his change of heart: Representative John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday...

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a fresh sign of trouble for Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of the former first lady's congressional black supporters intends to vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, and a second, more prominent lawmaker is openly discussing a possible switch. Rep. David Scott's defection and Rep. John Lewis' remarks highlight one of the challenges confronting Clinton in a campaign that pits a black man against a woman for a nomination that historically has been the exclusive property of white men. "You've got to represent the wishes of your constituency," Scott said in an interview Wednesday...

Black Leader Pulls Support From Clinton By JEFF ZELENY and PATRICK HEALY MILWAUKEE — Representative John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention. “In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America and people are prepared and ready...