Posted on 10/11/2008 12:10:11 PM PDT by hole_n_one
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 never threw a bomb," Lewis noted. "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. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."
Lewis's sharp words may be dismissed as those of a partisan Democrat in a campaign season. But the former head of SNCC and hero of Selma is somebody who McCain has lavished praise upon over the years, including admiring him in a book on courage and bravery and repeatedly invoking Lewis's name in public appearances.
Appearing with Barack Obama at a forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in August, McCain included Lewis as one of "three wise men" he would consult as president.
"He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest," McCain said of Lewis.
Now, Lewis is castigating McCain in the harshest of terms.
“As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all," Lewis said today. "They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.”
otherwise, Lewis...shut the hell up....
RAGE ON FREEPERS...WE'RE GETTING TO THEM...
This will get some MSM airtime and should warrant a response from the McCain campaign.
They cant let someone with a past like Lewis be openly criticizing them without setting the story straight
So it’s O.K. for Obama to whip his rally audiences up to fever pitch, complete with mass faintings, but not McCain and Palin?
anyone have a contact number for this guy???
I’d love to ask this guy where he was when hussien was stating he’d bring a gun to the fight or encouraging his supporters to get in the face of McCain supporters.....
If the race-baiters don’t stop the unwarranted attacks, they may face a true racial backlash as an unintended consequence. People can take only so much of having their best motives subjected to vicious lies.
Notice how Lewis (not surprisingly) never gets specific in his accusations.
We have a political coup in progress by DemocRATS and this idiot says we are “sowing the seeds of hate”! Well sir, I dare say if Obama gets elected and takes away our free speech and guns, you will see what REAL HATE looks like!
“George Wallace, the segregationist former (DEMOCRAT) governor of Alabama and presidential candidate.”
Gee whiz...... it must have slipped their minds complety that good ole boy George Wallace was the DEMOCRAT gov. from Alabama.
D E M O C R A T
Therefore, turn the government of American to us who do not preach hate (Wright was an aberration)(Farrakhan is an aberration)(Maxine Waters is an aberration). Detroit is not really happening etc. etc. etc.
People know when they're being told to shut up and don't like it.
This is America. We're allowed to raise our voices. This is just more of Obama’s thugocracy, using political correctness to shut people up.
The media's bowing to this is even more sickening than the usual suspects doing it. If anyone should be appalled by this unholy attempt to chill political speech, it should be the media, but they're abettors here.
There will be a reckoning.
here’s his contact info:
http://www.house.gov/formjohnlewis/contact.html
I just called and left a message....I will call back next week....
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 Democrat segregationist former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate.
That whole bi-partisan-reaching-across-the-aisle thing seems to have some kinks in it.
This the meme folks, get used to it. NY Times is going full frontal on Sunday, with Dowd, Rich, et al opining that McCain/Palin are modern day George Wallaces.
The fix is in. Any and all criticism of the Marxist One is racist.
Are we talking about the same John McCain that refers to the Marxist Senator from Illinois as an honorable man? The same John McCain that said Barack Hussein Obama would make a good president?
Yeah right. The only hatred that John McCain is stirring up is the hatred from conservatives towards John McCain for not going after the racist Obama!
Yes, it always hurts for people to speak out and get mad when LAWS ARE BEING VIOLATED, and their RIGHTS ARE BEING VIOLATED.
Yes, good men should just do nothing.
A few weeks ago, not long after Hurricane Ike, I was in the Hartsfield Jackson Airport underground train one night after returning from a trip, and Lewis and a couple of his staffers boarded. There were some pleasantries exchanged with Lewis by a few others in the sparsely populated tram.
I was so tempted to ask "Congressman, what are you doing to address energy prices", but I guess I felt too much sympathy for the old man.
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