© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC
Posted on 10/11/2008 4:38:41 PM PDT by neverdem
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 called “Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life,” had lauded the leadership of Lewis in the nonviolent civil rights movement.
McCain called the accusation “shocking and beyond the pale” and called on Obama to “repudiate it."
Brad Woodhouse of the Democratic National Committee said on Fox News: "I don't think Sen. Obama would agree with that. ... I don’t think we would agree with those comments."
Lewis didn't accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities. His 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 in his book on courage and bravery and by repeatedly invoking Lewis's name in public appearances.
Appearing with 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. "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."
McCain quickly fired back hard, calling the comments “a character attack against Gov. Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale.”
“The notion that legitimate criticism of Sen. Obama's record and positions could be compared to Gov. George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign,” McCain said in the statement. “I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.
McCain also put the onus on Obama to distance himself from the remarks: "I call on Sen. Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.”
Obama's campaign distanced themselves from Lewis's Wallace language but took a shot at Palin for some of her tough charges of late.
“Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’
"As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead,”
The full Lewis posting, sent to Politico's Fred Barbash, referee of "The Arena," with the heading “Rep. John Lewis On Hostility of McCain-Palin Campaign": “As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. 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.
“During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. 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. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.
"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. 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.”
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© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC |
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There is no arguing with true evil and hate which is what that group is all about. As a matter of fact the neo-civil rights movement is about the same its not about rights at all.
He was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington and was president of SNCC and one of, if not, the leading student figure during the Civil Rights Movement. He did some brave things but like all too many people in this world he should have quit while he was ahead. He could be remembered as a brave young Civil Rights fighter. Instead he will go down being remembered as a hack and a crank.
McCain has been in Congress for almost 30 years and he still thinks he can deal honorably with Democrats.
They have used him whenever they could against Republicans and especially conservatives. He actually thought they would treat him as Obama’s opponent as well as they treated him when he fought Republicans. They have played him for a sucker and he still doesn’t get it.
If nothing else, this campaign will prove that when the RINOs and the establishment types run the GOP and pick the candidates who run on a platform of liberal-lite, they will lose.
Reagan and Gingrich proved that when you run as principled conservatives, they will win.
Differentiating oneself from the opponent is how you get votes. Except for the war, where does McCain and the RINOs differentiate themselves from Obama and the Democrats? Spending? Immigration? Campaign free speech?
Every time McCain crossed over to help the liberals he made himself more like them. Every time he criticized conservatives, he made himself more like them. Now when he needs people to vote for him, the voters say why? - he’s just like them.
The race card is now in play.
In fairness to him, he probably got the fictitious shark story mixed up with the real one about the vultures that still patrol the Gettysburg Battlefield where a whole lot of white folks died in the cause to end slavery.
If he wants to see hate, Lewis should take the blinders off and observe the anti-war, anti-American, anti-troop freaks at any Obama rally, or better yet, just sit and observe some of his leftwing colleagues in the Congress, or even better yet, look in the mirror.
Yesterday we had the guy many suspect of being a dem plant - sent to the rally to holler out and manufacture a controversy - which he did. And now Lewis comes out and stirs the pot.
Good points about what happened after segregation was defeated. The factors such as the breakdown of the black family and high illegitimacy, terrible schools in cities with high black populations, high dropout rates, gang violence, etc. have not been dealt with at all by groups such as NAACP. They defeated legal segregation, but these other problems have continued and multiplied.
Maybe these other problems persist because you can’t pass a law against illegitimacy, you can’t pass a law requiring high school graduation, or a law guaranteeing that students will learn something in school. As tough as the civil rights struggle was, the easiest part was getting the laws changed. The harder part comes when dealing with voluntary bad behavior, such as someone deciding to drop out of school, or deciding to get involved with a gang, or a guy deciding he won’t marry his baby mama girlfriend.
You on patrol of the slave ship routes looking to beat off the sharks ...That was Major Owens who said that:
...Once declared in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives that a hundred million blacks perished on the journey from Africa to America, and that so many of the dead were thrown overboard that, to this day, sharks still follow the routes taken by the slave ships.
“As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead,”
Hear this:
We DON’T want to come together with a terrorist symphathizer and communist front-man.
That’s the issue. Whether Obama be white, yellow, gray, or black, he along with his friends and supporters are anti-American.
Perhaps McCain should reconsider his prior "lavish praise," if he obviously only now is seeing the real man.
I have no idea what the context of that prior lavish praise was, or the motivation behind it, but again clearly, McCain may have underestimated the pitfalls of impulsive actions, no matter how well-intentioned.
More and more Democrats and MSM spokesmouths are saying that if you do not vote for Obama you are a racist. Clearly McCain and Palin do not plan to vote for Obama. I do not like the idea of being called a racist because I do not plan to vote for Obama. Obama is too green; he supports the culture of death; he supports gay marriage; he supports higher taxes; he is too far to the left even of Hillary Clinton; he has no experience; he has many corrupt friends; he represents a corrupt political party.
Lewis is the epitome of a racist. He hates white people. Yes, blck CAN be racists. It’s time to have THAT discussion in America.
This is liberal logic, and is from that other dimension.
Still, I need to remind myself that, as far as I know, neither McCain not Palin ever had dinner with Wallace, or attended fund raisers with the Klu Klux Klan, or attended a rabid racist's church for twenty years.
Other than that I suppose the comparison is not a big surprise.
Desperation tends to embrace irrational and non-sensical accusations.
The time where simply an accusation was the kiss of death has long been over, adults simply know better.
When Lewis ran against Julian Bond in the 1980s, he raised the accusation of cocaine use by Bond, I think it was something A) that Bond’s wife had said when they split, and of course B) Lewis had known Bond for years before that, so it sounded as if it came from experience. Lewis’ was a really positive campaign, no hatred at all...
We all better brace ourselves. The Hard Left is already laying the groundwork so that every single, solitary criticism of Obama or his policies for the next four years (or, much longer, if he decides to declare himself “President for Life) will be labeled “racist.”
Rep. John Lewis: Report of delegate switch to Obama ‘not accurate’
Atlanta Journal Constitution | 2/15/08 | AARON GOULD SHEININ, BOB KEMPER
Posted on 02/15/2008 3:58:29 PM PST by LdSentinal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1971165/posts
Black Superdelegates Shift to Obama - John Lewis Switches From Clinton to Obama
ABC | Feb 15, 2008 | JAKE TAPPER
Posted on 02/15/2008 6:04:45 AM PST by RDTF
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1970818/posts
Clinton Supporter John Lewis Has Second Thoughts
Washington Post | 02-14-2008 | By Anne E. Kornblut
Posted on 02/15/2008 2:33:41 AM PST by johnny7
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1970742/posts
Obama could not answer this because his party's platform and he himself is for mass legalization of these invaders.
There you have it. This is how McCain get swoop up massive segments of the Undecideds.
Do YOU want him to do this?
Do YOU want him to win the election?
Does HE want to win the election?
They are all ignoring it right now. He ignores it to his peril. At the very lease, unmuzzle Sarah Palin on the campaign trail so SHE can talk about this plank in the GOP Platform on Illegals that they should not be ashamed of.
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