John Lewis, invoking George Wallace, says McCain and Palin "playing with fire"

[maddezmom]

John Lewis, invoking George Wallace, says McCain and Palin "playing with fire"

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 his admiration in a book on courage and bravery and repeatedly invoking Lewis's name in public appearances.

more:http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1008/John_Lewis_invoking_George_Wallace_says_McCain_and_Palin_playing_with_fire.html?showall

[TwilightGardener]

1. I would like to know why the media paid absolutely no attention to Princess Per Diem

saying that the White House would "lose its prestige" if Obama won. She basically said, "there goes the neighborhood", and got away with it. Why?

[my2sense]

3. Wow - she's made so many nasty statements I can't keep

up with them. I forgot about that one. Thanks - passing it along.

[TwilightGardener]

4. The media protected her on that one--it was a truly shocking statement.

[endthewar]

14. I say let her keep digging her own political grave

Her life will be a living hell over the next 4 years when she goes back to Alaska and the media and the left hound her to death.

[ellacott]

9. Wow, I didn't know she said that

[TwilightGardener]

11. She said it on Laura Ingraham's show this week, there were a couple

threads about it here a couple days ago, but it never made the MSM.

[Captain Hilts]

13. I LOVE "Princess Per Diem"!

[my2sense]

2. McCain will not be remembered for his honor n/t

:kick:

[Tutonic]

5. And let's hope that what's her name will not be remembered at all.

[doublethink]

6. Another kick .......

:kick:

[ErinBerin84]

7. hmmm, didn't John McCain say that he would listen to John Lewis?

[ShadowLiberal]

8. Ha, and this is one of McCain's 3 wisest people in his life he named at that religious forum

[Overseas]

10. Yes, the George Wallace mood is quite fitting.

I remember part of his legacy. I was quite young but I remember feeling the seething hatred in his speeches and rallies-- even just catching snipets on the TV box. Even seeing the crowd scene photos brimming with hate.

Let's hope the current RNC leadership's desperate moves, designed to stir up those forces to somehow bully their candidate's way through, with a little finagling here and there, are a dismal failure.

Let's hope American citizens desert the Republican RNC Party of Hatred in droves. Let them recreate a Republican party that does not need hate to succeed. They just need ideas that do not steadily decrease the standard of living for 90% of the population, as the Reaganite Trickle-Down Economics has.

They've crushed our standard of living to enrich the top 2 percent, not even giving us healthcare as a guaranteed benefit for all of the tax cuts we were giving to the middle class. They preferred to see their fellow citizens go bankrupt.

That's not a very humanitarian approach. Not a small-d democratic way to approach our future. We need to cooperate. We will all have to make sacrifices in the near future, to handle our ecological emergencies.

Cooperation is essential. Let us hope the Republicans can be diverted from their reckless course that doesn't benefit any of us.

[Captain Hilts]

12. Use of the term 'fire' is also playing with fire.

I lived in DC during the MLK riots and Moscow in 1993.

[symbolman]

15. Lets remember Who Got Shot as Wallace played the Hate Game..

Thats Right.. Wallace..

I really hope McSlugget's listening, sounds like the man may be trying to save his life AND Obama's..

Hatred knows no bounds..