Lewis Links McCain to Alabama Segregationist

For the past week, rallies for GOP Presidential hopeful John McCain have gotten heated, as a small vocal minority have yelled racial slurs, along with shouting other vulgarities aimed at Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama and other African Americans.

The behavior began in earnest after GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Obama has been “palling around with terrorists.” The remark was a reference to Obama’s relationship with former Weatherman, Bill Ayers, now a Chicago school reformer.

Several major news organizations called Palin’s remarks false and misleading.

After several prominent moderate Republicans began criticizing the campaign for encouraging the ugly behavior, McCain began pushing back on some of the comments. Most notably, McCain corrected one woman who called Obama “an Arab.”

Still, the campaign has openly raised questions about Obama’s faith and commitment to America. And some in the GOP crowds have grown increasingly hostile. As GPB’s Melissa Stiers reported earlier this week, a debate in Macon between Congressional candidates also produced some ugly comments between partisans. One woman shouted out “Bomb Obama.”

Now Atlanta Democratic Congressman and long time civil rights activist John Lewis is calling on the McCain campaign to tone down their rhetoric. In a statement, Lewis warned, “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.”

Lewis also linked the McCain tactics to the late Alabama Governor George Wallace, a prominent segregationist and one time 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.”

The statement throws Lewis in the middle of what is becoming an increasingly ugly, and in some instances racially tinged campaign.

McCain responded personally, issuing a statement that reads “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 called on Senator 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.”

Earlier this week, the McCain campaign also responded publicly to similar criticisms by attacking Obama.

Obama’s campaign responded by saying the Senator doesn’t believe McCain and Wallace are comparable, but added “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.’ "

McCain and Lewis have worked together on major legislation in the past, and McCain has called the Georgia Congressman one of the “wisest men” he knows.

Most of the actions appear to be coming from a minority of supporters. However, reports from the rallies suggest the anger has gotten more intense. Privately, McCain is blaming the ugly turn on Palin, according to a Times Online report.

The rage is concerning for many non-partisan observers. Former Presidential adviser, Harvard educator and CNN contributor David Gergen said last night, “There is free-floating anger that could lead to some violence. I really worry, when you get that kind of rhetoric that you’re getting now, I think it’s imperative that you calm people down.”