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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Lewis on his criticism of GOP rhetoric: He could have said it differently, but his words had the intended effect
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. John Lewis on Tuesday said he had no regrets for claiming that Republican rhetoric in the presidential contest reminded him of words spoken by segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace — but he admitted that he could have made his point “in a different way.”
“I do not regret what I said,” Lewis said. “Maybe it could have been said in a different way, because it was not suggesting that John McCain or Sarah Palin was closely related [in] any way to the actions of Governor Wallace.”
Said the Atlanta congressman and Civil Rights icon: “It was all about what I call toxic speech — statements [and] an audience that can unleash bitterness and hatred. And I don’t need anyone to lecture me about my feelings, or what I have observed for more than 50 years.”
Last week, in the face of declining polls, Republicans concentrated on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and what they called issues of character — and what Democrats called “code words” for race.
Palin in particular repeatedly criticized Obama for “palling around with terrorists.”
“This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,” she said.
On Saturday, Lewis rocked the presidential campaign with his statement that McCain and 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.”
In the statement, Lewis linked Wallace’s language to the1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four little girls.
McCain immediately called Lewis’ remarks “beyond the pale” and called on Obama to repudiate them. The Republican presidential candidate continued to fume on Monday. “It’s unfair. It’s unfair and it’s outrageous,” McCain told CNN.
The Obama campaign said any comparisons to Wallace were out of line, but also said that “Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked.”
Lewis made his Tuesday remarks at Spelman College, after the unveiling of a video documenting the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march and the confrontation at the Edmund Pettus bridge between Alabama state troopers and 600 African-American demonstrators.
Speaking with reporters, the congressman said that a comparison that wouldn’t have injected racial images into the 2008 presidential race would have been the McCarthy era of the 1950s and the accusations of “guilt by association” that marked the period.
Lewis was twice interrupted by Jim Brown, producer of “Passing the Torch to America’s Youth,” who wanted reporters to focus on the film, which had been shown earlier. (An excellent account of the Selma confrontation that should appeal to history students.)
In a panel discussion that followed, Lewis received a standing ovation from the Spelman crowd for the remarks he made over the weekend.
Regardless of any criticism, which he characterized as overblown, Lewis said his Saturday protest had its effect.
“I think it checked some of the things that had been going on. I don’t think you’re going to see people making reference to a young man who is the nominee of his party as running around with terrorists. I don’t think you’re going to have that anymore,” Lewis said.
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How to solve Georgia’s gas crisis and protect certain House Republicans in one fell swoop
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who has kept a lower-than-low profile lately, on Tuesday announced the formation of a seven-person special House committee on “future infrastructure and petroleum needs for Georgia and the East Coast.”
One of the seven, Gerald Greene of Cuthbert, is a Democrat who thus allows Richardson to call the effort bipartisan.
“The recent gas shortage left many Georgians, including me, frustrated by the lack of fuel and long lines at the pump,” Richardson said in a press release. “This panel will look at the various options available to the state that will prevent a situation like this from occurring again.”
But consider that there might be a dual purpose here, given that the Legislature doesn’t convene for another three months.
Until the Wall Street crash, Republicans viewed energy as their ace-in-the-hole, a can’t-miss topic that connects them with voters of all stripes.
It remains a volatile issue, and should help any Republican lawmaker who can boast — on his or her direct mail — that he/she is on the spear’s edge of the effort to solve “future infrastructure and petroleum needs for Georgia and the East Coast.” (Who new the speaker had such a long reach?)
Four of the six Republicans on the committee — chairman John Heard of Lawrenceville; vice-chair Steve “Thunder” Tumlin of Marietta; Jill Chambers of Atlanta; and Mike Jacobs of Atlanta — all have significant, well-funded opposition. All are threatened by a Barack Obama surge of Democratic voters.
Heard faces Democratic attorney Lee Thompson. Tumlin is in a rematch against former state lawmaker Pat Dooley. Chambers faces Democratic operative Chris Huttman. And Jacobs, in his first election as a Republican, is opposed by Michelle Conlon.
Conlon is an independent, but is expected to announce soon that she intends to caucus with Democrats, who have been assisting her campaign.
Greene, the only Democrat on the committee to address the nation’s oil addiction, is unopposed. He can turn the appointment to no advantage come November.
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Early voting in Cobb: Not a single black voter abandoned the long line
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just cast an early vote in Cobb County. Only took one hour, forty-five minutes — exactly three weeks before Election Day.
A long line folded itself three times in a relatively hot October sun, shortly before lunch-time. Perhaps a dozen people couldn’t stick it out — they left before getting to the front of the line.
Every one of those who gave up the effort was white. Once in, not a single African-American walked away while I was there. If voter fatigue becomes a factor over the next three weeks, and on Election Day itself, one has to wonder if Republicans are more likely to lose out than Democrats.
Statistically speaking, my vote is sure to have helped push early voting in Georgia over the 500,000 mark today — halfway to Secretary of State Karen Handel’s goal of 1 million.
As of close of business Monday, 499,582 ballots had been cast. And Cobb County has been averaging 1,400 early votes a day.
The racial percentage has dropped slightly, but not significantly. African-Americans, numbering 184,453, have cast 37 percent of all early votes in Georgia. At 11 a.m. in Marietta, at least half the line was made up of black voters. Possibly more.
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Politico hooks up with InsiderAdvantage for some upclose polling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The following sliver of Politico.com polling is worth noting on two counts. There’s the actual fact, of course, that Republican presidential candidate John McCain is losing in three of four crucial counties in four battleground states.
Then there’s the fact that the survey is the result of an alliance between Politico and InsiderAdvantage, the polling company founded by Matt Towery.
To wit:
Barack Obama has erased traditional Republican advantages in four key bellwether counties that President Bush won in 2000 and 2004, according to a new Politico/InsiderAdvantage survey. Each county is critical to the outcome in the battleground state where it is located.
In Washoe County, near Reno, Nev., Obama leads McCain 46 percent to 45 percent , with 6 percent undecided. Obama posts a wider 50 percent-44 percent lead with 5 percent undecided in Raleigh, North Carolina’s Wake County, and another 6 point lead in Hillsborough County, Fla., where Tampa is located. There, he edges McCain 47 percent to 41 percent, with 11 percent undecided.
Among the four counties tested, McCain leads in only one: Jefferson County, Colo., a populous Denver suburb. McCain is ahead there by a margin of 45 percent to 43 percent, with 8 percent undecided.
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On cell phones and polling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
National Journal Magazine is a subscription site, but if you’ve got access, this piece on cell phones and polling is well worth your time.
Here’s a paragraph:
In three surveys over the summer, Pew focused on this demographic to try to detect any differences between polls that relied solely on land-line-only households and polls that also included cellphone-only households. Pew consistently found that in head-to-head matchups against John McCain, Barack Obama scored 2 percentage points higher when the cellphone-only voters (who received $10 apiece to participate) were included. In a survey completed on September 14, for example, the standard land-line sample produced a 45-45 percent tie. But when cell-only respondents were added, Obama came out 2 points ahead — 46 percent to 44 percent.
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Martin hosts a streaming town hall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will be trying something new tonight — a 7 p.m. town hall meeting, geared toward women, conducted over the Internet.
You can catch the streaming video here. Four host parties go with the virtual event, in Atlanta, Macon, Columbus and Athens.
Two local Democratic sites, Blog for Democracy and Tondee’s Tavern, say they’ll be streaming the session, too.
If you’re male, just type in the last four digits on your Alan Alda Sensitivity Certificate and you should get right in.
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