World - US;McCain "sowing seeds of hatred"

WASHINGTON: U.S. Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, has said the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminds him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Governor George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s.

John McCain on Saturday called Mr. Lewis’ remarks “shocking and beyond the pale.” The Obama campaign said the Illinois Senator doesn’t believe Mr. McCain or his policy criticism is at all comparable to Wallace and his segregationist policies.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Mr. Lewis said Mr. McCain and running-mate Sarah Palin were “sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.”

He noted that Wallace also ran for President. “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,” said Mr. Lewis. “Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama,” he added. One of the seminal events of the civil rights movement was the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963.

Four girls died in the blast, which was linked to a Ku Klux Klan group. Mr. Lewis’ comments follow widely reported examples of anger at Mr. McCain’s rallies that has been aimed at his rival Barack Obama.

During some rallies featuring Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin, supporters have shouted “traitor,” “terrorist,” “treason,” “liar” and even “off with his head.”

The outbursts came amid a harshly personal line of attack against Mr. Obama by the Republican campaign. Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin have said Mr. Obama failed to tell the truth about his ties to 1960s radical William Ayers, had a radical agenda on abortion, and wasn’t really known to voters.

Mr. McCain rejected any comparison to Wallace. “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,” commented Mr. McCain.