McCain Endorses Candidate who Welcomed White Supremacist Group
The Associated Press is reporting that Sen. John McCain will be campaigning in Alabama Monday to endorse George Wallace, Jr. for lieutenant governor.
"I'm proud to offer my support to this committed conservative reformer. George will bring great leadership and integrity to the lieutenant governor's office," McCain said in a statement.
Wallace is the son of former Alabama Governors George and Lurleen Wallace. The elder Wallace ran for president on a segregationist platform, but later became a supporter of civil rights.
In June 2005, the younger Wallace delivered the welcoming speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens, an avowedly racist group that Thurgood Marshall once called the “Uptown Klan.” News reports quoted Wallace as saying "There is nothing hateful about those people I've seen."
The CCC was created from the mailing lists of the old White Citizens Councils, which were set up in the 1950s and 1960s to resist efforts to desegregate Southern schools, and which Thurgood Marshall once described as "the uptown Klan."
The group is currently is advertising “White Pride” T-shirts on its website and proudly says “We believe that the United States derives from and is an integral part of European civilization and the European people and that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character.”
In 1999, RNC chair Jim Nicholson denounced the CCC as “racist” and called on all Republicans to resign from the group because "There is no room for racist views in the Republican Party."
The McCain-Wallace ticket apparently takes a different view.
Also on tap to appear with Wallace are Sen. Lamar Alexander and Gov. Haley Barbour (who has his own CCC issues).
And if McCain and the RNC won’t condemn the CCC’s racism, they ought to at least condemn their geographic knowledge for statements like these:
"I'm proud to offer my support to this committed conservative reformer. George will bring great leadership and integrity to the lieutenant governor's office," McCain said in a statement.
Wallace is the son of former Alabama Governors George and Lurleen Wallace. The elder Wallace ran for president on a segregationist platform, but later became a supporter of civil rights.
In June 2005, the younger Wallace delivered the welcoming speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens, an avowedly racist group that Thurgood Marshall once called the “Uptown Klan.” News reports quoted Wallace as saying "There is nothing hateful about those people I've seen."
The CCC was created from the mailing lists of the old White Citizens Councils, which were set up in the 1950s and 1960s to resist efforts to desegregate Southern schools, and which Thurgood Marshall once described as "the uptown Klan."
The group is currently is advertising “White Pride” T-shirts on its website and proudly says “We believe that the United States derives from and is an integral part of European civilization and the European people and that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character.”
In 1999, RNC chair Jim Nicholson denounced the CCC as “racist” and called on all Republicans to resign from the group because "There is no room for racist views in the Republican Party."
The McCain-Wallace ticket apparently takes a different view.
Also on tap to appear with Wallace are Sen. Lamar Alexander and Gov. Haley Barbour (who has his own CCC issues).
And if McCain and the RNC won’t condemn the CCC’s racism, they ought to at least condemn their geographic knowledge for statements like these:
“We believe the United States is a European country …”
posted by Mike Gehrke @ 4:53 PM
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